I would like to post a set of questions for the AMSAT BoD candidates, as Stefan (VE4NSA) did almost exactly a year ago. It will certainly help me select the best candidates.
Since I don't think you need to go so far as to do a YouTube video, please help us understand your positions and the value you would bring (or have brought) to AMSAT. Thanks to the candidates for your time and for running! Without volunteers like you, AMSAT would not be!
Questions:
* How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization in terms of management, membership service and transparency?
* How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51) in the last year.
* What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?
* What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you address it?
* What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for AMSAT?
Thanks and 73!
Dave N0TGD
Dave,
Thank you for the thoughtful questions.
Questions:
- How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization in
terms of management, membership service and transparency?
One of the challenges we face is that we need to involve more people in AMSAT's efforts. Too often when a job is identified we turn time and again to a single small handfull of people. Those people, while hard working and dedicated, may not have the best set of skills for that particular job. We need to be better at asking for help. Many members have significant experience and skills outside the technical field. We need to let people who may have writing, marketing and other skills know that they are needed. For example, the VP of Marketing and User Services position has been empty since October of last year. This is a non-technical position for which we should be requesting interested people step forward.
Regarding transparency, I am a big supporter of the 'open source' model that the Eagle team is implementing with frequent Journal reports and Eaglepedia. I think the AMSAT News Service (ANS) is greatly underutilized as a channel for keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest activities within AMSAT. Improving timely communication has always been a key point for me. That is one reason I continue to work as an ANS editor each month.
- How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51) in the
last year.
Truthfully not nearly as often as I would like. I do most of my operating at demonstrations and special event stations. The result is I keep disassembling my satellite station to take it to Boy Scout camps, Jamboree On The Air, Field Day and other events that our local club hosts. I also tend to listen much more than I talk so while you may not hear me on the satellites I typically try to at least listen to a few passes each week.
- What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?
AMSAT has a great reputation among those in the industry who know about us. Unfortunately that isn't as widespread as it should be. I'll address that more below. AMSAT's other great strength is the vast base of technical expertise available for our projects. We have some world-class expertise working on our projects with an amazing amount of dedication.
- What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you
address it?
AMSAT's greatest weakness in my view is communication, both within the organization and the larger amateur community as well as with industry and government agencies. If we are not being effective in letting people know what we are doing and sharing our progress, then how can we expect to have their support? The Journal is certainly a viable way to communicate with the membership and Jim Sanford has been doing an excellent job with his continuing series of updates on Eagle. We need to have someone associated with each project who can act as a field reporter so that everything gets on-going coverage. These reporters would also help by providing information to the writers of the satellite columns in other magazines like QST and others to ensure they have the latest and correct information. As for those outside the amateur community, for the last four years I've been travelling to conferences such as the NASA Small Payload Rideshare and AIAA Smallsat as well as Cubesat workshops to represent AMSAT. As a result we've turned around several negative perspectives of AMSAT and greatly improved the awareness of amateur radio's history and on-going role in space. We are also gaining insight into how and when launch opportunities might arise or even perhaps be created.
- What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for AMSAT?
Membership growth is key to the survival of AMSAT and our ability to carry out satellite projects in the future. From my review of membership statistics it seems clear that long-access, high orbit satellites is what results in membership growth. That is why I'm fully committed to AMSAT's vision of having multiple high-orbit satellites in orbit. Our previous approach of getting a single satellite up then waiting until it was showing signs of age or failed to start on the next next one results in unacceptably long periods with no high-orbit access. The reality is these projects take a significant investment of time and money to make happen. We must be actively working on Eagle even as we support the completion of P3E.
As a result of my attending the last RIdeshare conference we now know of two different satellite programs that will each be launching multiple satellites to GTO in the next several years. Each of these launches has an excess capacity of over 1000 lbs. Having identified these programs I'm now working on how to get AMSAT considered as a potential secondary satellite on those launches. There are also other launch possibilities coming along that could result in similar or better coverage and access times but would not be GTO launches.
Educational outreach is also vitally important to AMSAT's future. Many schools are now involved in developing satellites which intend to utilize amateur spectrum for their command and telemetry links. By engaging with them early we can help them see themselves as part of a larger community. My work mentoring several of the University Nanosat teams has shown a great willingness to include a communications mission for their satellite as long as we get with them early in the design phase of their project. The Nanosat program has the potential to launch a satellite to LEO every two years and possible every year. Don't let the term "nanosat" put you off. These are cylindrical satellites 45cm in diameter and 45 cm in height which makes them considerably larger than what AMSAT has traditionally called a microsat.
One of the things I think I would bring to the Board is an ability to think outside the box and willingness to try something new. We must start reaching out and engaging others in our vision if we are to succeed and thrive in the future.
73, Lee McLamb - KU4OS
Thanks Lee!
Very interesting and thoughtful post. I appreciate the information very much.
Good luck.
73, Stefan VE4NSA
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee McLamb Sent: July-29-07 7:56 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Questions for the 2007 BoD Candidates
Dave,
Thank you for the thoughtful questions.
Questions:
- How are you planning to advance AMSAT as a professional organization
in terms of management, membership service and transparency?
One of the challenges we face is that we need to involve more people in AMSAT's efforts. Too often when a job is identified we turn time and again to a single small handfull of people. Those people, while hard working and dedicated, may not have the best set of skills for that particular job. We need to be better at asking for help. Many members have significant experience and skills outside the technical field. We need to let people who may have writing, marketing and other skills know that they are needed. For example, the VP of Marketing and User Services position has been empty since October of last year. This is a non-technical position for which we should be requesting interested people step forward.
Regarding transparency, I am a big supporter of the 'open source' model that the Eagle team is implementing with frequent Journal reports and Eaglepedia.
