Someone asked the question about which satellite projects to support with donation dollars. Given my $$ investment in my satellite station, I would also like to step up my donations to support new transponder-based sats. With the recent loss of AO-51 and FO-29 and with only one SSB and one FM sat left and AO-7 when it's working, I am feeling the loss of this part of my hobby.
After the last post, I looked up FOX and the AMSAT presidential update; my understanding is that FOX-1 is at least two years out, and after the project split, FOX-1 will be a "quick" FM sat and FOX-2, a simpler, higher power transponder based sat. Because of reducing resources and membership, FOX-2 is probably no less than 4+ years out. SwissCubesat is interesting, but there are no ham freq projects in the pipeline here or at AMSAT-UK.
We all have our own personal preferences, and I still enjoy SO-50, but, I do get a little restless not being able to have much of a QSO on one FM channel with people jumping in and out and on top of each other. The technical challenge of building tracking and high gain SSB antennas and pre-amp etc is personally exciting for me...
I plan to support AMSAT and FOX, but I also prefer to find ways to vote with my dollar to support a transponder-based sat. I am not sure how AMSAT made the FM satellite decision, ie., was there an actual market needs analysis of what members were more likely to support with their dollars...
I would appreciate someone giving an overview of what other sats are in the pipeline, or, how I can show my $$ support for transponder-based projects?
Michael K3MH