Hi Bill (and others)!
Many thanks for your appreciated words of support. The decision was very, very hard and I know we'll receive many slings and arrows for it, but while it sure wasn't our preferred project - it is a realistic one.
We all want a HEO or would even settle for a MEO but until someone can "show us the money" to get our satellite there, we're stuck in LEO, plain and simple.
This is the message that must go out from last weekend's AMSAT Symposium. Acknowledge what can - and can't - be done, and work on what we can do.
The 1U cubesat project, along with AMSAT working toward an agreement with the University of Florida and the collaboration with SUNY-Binghamton, need to proceed and all be successful. All of this needs support from us - monetary contributions for the construction and launch of the new satellite, as well as contributions of time from those who are able to work with the SUNY-Binghamton students as well as whatever is needed with the Florida efforts if an agreement is reached there.
Minutes after the end of the annual meeting Saturday, I was signing up for a life membership. Earlier today, I used the online store to make another contribution toward this new $100K fundraising goal for 2010. My skills are not those that are needed for the SUNY-Binghamton project, so I'll contribute in other ways - monetary donations, plus my time at hamfests or other events representing AMSAT. By the way, I will be at a hamfest in Tucson AZ on Saturday (17 October) morning with an AMSAT table and doing demonstrations on various satellites, which I'll elaborate on in another message later.
Like many, I'd love to have an HEO satellite. From here in Arizona, geography limits me to a relative handful of countries I can hear on our current crop of satellites. I was not on the satellites in the days of AO-10, AO-13, or AO-40. AO-7 doesn't get me to Europe or Asia from here. I'm a DXer at heart, so the thought of being able to work these places via satellite without the lack of propagation getting in the way is an appealing thought. Until that happens, I'm enjoying the LEO satellites, working different stations when close to home or on the road, and the friendships that have come from thousands of QSOs over the last 4 years. I'm hoping for an HEO bird, and at the same time I'm getting on the air.
As for the AMSAT board's choice of an FM satellite compared to a linear transponder, it seems simple to me when I look through my satellite log over the last 4 years. Many more work FM than SSB. I wish it wasn't that way, but the data doesn't lie. Drew pointed this out during a presentation at the Symposium, and his findings mirror what I see in my own logs. I am lucky to get 4 or even 6 QSOs on VO-52 or FO-29 on a single pass over the last 14-15 months I've been on those birds, and that would only happen during a hamfest demonstration. Admittedly, there are some passes on VO-52 where I have worked exactly one station - having a nice chat for the entire pass. VO-52 may be the best of our current crop of satellites, with a very strong downlink copyable with something other than a directional antenna (I've used a telescoping whip with my FT-817s to make a QSO not long ago). It also hears well, and I regularly cut my transmit power down to 500mW during many passes just to see how well I hear myself. If I'm looking to work a lot of stations on my road trips, the FM birds are the only way to go. I'm not going to work 20 or almost 30 stations on VO-52, but that's possible on AO-51 or even the 7-minute passes on AO-27 are good for sometimes up to 20 QSOs. Rather than waiting and hoping for an HEO satellite, I am happy to make good use of what we currently have - while waiting and hoping for an HEO satellite.
The plans for a U/V FM satellite are great, to have an FM satellite but swap the uplink and downlink bands around. I made 2 QSOs via SO-35 in 2000, using two HTs with long duckie antennas through that U/V FM satellite. There are also many QSOs that I've made through the ISS cross-band U/V repeater when it has been available, also enjoyable. It will be a nice change of pace, even if it means more of a challenge in having to deal with Doppler on the uplink instead of the downlink. I look forward to that.
I can tell you personally that one answer is to modify a LEO orbit. It's no at all easy but it is an intuitive alternate for a better orbit. I am also optimistic, given the papers on the subject at the Symposium, that creative thought will be given by AMSAT-NA on the subject. It's not an answer for next year or even five years out, but it's coming.
Yes, some of what was presented looks intriguing, and may be our way out of strictly LEO orbits.
I apologize if this message is a bit long. After the past year or so, it was great to see the plan unveiled last weekend by the AMSAT board. Maybe once we see the fruits of this plan will the radio manufacturers look closer at adding satellite capabilities to future offerings. It is exciting to see a plan which is more than "build one satellite", but lay the groundwork for many satellites and create partnerships and relationships with universities that are already building and launching their own satellites. None of this may be HEO, but we do need to have a plan for more satellites. This plan is a good one.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/