In the proverbial "pinch", emergency that is unexpected, we can still deploy our I-gate feed over there $$Expensive$$ satellite feed and keep on truckin' with our APRS system as it evolves, probably faster than the "government appropriations" for those big guys that can do all, see all, but not plan for everything.
My two cents,
Jim
Daniel Schultz wrote:
JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM, wrote:
I guess you're observing that AMSAT's GEO proposal has to fit into the GEO
satellite commodity market.
Should Amsat be working with NetHope to design a better terminal? How do we work with these guys to convince them that they should be using a ham satellite instead of a commercial service? One big advantage of the commercial service is that it exists now. How do we get the money from funding agencies, either government, corporate, or non-profit? Where does Amsat fit in to this world? Have they even heard of us, our history and our capabilities?
I've maintained that a GEO satellite is best suited to link widely deployed
sectors of the Incident Command System.
I think most government-based emergency authorities are not going to be interested in building or funding a system that they do not design and control. They consider amateur radio to be a last-ditch thing that they would rather not count on, they would rather have an in-house system that fits in to their chain of command and shows their funding authorities that they are fully on top of emergency communications and don't need to rely on amateur volunteers coming forward in time of need. A non-governmental organization like NetHope might be more receptive to our proposals. We need to think hard and come up with new ideas.
Dan Schultz N8FGV
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