Hi folks,
Having read through many, many emails about Eagle, GEO's and other stuff I would like to introduce an idea that has captured me for a few years (!) now and has never come up. We all agree (I assume) that amateur radio and satellites is a great combination and fun. I assume most of us love it and those that don't at least make a living from it otherwise they wouldn't do it. In addition, the big majority of us have some grey hairs, but we are still trying to learn and challenge our brains (scary thought). Having said that, when I came back from the AMSAT annual meeting (symposium) this year I felt we missed a great opportunity and to be more specific we have absolute nothing in place to teach and educate our members and the community. Yes, we go to hamfests and events and have a pretty PowerPoint or in the "parking lot" demo, but where are the courses, the classes that help us better understand for example the orbital mechanics of a satellites, the satellite communication principles for VHF and UHF, the design of L and S band antennas? All the stuff that goes beyond our basic license and would keep us learning????
I look at the ARRL and see many exciting courses and AMSAT has nothing in place. Some of the material has been written up and I applaud Gould Smith and others that took the time to write these documents.
The problem is that they are books! No interaction, no feedback, etc. I believe we can do so much more.
Why don't we have pre-conference courses at AMSAT meetings that allow our participants to learn? Why don't we offer certificates for continuing education based on accomplishments in learning and become much more educated? Where is the course on emergency preparedness and satellites (GEOs anyone). How do I interpret two line Keppler data and what will happen if I modify some of those numbers (ANDE re-entry anyone)? How about a basic course in SRD or building small beautiful satellites and lessons learned (Bob Bruninga's ideas). All this would add value, probably generate some resources for AMSAT (course fees) and make us proud of learning and sharing knowledge and not just opinions. For example, I would have no problem adding $ 30 -50 to my registration fee for the AMSAT symposium and having a full day workshop. Everyone else is doing it and all the conferences I go to.
No, I am not talking about amateur satellite 101 for newcomers (that still is important), I am talking about "meat" for those that are part of the hobby already and want to move to the next level of knowledge. We have thousands of members and our pool of potential instructors is big. I would highly encourage the board to seriously look at this. I know that Rick Hambly is fully committed to make the education a bigger part of AMSAT and we need to support him. I for one have no problem in teaching and volunteering for a course at the next AMSAT meeting but it would be very nice if you share your thoughts about this. Maybe it is just me and everyone else is fine but maybe the next "Orbital Classroom" is finally that, a classroom and not just a two page paper in the journal!
Have a great Christmas and Holiday Season and many contacts in 2008.