All: I'd like to weigh in on the technical and historical side.
Some of the folks recruited since or around last years Symposium have done GREAT things for Eagle. I'm referring to Juan Rivera and the Project Oscar team tht he assembled. They have purchased materials for, constructed, and are testing the U-band receiver. This process has taught us many thing about our PROCESSES and designs, as well as done great things for the particular project at hand. AND THEY HAVE DOCUMENTED IT WELL!
Bill Ress is another newcomer who has done great things. At a time when the ACP is still in the conceptual design stage, Bill took it upon himself to design an S2-band receiver and built it. He did so on his own dime and did it in a way that lends itself to experimentation -- modularized construction.
There's a lot going on in Eagle, but these gents adn their teams have PRODUCED.
Needs: One of the things which falls out of testing the UHF receiver design is a recognition that we may need to redesign the switching power supply on the CAN-Do! widgets. SO, I'm seeking a switching power supply designer. That individual will be faced with a wide range of load currents (tens of mA to A), very small "real estate" on the board, and demanding (tho not yet documented) EMI requirements.
Anyone interested in this exciting task should contact me directly and immediately.
I'm enjoying reading these questions to BoD candidates and thgeir responses!
Thanks & 73, Jim wb4gcs@amsat.org Eagle Project Manager
Andrew Glasbrenner wrote:
Hi Dave! Sorry for the delay in answering, here's my 2 cents.
- How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51) in
the last year.
Just about every day I at least listen, with occasional lapses due to work commitments. I have Satellite VUCC #123 with endorsements up to 500 grids, and another 80 or so ready to be checked. Between the LEOs and AO-40 I also have about 90 countries confirmed for DXCC. Lately my interests have trended towards the digital satellites and university missions, but in general I work them all.
- What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?
Our history of innovation is impressive to both those inside and outside of ham radio. We must continue to innovate to maintain that impression by doing new and exciting things like Suitsat 1 and 2, and the ACP, SDX, and other unique aspects of the EAGLE project.
- What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you
address it?
AND
- How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization in
terms of management, membership service and transparency?
We don't do a good enough job recruiting new talent for our projects. Needs are often filled from the inside and that can lead to overworked volunteers, and a "us vs. them" mentality. We often also find that there are single "points of failure" when only one person knows the specifics of a task or project, and I'd like to improve on this. One of the things I have proposed in the last few months is an AMSAT "job board" where we can advertise what the org and project leadership are looking for in a volunteer, either on the webpage or in the Journal. The entire EAGLE team has made giant strides in this direction with the new project philosphy of open design, and I remain very impressed with what is happening over on Eaglepedia.
- What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for
AMSAT?
See the above response ;-). We should spread the workload around some, involve new blood, recruit harder from both the tradtional ham population and from the newer non-traditional hams like those working on cubesat projects. We must also finish and launch one or more HEOs to get back on track, and keep building them!
Thanks and 73!
Dave N0TGD
Thanks for your interest, and hopefully your vote Dave!
73, Drew KO4MA
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