Thanks for sharing some memories and history Mark, and fittingly, on Tony's birthday.
It is a weird coincidence, as I was not online today to see anything mentioning Tony until just now. This morning I thought of Tony and wondered how many members have the recollection or knowledge of what Tony did to bring AMSAT into the CubeSat era. Much of the discussion of Fox-1 birds seems to be related or remembering of events of the past year or maybe two, and some of what is said seems to have no understanding of how we got here.
My thoughts were of his family as well, looking forward and waiting to let them know that the bonus satellite brought about by Tony's work was headed out of my hands and up to orbit Although it lacks "Veronica" as the previous four had/have, it is still a Fox-1. Many of Tony's family were with us at the launch of Fox-1A almost five years ago now and that was a feeling of family that also shows a part of the overall commitment that goes into making the satellites that is never publicly mentioned or seen, but is important in fueling the work we do.
A photo of the launch party can be seen in the gallery on my website, and I put it up here too: http://home.n0jy.org/images/Fox-1A_Launch_Party.jpg
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 8/14/2020 13:43, Mark L. Hammond via AMSAT-BB wrote:
About a week ago, Facebook alerted me that it was Tony AA2TX Monteiro's birthday. I'll admit it caught me off guard, yet it was really fun thinking about the wonderful work he did for us, AMSAT, as the "father of the Fox satellite family." He was such a neat and brilliant guy. So over the past several days I have been thinking of him, and being thankful for him. It brought back memories of a HamRadioNow.TV interview from Dayton Hamvention in 2013, where Tony was VP for Engineering, and I was the first VP for Educational Relations. This is before any of the Fox birds were built and buttoned up for launch. If you're curious, and you never had the chance to meet Tony (or even if you did!!) you might enjoy watching the video and hearing about the vision and planning; note that the interview starts about 5 mins into the recording. It was touching for me, personally.
https://www.amsat.org/hamradionow-amsat-fox-1-interview-now-online/
It took Jerry N0JY Buxton as the "new VP" and friends stepping up to fulfill Tony's vision. So I'm thankful for all of you that did all of this. Far too many to count. And the "bonus bird" Fox-1E wasn't even part of Tony's original vision...but I can't wait to have that one flown and operational "someday soon" as well!
If you work AO-91 or AO-92 this weekend, maybe you'll also be "thinking and thanking" Tony AA2TX, too!
73,
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] AMSAT Director and Command Station _______________________________________________