Dear Bruce WA3SWJ, Dan N8FGV, Steve KS1G and all,
May I run a few things by you for your advice and comments regarding our coming spring work- shop?
1. I got a blurb into the next AMSAT Journal that members will see in their snail mail boxes soon. Page 13, nice! We are official. ;-) (See the basic info about this crazy idea below from an earlier post on our amsat-dc list if you need a reminder of the vision of this workshop.) JoAnne was great in helping to make this so.
Yayyyy! The day will be lots of fun!
2. Since the workshop will be on site at Goddard, I will need to get every single person's name, nationality and current town of residence into the NASA Goddard security folks so they can make a one-day non-escorted badge for each participant. Unfortunately, we need to emphasize to people to register even if they are not sure they can make it, because registration will close about a week before the event. This is NOT like your weekend hamfest! Problems?
Any who wish to attend who are NOT a USA citizen may do so ONLY AS LONG AS they contact me before February 15, because there are special procedures in place to make this so. And they must follow them within other deadlines. Unfortunately, NO exceptions to this procedure.
Bonus: there will be NO FEE to use the facilities. YOUR tax dollars at work!
But BTW, in the news today, the fiscal cliff has been pushed off until March 1. Our use of the facilities ARE CONTINGENT on these circumstances, and others. Can we accept these caveats?
3. Price Stucture. Trade study/options. In rough order of logic or importance, kinda. . . .
OPTION A. No charge to anyone. No coffee in the morning. No lunch on site. No frills. The lunch break would be at noon, normally for an hour. But to get everyone back, on time, will be a disruptive pain. (Been there.) I'd like to end the event by, say, 3:30 PM or what ever you think. (Based on a 9:00 AM start time?) I beleive an off site lunch break will put a damper on our progress.
OPTION B. A modest donation requested. $20? That will get us coffee/tea/juice in the morning and Subway sandwiches (catered) with sodas at noonish, enjoyed in place (but not near one's satellite hardware, of course). The event goes through lunch unbroken. We will need a point of contact, actually two. One to collect the money and one to take care of the food, condiments, utinsils, cups, napkins, set up tables, etc. Can you volunteer yourself? Or better yet, have your wife/GF/significant other volunteer to work the food issues? That would be awesome!
OPTION C. If we request a donation for admission, then "what if" it is structured? That is, shall we consider a main donation of, say, $25 for "normal" admission, and a lesser fee for either students or for those who bring at least three ("significant") hardware items to set up, show and discuss with others? The lifeblood of this event will be having at least ten stations set up for show and tell. Perhaps an offset of the requested donation amount will encourage people to bring stuff. Thoughts??
OPTION D. Shall we hold one or more raffles or silent auctions? That is, shall we invest in a FUNcube Dongle Pro+, an ARROW antenna or an Elk antenna and then make available raffle tickets? Or a written auction with a minimum donation request? If so, we will need a volunteer to run with this. (I can offer some seed money and accept some risk, but I need to delegate this to a trustworthy individual.) Volunteer? Thoughts?
Any leftover dollars can be either donated directly back to AMSAT-NA or invested in needs for a workshop next year.
4. It looks like we are set with the date of Saturday, March 23, with no rain date. We can still set the time. Open doors at 9:00 AM for those who need to set up? With the "program" to begin at 10:00 AM? Or later? Shall we advertise that the program ends at 3:30 PM? Or earlier? Or later?
5. Shall we solicit formal talks or presen- tations too? (I was not planning this initially.) Limit the talk time to ten minutes? Sixty minutes? Then we ought to delegate an individual to coordinate the presenters in advance? Volunteer?
Otherwise, No formal talks, but allow individuals to address the group as issues come up at the tables? No volunteer needed to coordinate this. I can probably do it on the fly during the event.
6. I will set up a table with my humble but growing portable satellite station on the evening before the event. Would anyone like to join me, either to move MY gear, or move in YOUR own gear? That way, I/we will be free in the morning to help or direct others as needed.
7. We want this to be a successful workshop. What other important framework item needs to be discussed?
Thoughts?
Thank you for your support!
Cheers,
Pat N8PK
Mr. Patrick L. Kilroy Integration & Test Manager NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Building 5, Mail Code 568 Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 Phone: +1-301-286-1984 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://simsat.net/ (outreach)
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Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 17:32:03 -0500 From: Stephan Greene [email protected] Cc: "[email protected]" [email protected] Subject: [amsat-dc] Re: AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 Proposed
Excellent idea! I'm unsure if I can make the entire day or at all but I am very interested.
Besides the Arrow & the semi-portable setup (vehicle required!) I used for Field Day, I have 50% of a homebrew antenna setup - 6 element WA5VJB cheap yagi for 2M (I'll add it works FB for meteor scatter, too!). Need to make a 70cm version and possibly a smaller/more portable 2M. And get back on the birds after tearing the station apart for FD and not putting it all back together!
73 Steve KS1G
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On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 11:46 AM, [email protected] wrote:
I WISH TO PROPOSE the AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013, to take place on Saturday, March 23, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It will be a nearly all-day event.
"Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations"
... is the title, where attendees will learn about and develop their own portable ground station and show off their wares which will feature one or more of the following:
- One's own laptop computer, with appropriate
software installed, such as for satellite tracking, SDR receiver control, antenna control (optional), audio recording and any other apps, for example.
- The FUNcube Dongle Pro receiver or equivalent,
emphasizing *receiving* and not including the transmit side at this particular time. See the links below for ideas about software, receivers and antennas.
- Antennas for 146 MHz and 436 MHz with a
mounting means, such as on a camera tripod, small mast, homebrew PVC, or other portable creation. Your antennas can be either the Arrow, Elk or equivalent, or homebrew. Polarization linear or circular. Antenna Az-El movement can be by hand or controller (manual activating or automated, fully or partially).
Everything, or almost everything, ought to be designed to run from a 12-volt source of your choosing.
Additional details will be determined by a small humble steering committee that YOU can influence early on. And speaking of that, . . .
May I include you, among others, on my steering committee? If not, that's okay, but I need to know if you'd like to participate. Can you bring in some gear to assemble and to show off to others attending?
Perhaps we could meet in person, telecon by phone, or by EchoLink conferencing soon as a group to further outline this event?
Foremost, if needed, an alternate date can be selected, from either March 9 or 16, or moved into April on a Saturday AFTER the Greater Baltimore Hamboree and Computerfest of April 6, as long as we decide in the next week or two.
Are you in??
Can you help organize? Or attend? What might you bring?
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Pat Kilroy N8PK amsat area coordinator
Links for antenna ideas: http://arrowantennas.com/ http://www.elkantennas.com/ http://www.g6lvb.com/homebrewarrow.htm http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/crow/index.php http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/Az_El_Pos.pdf http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/Cheap%20Antennas-LEOs.pdf http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/downloads/iROTOR.pdf http://www.arrl.org/shop/The-ARRL-Satellite-Handbook/ http://ac6v.com/antprojects.htm
Links for software ideas: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/software.php http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/ http://www.moetronix.com/spectravue.htm http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/resguide.pdf http://sdrsharp.com/
Links for receiver ideas: http://www.funcubedongle.com/ http://www.amsat.org/amsat/intro/sats_faq.html http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/SpectravueConfigurationForFCD.pdf http://sdrsharp.com/
"People don't care about how much we know, until they know how much we care." - Jack Vieira
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