Re: [amsat-bb] AmSat Ombudsman
Robert,
The first part of your e-mail appears to refer to an allegation Clint Bradford K6LCS recently posted on this mailing list, and on other mailing lists and forums. As I said on the QRZ satellite forum yesterday, Clint's allegations about me and that web site are false.
In the few times I have publicly criticized Clint in recent years, I did so with my name attached to what I posted, as I did on the eHam satellite forum in 2016:
https://www.eham.net/community/smf/index.php?topic=108627.15
This exchange led to a letter sent by Clint to AMSAT and me, which threatened AMSAT with legal action. I am not aware of AMSAT taking actions in response to his letter, and - based on AMSAT's 2016 IRS tax return - AMSAT did not spend any monies on legal expenses that year.
As for the other part of your e-mail, the "some reason" packets from your APRS Internet gateway stations no longer appear on the ariss.net web site, you and I had a conversation about that. One of your APRS gateways was rewriting packets received from the ISS packet digipeater, adding a tagline promoting the web site for your Space Communicator Club. The packets containing that tagline were injected into the APRS Internet System (APRS-IS), violating policies of that system. Those packets also cluttered the listing of packets recently heard from the ISS on the ariss.net web site. You told me at that time you were testing a function on one of your gateways to put that tagline onto packets, something that had been happening over the period of a few days. This included the 20-minute period you mentioned, when one of your gateways continued to send packets to the APRS-IS system after the ISS had moved away from North America.
As you stated, I contacted Steve Dimse K4HG. Steve owns the ariss.net and findu.com web sites, useful for displaying information on APRS packets. I asked Steve about the packets from your gateway that were showing up on his ariss.net web site. Steve reminded me of the APRS-IS policies regarding packets being submitted to that system. Other than appending the call sign of the gateway that received the packet to the packet path, no other modifications are supposed to be made to packets sent to the APRS-IS system. I mentioned that to you in a separate e-mail, even citing the policies as published on the aprs-is.net web site. I am aware that you and Steve also had an e-mail discussion about this around the same time.
After those e-mail exchanges, I heard from you that packets from your gateways would not appear on the ariss.net site. This appears to be an issue between you and Steve, as Steve maintains the ariss.net web site. I have no control over that, and - as far as I know - neither does AMSAT. Have you reached out to Steve recently?
73.
Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK
Thanks for you response. What I hear you saying is that you had no part in disparaging Gordo. And, the assertions from Clint are not true. Is that what you are saying? I reached out to Steve Demse about a year after the event. He seems to believe I have earned a lifetime ban from his website. His initial comments gave me the impression that the sky was falling if he did not respond to your criticism of me and the iGate. Let's itemize all the complaints: 1) Rogue Packets2) SpaceCommunicator.club tag3) Packet Counter tag Which one of these complaints justifies a ban? Perhaps a temporary ban while the issues are communicated. Perhaps even a warning. Keep in mind - you and I had not met - your eMail address was basically junk mail to me. It was missed by me - my bad - until later review after the fact. I did not notice them for weeks.
On the other hand Steve Demse and I had been in constant contact for weeks on other topics during this season. Yet - he did not ever reach out to me about these complaints. He claims he did - he did not - and I double searched my Yahoo mail for any trace of eMail from him on this topic. He claims it was sent (apparently to appease you) but it was not. There are only 2 actors in this equation - that I am aware of - you and Steve.
There is really no reasonable explanation for a ban; much less a ban worthy of a year. The site belongs to Steve and he has no oversight or appeal. He can do whatever he wants. If you are agreeable - perhaps you can reach out to Steve, as an AmSat official, and suggest that a one year ban is more than sufficient - has passed - and should be removed. That seems like a reasonable good faith gesture. As an AmSat official - consider the context - a new community member working on an experiment - no mentoring available - no guidance available - just criticism and banishment. There needs to be a better new member funnel that makes people aware of the community entry points. Less isolation and more community.
