Satellite Friends and Colleagues,

The vast majority of you know me as Dave, KG5CCI, a guy that climbs mountains with his Arrow to make long distance contacts on the birds. Many of you don’t know me though as Dave Swanson, Graduate Student, in the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (DPEM) program at Arkansas State University. Today, the student version of myself is coming to you with a request for assistance.

With the promise of one or more Phase IV geosynchronous satellite launches in the coming years, and the obvious applications of such missions to the DPEM community, I am conducting research to determine how many ground operators have the required skills, equipment, and experience to utilize such satellites. I am also working to answer several questions surrounding the use of these satellites in the different environments that might be experienced by amateurs serving in an emergency communications role, and how such operations might work in conjunction with similar governmental, non-government, and commercial missions.

I would appreciate anyone on this list, who has an interest in the Phase IV launches, an interest in emergency communications, or just an interest in helping a fellow ham finish his Master’s degree to click on the link below and spend a few minutes answering some questions. If you also happen to be part of the emergency management community, as well as an AMSAT ham, I would ask that you forward this link to any of your colleagues outside of AMSAT-BB who might be interested as well.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me or my adviser, via our contact information on the first page of the survey.

Go to this link to take the Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z3RBGGH

Thanks, and 73.

Dave Swanson, KG5CCI Arkansas State University