Exactly my point. Lots of people can build a one-of-a-kind design using parts that they pulled out of a university dumpster, especially if they have the machine shop resources of a university department at their disposal. For undergraduate students, there might be some educational value in building their own rotor, especially if it uses time that would otherwise be spent partying in Georgetown on a Saturday night.
But we were talking about the "average ham", using an "average homeowner's" workbench, designing and building a workable rotor system as an alternative to paying $700 for a commercially made rotor, and sharing that design with other hams who want to save a few hundred bucks by building their own. I am all in favor of that, but I find that there is a practical limit on how many active projects I can have open at any one time.
73
Dan N8FGV
------ Original Message ------ Received: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:54:00 PM EST From: Samudra Haque samudra.haque@gmail.com To: Daniel Schultz n8fgv@usa.netCc: Amsat-bb amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: inquiry about homebrew az-el systems
I would like to clarify: this antenna project is going to be handled by others ham operators who have contacted me. Where possible, I am contributing some hardware/mechanical parts that I have in stock. The work for the antenna is not for my Ph.D program. As I mentioned, it is for the K3GWU project which will go on in parallel, and there are others at GWU who will be involved. I have donated a lot of equipment to the K3GWU station, and that can go on to connect with an antenna when ready.
On the other hand, the ECE dept and MAE dept has resources (motors, gears) that they want to throw away ... and that they *have* to junk at some time after 5-10 years.