Can you explain the story behind Joe Spier, your complaint about someone, your feelings that not enough was done. Did you push Joe out? 73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://www.aprsat.com/predict . http://www.spaceCommunicator.club%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
Silly Joke: What did the little mountain say to the bigger mountain? Hi Cliff!
On Thursday, July 16, 2020, 08:06:50 AM PDT, Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net wrote:
Robert,
The first part of your e-mail appears to refer to an allegation Clint Bradford K6LCS recently posted on this mailing list, and on other mailing lists and forums. As I said on the QRZ satellite forum yesterday, Clint's allegations about me and that web site are false.
In the few times I have publicly criticized Clint in recent years, I did so with my name attached to what I posted, as I did on the eHam satellite forum in 2016:
https://www.eham.net/community/smf/index.php?topic=108627.15
This exchange led to a letter sent by Clint to AMSAT and me, which threatened AMSAT with legal action. I am not aware of AMSAT taking actions in response to his letter, and - based on AMSAT's 2016 IRS tax return - AMSAT did not spend any monies on legal expenses that year.
As for the other part of your e-mail, the "some reason" packets from your APRS Internet gateway stations no longer appear on the ariss.net web site, you and I had a conversation about that. One of your APRS gateways was rewriting packets received from the ISS packet digipeater, adding a tagline promoting the web site for your Space Communicator Club. The packets containing that tagline were injected into the APRS Internet System (APRS-IS), violating policies of that system. Those packets also cluttered the listing of packets recently heard from the ISS on the ariss.net web site. You told me at that time you were testing a function on one of your gateways to put that tagline onto packets, something that had been happening over the period of a few days. This included the 20-minute period you mentioned, when one of your gateways continued to send packets to the APRS-IS system after the ISS had moved away from North America.
As you stated, I contacted Steve Dimse K4HG. Steve owns the ariss.net and findu.com web sites, useful for displaying information on APRS packets. I asked Steve about the packets from your gateway that were showing up on his ariss.net web site. Steve reminded me of the APRS-IS policies regarding packets being submitted to that system. Other than appending the call sign of the gateway that received the packet to the packet path, no other modifications are supposed to be made to packets sent to the APRS-IS system. I mentioned that to you in a separate e-mail, even citing the policies as published on the aprs-is.net web site. I am aware that you and Steve also had an e-mail discussion about this around the same time.
After those e-mail exchanges, I heard from you that packets from your gateways would not appear on the ariss.net site. This appears to be an issue between you and Steve, as Steve maintains the ariss.net web site. I have no control over that, and - as far as I know - neither does AMSAT. Have you reached out to Steve recently?
73.
Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK
I am sorry, forgive me, I was not listening closely to your first response. You were in the middle of justifying my lifetime ban from ariss.net.
One of your APRS gateways was rewriting packets received from the ISS packet digipeater,
adding a tagline promoting the web site for your Space Communicator Club. Yes, those packets were promoting my non-profit Satellite club for Boy Scouts: http://www.spaceCommunicator.club Let's stop here. No need to lift a finger. Let's keep the ban - let the legend grow. My life is so vanilla bland. Last year I taught these classes after work: 1) University of California at Riverside - Software Engineering2) La Paz Middle School after school science club - HAB with APRS Telemetry And I presented Satellite APRS at 3 local radio clubs in Southern California. This topic of being banned is a great source of self deprecating humor garnishing unlimited laughs. It reminds us we are all human. The longer I am banned - the longer I can tell the story. Win-Win. But - thanks, based on your written response, for validating what was previously unclear - you are the source of the fire - the source of the problem. Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://www.aprsat.com/predict . http://www.spaceCommunicator.club%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
Silly Joke: What did the little mountain say to the bigger mountain? Hi Cliff!
