Hi Michael,
I have to defend AMSAT-NA a bit here, the perception that the organization is "bent and determined to keep building and flying FM repeaters" is not quite accurate.
Fox-1 which is an "FM repeater" was underway over 3 years ago when AO-51 was failing. The purpose was to put up a quick replacement for AO-51's popular "easy sat" HT/yagi accessibility. In building such a project spares are necessary and hence there will be 4 Fox-1 type cubesats of which two are going to fly so far. They are all the same design with the difference being what experiments are loaded in order to get us that launch. The purpose of the spares is to have a ready replacement should one of the flight units fail at the last minute. We may then have up to four "FM repeaters" launched someday, but it's not because that's all we're pursuing. So it's not like we just keep building more FM satellites, we are just taking opportunities to fly what we have as the launches come up.
And don't overlook the contribution of the experiments to the value of the satellite. While it may be an "FM repeater" they will carry some very interesting experiments providing telemetry and pictures for education and fun.
In the meantime, there are still plans underway for AMSAT-NA to build a linear transponder SDR satellite as Fox-2 (series). That was the original idea until AO-51 started having problems.
In my opinion and from the perspective of a participant in the Fox-1 project people way underestimate what it takes to build a RELIABLE and ROBUST satellite what will last many years, projects being completely done by VOLUNTEERS. There are many people spending all available spare time, pushing the limits of matrimony and family, and essentially on a shoestring budget due to limited finances (i.e. contributions, memberships). Those limitations of available resources mean slow progress.
And the resource limitations also mean that nothing will probably happen on the linear/SDR satellite until Fox-1 is done and launched. Volunteers are not crawling out of the woodwork, and many who have signed on have come and gone or had to regulate their participation due to the need for real life as in jobs, family, and so on.
Opinion is entirely mine, and any misrepresentation of AMSAT-NA plans that I may have stated is not intended.
73, Jerry N0JY
On 1/26/2014 10:48 AM, Michael wrote:
I wasn't going to touch this as I've made my opinion about P3-E known before but I can't be silent about some other things. I don't believe it will ever fly because of the economic realities of today's world but hey, stranger things have happened. Cubesats seem to be the wave of the future as they are more affordable to get launched but if you ask me we are still going in the wrong direction with them in a couple of areas. AMSAT seems to be bent and determined to keep building and flying FM repeaters even when ground based FM repeaters are slowly falling into disuse and projects like Funcube AO-73 are showing how viable linear transponder cubesats are. There also seems to be some continued fascination with showing how we can all stand out in the frigid cold or the blazing sun balancing an HT in one hand and a handheld yagi in the other to work the flying repeaters....... YAWN!!! The novelty of that has worn off just as quickly as it did on exchanging nothing but grid squares and calls and calling it a sat QSO. The focus not only needs to be on more linear transponder cubesats and developing new and efficient ways to communicate with them but also on developing affordable ground equipment like complete SDR transceiver systems along the lines of the funcube dongle except maybe abandoning the "dongle" concept and going more with a desktop "black box" approach. A computer driven SDR base station with tracking and doppler correction and digital and CW as well as voice mode communication is infinitely more interesting to me than seeing some idiot balancing an antenna and an HT at a hamfest. Just my opinion.... That and five bucks will get you a fancy Starbucks coffee blend but I had to put it out there! 73, Michael, W4HIJ