Hello David,
Sadly I see that with the exception of Delfi, everything else is digital. Surely it is imperative that we get more easy sats up there for the newbies to cut their teeth on and then progress! With the loss of FO-29 to virtually everyone out of the JA footprint, its becoming a specialised hobby - there is a need to get back to basics here I would have thought!
At the Symposium in Pittsburgh and in recent Journal articles there has been discussion of the new reality of civilian spaceflight. Its also mentioned at http://www.amsat.org in the President's Report. In summary this is what the report says:
1) There is excess launch capacity on most lifters but their owners (ie: primary mission) expects to be paid for it.
2) These costs are not trivial. The price tag is in the millions which amateur radio is not able to raise on its own.
3) To get funding you need to present your plans for a complete mission. Student research, scientific instruments stand a better chance of being funded as compared to 'flying a radio so a bunch of guys can talk with each other'.
4) For AMSAT to get funding our mission must also excite potential funding sources. By proposing a mission that revolutionizes amateur emergency communication or introduces TDRSS-like capability for ARISS amateur radio projects are more likely to be funded as well. That's how we get our next transponders into orbit.
The cubesat webpages are not about neat radios. The radio is a subsystem. They have a mission to get funded. In other words, they were not written for us but for the professors who grade them and for those who control the grant monies.
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM [email protected]