On Thursday, July 16, 2020, 09:17:17 AM PDT, Robert MacHale via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Thanks for you response. What I hear you saying is that you had no part in disparaging Gordo. And, the assertions from Clint are not true. Is that what you are saying? I reached out to Steve Demse about a year after the event. He seems to believe I have earned a lifetime ban from his website. His initial comments gave me the impression that the sky was falling if he did not respond to your criticism of me and the iGate. Let's itemize all the complaints: 1) Rogue Packets2) SpaceCommunicator.club tag3) Packet Counter tag Which one of these complaints justifies a ban? Perhaps a temporary ban while the issues are communicated. Perhaps even a warning. Keep in mind - you and I had not met - your eMail address was basically junk mail to me. It was missed by me - my bad - until later review after the fact. I did not notice them for weeks.
On the other hand Steve Demse and I had been in constant contact for weeks on other topics during this season. Yet - he did not ever reach out to me about these complaints. He claims he did - he did not - and I double searched my Yahoo mail for any trace of eMail from him on this topic. He claims it was sent (apparently to appease you) but it was not. There are only 2 actors in this equation - that I am aware of - you and Steve.
There is really no reasonable explanation for a ban; much less a ban worthy of a year. The site belongs to Steve and he has no oversight or appeal. He can do whatever he wants. If you are agreeable - perhaps you can reach out to Steve, as an AmSat official, and suggest that a one year ban is more than sufficient - has passed - and should be removed. That seems like a reasonable good faith gesture. As an AmSat official - consider the context - a new community member working on an experiment - no mentoring available - no guidance available - just criticism and banishment. There needs to be a better new member funnel that makes people aware of the community entry points. Less isolation and more community.
Can you explain the story behind Joe Spier, your complaint about someone, your feelings that not enough was done. Did you push Joe out? 73 Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://www.aprsat.com/predict . http://www.spaceCommunicator.club%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
Silly Joke: What did the little mountain say to the bigger mountain? Hi Cliff!
On Thursday, July 16, 2020, 08:06:50 AM PDT, Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net wrote:
Robert,
The first part of your e-mail appears to refer to an allegation Clint Bradford K6LCS recently posted on this mailing list, and on other mailing lists and forums. As I said on the QRZ satellite forum yesterday, Clint's allegations about me and that web site are false.
In the few times I have publicly criticized Clint in recent years, I did so with my name attached to what I posted, as I did on the eHam satellite forum in 2016:
https://www.eham.net/community/smf/index.php?topic=108627.15
This exchange led to a letter sent by Clint to AMSAT and me, which threatened AMSAT with legal action. I am not aware of AMSAT taking actions in response to his letter, and - based on AMSAT's 2016 IRS tax return - AMSAT did not spend any monies on legal expenses that year.
As for the other part of your e-mail, the "some reason" packets from your APRS Internet gateway stations no longer appear on the ariss.net web site, you and I had a conversation about that. One of your APRS gateways was rewriting packets received from the ISS packet digipeater, adding a tagline promoting the web site for your Space Communicator Club. The packets containing that tagline were injected into the APRS Internet System (APRS-IS), violating policies of that system. Those packets also cluttered the listing of packets recently heard from the ISS on the ariss.net web site. You told me at that time you were testing a function on one of your gateways to put that tagline onto packets, something that had been happening over the period of a few days. This included the 20-minute period you mentioned, when one of your gateways continued to send packets to the APRS-IS system after the ISS had moved away from North America.
As you stated, I contacted Steve Dimse K4HG. Steve owns the ariss.net and findu.com web sites, useful for displaying information on APRS packets. I asked Steve about the packets from your gateway that were showing up on his ariss.net web site. Steve reminded me of the APRS-IS policies regarding packets being submitted to that system. Other than appending the call sign of the gateway that received the packet to the packet path, no other modifications are supposed to be made to packets sent to the APRS-IS system. I mentioned that to you in a separate e-mail, even citing the policies as published on the aprs-is.net web site. I am aware that you and Steve also had an e-mail discussion about this around the same time.
After those e-mail exchanges, I heard from you that packets from your gateways would not appear on the ariss.net site. This appears to be an issue between you and Steve, as Steve maintains the ariss.net web site. I have no control over that, and - as far as I know - neither does AMSAT. Have you reached out to Steve recently?
73.
Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK
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participants (2)
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Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) -
Robert MacHale