AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
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)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pat, Dan, Steve .. and all
Pat - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this --
1. Great!
2. Our Club (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club - MARC) has recently purchased a subscription to a Membership Registration Service - to manage the club membership -- One of the functions it offers is event registration (http://www.wildapricot.com/event-registration) I have initiated an inquiry with our board to see if MARC is willing to be a "sponsor" of the AMSAT-DC workshop -- and allow us to use the event registration feature of this SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Notice it would handle the fee collection, and if needed, a structured fee plan.
3. I am in favor of a basic fee -- $20 seems reasonable. Yes, I could see waiving some or all of it for presenters / demonstrators. I agree to stay "on site" for lunch would be more efficient.
Option D: -- let's see how many "helpers" we get to see if we a silent auction is an option. I am assuming we would have to have some contingency plan if some items don't get "bought" at their minimum price.
4. people are probably going to block the whole day -- so we could probably run until 4:30 -- Maybe have all the "formal" activities wrap up by 3:30 - Do we need to allow for some cleanup time -- to get the donated space "back in order"
-- it would definitely be good to get rolling by 10:00am -- are we thinking lunch @ 12:30 - 1:00 -- maybe we should start a little earlier?
-- I think it would be nice to have a couple of 20-30 minute talks or talk/demonstration planned. -- Would we be meeting in the same room as last time -- could it be partitioned off -- so that if someone did not want to attend a "talk" they could keep browsing? --
5. Do we have the option of opening it up for "satellite related" equipment swap" if hams want to bring in some equipment they want to sell?
6. Other Ideas -- -- Obviously SDR's is one of the hot tech topics -- I went ahead and got one of the $20 SDR dongles (January QST) and got the SDR# software up & running -- -- I'm still not completely sure what the I & Q signals are -- how are they created -- It would be great to have a SDR SME there to answer questions.
Regarding "working the birds" -- I think one of the biggest challenges - Especially with the linear birds is managing the Doppler shift ... -- how are you doing it on your portable station? It would be interesting to have some sort Doppler shift simulator and let participants get a sense of the tuning required.
7. Are you thinking about working a pass during the workshop? FO-29 goes overhead between 11:30am - 12:30 We should also be able to get in an SO-50 (FM bird) pass
8.Possible Talk Topics - "getting ready to work the next AMSAT-NA cubsat - SDR's how they work - AMSAT-NA - Current Operational Status of existing sats -- Near future plans - (can we get Drew to stop by?) - Pat - do you have any of your balloon hardware you want to show off -- or talk about recent flights?
73, Bruce WA3SWJ
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 12:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [amsat-dc] AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
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)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ Via the AMSAT-DC mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA [email protected] http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-dc
Hi Bruce,
Thank you for your great comments and ideas!
First, yes, please check with MARC to see what conditions they would like to set for sponsorship. A $20 across the board fee for AMSAT members sounds okay. With a followup to the discounts if possible. (Would be nice if we don't have to deal out money during the event.)
Please check to see if the wildapricot system can "refund" half of the fee after the event for where it is confirmed that a person indeed (1) brought a "substantial" demo station or (2) gave a "substantial" presentation knowing that individuals will be offering extemporaneous short talks/guidance throughout the event, or (3) that the attendee is an AMSAT-NA Life Member.
I really like the idea of offering Life members the discount, even though *I* do not qualify today.
So, maybe (gulp!) it should be $30 for non-members, hoping that those individuals will call Martha to become a member and effectively get "$10 off" in a way??
To recap: $30 non-members; $20 AMSAT-NA members and sponsor/MARC members (claim one, unfortunately not both); $10 AMSAT-NA Life Members, right off the top. And we consider to apply any discounts *after* to those who wish to claim a discount.
Thoughts?
(I expect to pay full AMSAT $20 price -- to test the system? -- and probably won't bother to claim a discount.)
"Leftover" money can be used to buy more goodies/ food/misc/other for the event itself and then and only then any further "left-over" be donated to AMSAT-NA. Drinks all day and a catered lunch is sounding better all the time.
I will drop the idea of a raffle or a silent auction SOON unless we find someone to delegate the task after the more important roles are filled. Since I just might consider doing this SAME workshop annually then some things like this might wait a year before implementation.
Yes, there is a dual-use factor between the high-altitude balloon portable ground station and the amateur satellite portable ground station. In fact, one of my RF sources is to be one of the PICetSat modules beeping on 433.920 MHz AM/ FM/USB.
I am working on getting a LARGE room with 6-ft tables and chairs available with lots of elbow room. Not the same building as before, it is under renovation.
A live demo is good but depending on which building we are in, and the complexity of who's station employed, will dictate.
I'd hate to hold a concurrent flea market and have to answer to that with my employer, but there HAS to be a low-impact means to barter gear.
