On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:28 AM, i8cvs domenico.i8cvs@tin.it wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Rupprecht" mail@mike-rupprecht.de To: "'amsat-bb'" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 7:33 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] COMPASS-1 support at the West Coast
Dear all,
we are looking for someone to assist us in commanding of our cubesat COMPASS-1 at the West Coast.
If someone (or more) is interested in, please contact me. Thanks!
73, on behalf of the COMPASS team,
Mike
DK3WN
Hi Mike, DK3WN
COMPASS-1 is not an amateur satellite http://www.raumfahrt.fh-aachen.de/
Dom:
I followed the link you gave above, but I couldn't see how it showed that COMPASS-1 is not an amateur satellite. If you mean that it is a commercial venture, I cannot see proof of this. If you mean that amateurs are not involved, I cannot see proof of that, either. (The absence of callsigns with the names of the people involved does not, to me, prove that they are not hams. Websites like this have multiple audiences, some of which might not understand or appreciate callsigns.) There is a place for hams to contact, moreover, and a 'big thank you' to those who have collected telemetry.
If the COMPASS team is looking for someone (or more) radioamateurs all around the world in assisting with command and telemetry using our amateur ground stations built using our amateur money in my opinion the COMPASS-1 scientific organization should donate contributions to AMSAT in order to buid our communication satellites.
With all respect, I take the position that is converse to this: namely, that COMPASS-1 *is* an amateur satellite, and therefore the COMPASS team has assisted us greatly by building it. COMPASS happens to be the only satellite that I have commanded from my groundstation, operating on amateur frequencies, of course. In some sense, it is, to me, more of an amateur satellite than, say, our much-loved FO-29 or AO-51, or any HEO that might get launched. These, I assume, I will never control; COMPASS I have.
Is the COMPASS-1 scientific organization in Germany donating contributions to AMSAT-DL to build P3-E or not ?
If the economic hurdles are overcome, P3-E will be wonderful fun. But I wonder if by focusing on it, we are in danger of not enjoying the many amateur projects that are underway and of feeling embittered by the financial forces that are, ultimately, out of the control of the amateur satellite community.
73, Bruce VE9QRP