I think the AMSAT News Service (ANS) is greatly underutilized as a channel for keeping everyone up-to-date on the latest activities within AMSAT. Improving timely communication has always been a key point for me. That is one reason I continue to work as an ANS editor each month.
- How often have you been using the existing satellites (e.g. AO-51)
in the last year.
Truthfully not nearly as often as I would like. I do most of my operating at demonstrations and special event stations. The result is I keep disassembling my satellite station to take it to Boy Scout camps, Jamboree On The Air, Field Day and other events that our local club hosts. I also tend to listen much more than I talk so while you may not hear me on the satellites I typically try to at least listen to a few passes each week.
- What do you consider as the greatest asset AMSAT has?
AMSAT has a great reputation among those in the industry who know about us.
Unfortunately that isn't as widespread as it should be. I'll address that more below. AMSAT's other great strength is the vast base of technical expertise available for our projects. We have some world-class expertise working on our projects with an amazing amount of dedication.
- What do you consider is AMSAT's greatest weakness and how will you
address it?
AMSAT's greatest weakness in my view is communication, both within the organization and the larger amateur community as well as with industry and government agencies. If we are not being effective in letting people know what we are doing and sharing our progress, then how can we expect to have their support? The Journal is certainly a viable way to communicate with the membership and Jim Sanford has been doing an excellent job with his continuing series of updates on Eagle. We need to have someone associated with each project who can act as a field reporter so that everything gets on-going coverage. These reporters would also help by providing information to the writers of the satellite columns in other magazines like QST and others to ensure they have the latest and correct information. As for those outside the amateur community, for the last four years I've been travelling to conferences such as the NASA Small Payload Rideshare and AIAA Smallsat as well as Cubesat workshops to represent AMSAT. As a result we've turned around several negative perspectives of AMSAT and greatly improved the awareness of amateur radio's history and on-going role in space. We are also gaining insight into how and when launch opportunities might arise or even perhaps be created.
- What are you planning to do to ensure a healthy, stable future for
AMSAT? Membership growth is key to the survival of AMSAT and our ability to carry out satellite projects in the future. From my review of membership statistics it seems clear that long-access, high orbit satellites is what results in membership growth. That is why I'm fully committed to AMSAT's vision of having multiple high-orbit satellites in orbit. Our previous approach of getting a single satellite up then waiting until it was showing signs of age or failed to start on the next next one results in unacceptably long periods with no high-orbit access. The reality is these projects take a significant investment of time and money to make happen. We must be actively working on Eagle even as we support the completion of P3E.
As a result of my attending the last RIdeshare conference we now know of two different satellite programs that will each be launching multiple satellites to GTO in the next several years. Each of these launches has an excess capacity of over 1000 lbs. Having identified these programs I'm now working on how to get AMSAT considered as a potential secondary satellite on those launches. There are also other launch possibilities coming along that could result in similar or better coverage and access times but would not be GTO launches.
Educational outreach is also vitally important to AMSAT's future. Many schools are now involved in developing satellites which intend to utilize amateur spectrum for their command and telemetry links. By engaging with them early we can help them see themselves as part of a larger community. My work mentoring several of the University Nanosat teams has shown a great willingness to include a communications mission for their satellite as long as we get with them early in the design phase of their project. The Nanosat program has the potential to launch a satellite to LEO every two years and possible every year. Don't let the term "nanosat" put you off. These are cylindrical satellites 45cm in diameter and 45 cm in height which makes them considerably larger than what AMSAT has traditionally called a microsat.
One of the things I think I would bring to the Board is an ability to think outside the box and willingness to try something new. We must start reaching out and engaging others in our vision if we are to succeed and thrive in the future.
73, Lee McLamb - KU4OS _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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
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 [email protected] 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
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Jim left out a couple of important contribution in the last year. Marc Franco and Al Katz have delivered a paper to an international audience on our 145 MHz amplifier design. It is HUGELY efficient. Based on cree amplifiers, it will be state of the art. We will be able to produce the most efficient and most linear HELAPS we have ever produced based on this work. Marc Franco is the lead on this development and is now pondering the modulator and driver stages for the completion of this.
I am using some serious development tools and some new development boards to get the pieces of the SDX designed/simulated to deliver the signals needed for the HELAPS nonlinear channel and the modulator. Tom Clark and I have been going to classes for this. Jim does not know about our going to these classes as we have not had sufficient time to talk all of this through since both Jim and I have been hugely busy with both professional and personal obligations.
The Can-Do people are meeting again to make necessary modifications to that hardware. Can-Do is our medium for control of our packages in the spacecraft.
Lou McFadin and his compatriots have made good progress on critical system elements for the best charge regulation system we have ever flown.
I see lots of excellent work being done. I agree with Jim on the topics he picked to discuss here. Specifically, Juan Rivera is my MVP in the entire engineering arena for the previous 12 months. I am really proud of what is going on and if we can only find a launch, we are ready to astound!
Bob N4HY VPE
Jim Sanford wrote:
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 [email protected] Eagle Project Manager
It is really hard to go wrong this year. We have a terrific slate of dedicated AMSAT volunteers, officers, directors, etc. who are running for director this time. I feel good about all of the people who are guaranteed to be either on the board or an alternate this year.
Thank you for nominating a terrific slate of candidates. NOW VOTE. If you have lapsed membership, renew. If you are not a member, JOIN. I hope you are proud of this organization now but I for one want you to be astounded with us. I hope you will be soon.
Bob N4HY VP Eng./BOD
Thanks Drew.
On 7/30/07, Andrew Glasbrenner [email protected] 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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Andrew Glasbrenner -
Bob McGwier -
Dave hartzell -
Jim Sanford -
Lee McLamb -
Stefan Wagener