SDR yes! Maybe Tom Clark will show his little toys and provide color commentary???
Things are starting to gell. Let's keep the idea exchanges alive. More comments?
Cheers,
Pat
-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Semple [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:09 PM To: Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680); [email protected] Subject: RE: [amsat-dc] AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
Pat, Dan, Steve .. and all
Pat - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this --
1. Great!
2. Our Club (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club - MARC) has recently purchased a subscription to a Membership Registration Service - to manage the club membership -- One of the functions it offers is event registration (http://www.wildapricot.com/event-registration) I have initiated an inquiry with our board to see if MARC is willing to be a "sponsor" of the AMSAT-DC workshop -- and allow us to use the event registration feature of this SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Notice it would handle the fee collection, and if needed, a structured fee plan.
3. I am in favor of a basic fee -- $20 seems reasonable. Yes, I could see waiving some or all of it for presenters / demonstrators. I agree to stay "on site" for lunch would be more efficient.
Option D: -- let's see how many "helpers" we get to see if we a silent auction is an option. I am assuming we would have to have some contingency plan if some items don't get "bought" at their minimum price.
4. people are probably going to block the whole day -- so we could probably run until 4:30 -- Maybe have all the "formal" activities wrap up by 3:30 - Do we need to allow for some cleanup time -- to get the donated space "back in order"
-- it would definitely be good to get rolling by 10:00am -- are we thinking lunch @ 12:30 - 1:00 -- maybe we should start a little earlier?
-- I think it would be nice to have a couple of 20-30 minute talks or talk/demonstration planned. -- Would we be meeting in the same room as last time -- could it be partitioned off -- so that if someone did not want to attend a "talk" they could keep browsing? --
5. Do we have the option of opening it up for "satellite related" equipment swap" if hams want to bring in some equipment they want to sell?
6. Other Ideas -- -- Obviously SDR's is one of the hot tech topics -- I went ahead and got one of the $20 SDR dongles (January QST) and got the SDR# software up & running -- -- I'm still not completely sure what the I & Q signals are -- how are they created -- It would be great to have a SDR SME there to answer questions.
Regarding "working the birds" -- I think one of the biggest challenges - Especially with the linear birds is managing the Doppler shift ... -- how are you doing it on your portable station? It would be interesting to have some sort Doppler shift simulator and let participants get a sense of the tuning required.
7. Are you thinking about working a pass during the workshop? FO-29 goes overhead between 11:30am - 12:30 We should also be able to get in an SO-50 (FM bird) pass
8.Possible Talk Topics - "getting ready to work the next AMSAT-NA cubsat - SDR's how they work - AMSAT-NA - Current Operational Status of existing sats -- Near future plans - (can we get Drew to stop by?) - Pat - do you have any of your balloon hardware you want to show off -- or talk about recent flights?
73, Bruce WA3SWJ
Pat, just a question, in a common room, what is the noise level there? will we need any sort of intercom/talkback system to coordinate trainer/group/exercise?
Or, also, how about a remote screen sharing program for accessing a projector - to allow instructors to show teams on what to do? (unless there will be a projector)
Last question, will we be able to use our laptops to get internet access there using the GSFC guest wi-fi network?
-samudra
On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) < [email protected]> wrote:
Hi Bruce,
Thank you for your great comments and ideas!
First, yes, please check with MARC to see what conditions they would like to set for sponsorship. A $20 across the board fee for AMSAT members sounds okay. With a followup to the discounts if possible. (Would be nice if we don't have to deal out money during the event.)
Please check to see if the wildapricot system can "refund" half of the fee after the event for where it is confirmed that a person indeed (1) brought a "substantial" demo station or (2) gave a "substantial" presentation knowing that individuals will be offering extemporaneous short talks/guidance throughout the event, or (3) that the attendee is an AMSAT-NA Life Member.
I really like the idea of offering Life members the discount, even though *I* do not qualify today.
So, maybe (gulp!) it should be $30 for non-members, hoping that those individuals will call Martha to become a member and effectively get "$10 off" in a way??
To recap: $30 non-members; $20 AMSAT-NA members and sponsor/MARC members (claim one, unfortunately not both); $10 AMSAT-NA Life Members, right off the top. And we consider to apply any discounts *after* to those who wish to claim a discount.
Thoughts?
(I expect to pay full AMSAT $20 price -- to test the system? -- and probably won't bother to claim a discount.)
"Leftover" money can be used to buy more goodies/ food/misc/other for the event itself and then and only then any further "left-over" be donated to AMSAT-NA. Drinks all day and a catered lunch is sounding better all the time.
I will drop the idea of a raffle or a silent auction SOON unless we find someone to delegate the task after the more important roles are filled. Since I just might consider doing this SAME workshop annually then some things like this might wait a year before implementation.
Yes, there is a dual-use factor between the high-altitude balloon portable ground station and the amateur satellite portable ground station. In fact, one of my RF sources is to be one of the PICetSat modules beeping on 433.920 MHz AM/ FM/USB.
I am working on getting a LARGE room with 6-ft tables and chairs available with lots of elbow room. Not the same building as before, it is under renovation.
A live demo is good but depending on which building we are in, and the complexity of who's station employed, will dictate.
I'd hate to hold a concurrent flea market and have to answer to that with my employer, but there HAS to be a low-impact means to barter gear.
SDR yes! Maybe Tom Clark will show his little toys and provide color commentary???
Things are starting to gell. Let's keep the idea exchanges alive. More comments?
Cheers,
Pat
-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Semple [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:09 PM To: Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680); [email protected] Subject: RE: [amsat-dc] AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
Pat, Dan, Steve .. and all
Pat - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this --
Great!
Our Club (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club - MARC) has recently purchased a
subscription to a Membership Registration Service - to manage the club membership -- One of the functions it offers is event registration (http://www.wildapricot.com/event-registration) I have initiated an inquiry with our board to see if MARC is willing to be a "sponsor" of the AMSAT-DC workshop -- and allow us to use the event registration feature of this SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Notice it would handle the fee collection, and if needed, a structured fee plan.
- I am in favor of a basic fee -- $20 seems reasonable. Yes, I could see
waiving some or all of it for presenters / demonstrators. I agree to stay "on site" for lunch would be more efficient.
Option D: -- let's see how many "helpers" we get to see if we a silent auction is an option. I am assuming we would have to have some contingency plan if some items don't get "bought" at their minimum price.
- people are probably going to block the whole day -- so we could probably
run until 4:30 -- Maybe have all the "formal" activities wrap up by 3:30
Do we need to allow for some cleanup time -- to get the donated space "back in order"
-- it would definitely be good to get rolling by 10:00am -- are we thinking lunch @ 12:30 - 1:00 -- maybe we should start a little earlier?
-- I think it would be nice to have a couple of 20-30 minute talks or talk/demonstration planned. -- Would we be meeting in the same room as last time -- could it be partitioned off -- so that if someone did not want to attend a "talk" they could keep browsing? --
- Do we have the option of opening it up for "satellite related" equipment
swap" if hams want to bring in some equipment they want to sell?
- Other Ideas -- -- Obviously SDR's is one of the hot tech topics -- I went ahead and
got one of the $20 SDR dongles (January QST) and got the SDR# software up & running -- -- I'm still not completely sure what the I & Q signals are -- how are they created -- It would be great to have a SDR SME there to answer questions.
Regarding "working the birds" -- I think one of the biggest challenges - Especially with the linear birds is managing the Doppler shift ... -- how are you doing it on your portable station? It would be interesting to have some sort Doppler shift simulator and let participants get a sense of the tuning required.
- Are you thinking about working a pass during the workshop? FO-29 goes overhead between 11:30am - 12:30
We should also be able to get in an SO-50 (FM bird) pass
8.Possible Talk Topics - "getting ready to work the next AMSAT-NA cubsat - SDR's how they work - AMSAT-NA - Current Operational Status of existing sats -- Near future plans - (can we get Drew to stop by?) - Pat - do you have any of your balloon hardware you want to show off -- or talk about recent flights?
73, Bruce WA3SWJ
Via the AMSAT-DC mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA [email protected] http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-dc
Hi Samudra,
Good to hear from you!
1. Again, I am narrowing down to one LARGE room, with 6-ft tables, chairs and outlets not too far away. And plenty of elbow room for safety, room for antenna elements to spare our eyes! Audio noise level will be high at times, other times for a speaker, hopefully low. Hopefully a house PA system will be in place, otherwise I will import my own sound gear to serve as a PA.
2. Well, there will be a Powerpoint projector, with signal cable for one laptop at a time.
3. The plan is yes, for access of the NASA Guest-CNE WiFi network available with fairly good coverage in all buildings on site.
I envision in its most basic form, one or more RF sources (433.920 MHz AM/FM/USB to start) will be alive during the entire event. Folks will come in to set up their PORTABLE station and get it showing satellite positions in common (that is, the correct answer) and then receiving the RF sources on their SDR receiver or conventional receiver/transceiver. I would like to see all stations capable of copying USB on 2m and 70cm, but some might not have any but FM, a pity. ;-)
Some will need more help than others. That's okay. We are all there to help each other.
With a "donation" average of, say, $20 per AMSAT member, I believe we will be able to afford some catered food and no one will need to leave the building for lunch.
I have no clue how big or how small of an event this will be. A lemon that will be made into lemonade will be the fact that advanced registration for each individual will be required by a certain date. February 15 for a non-US citizen, and TBD (a week or ten days) for a US citizen.
How copy?
Did I answer your questions okay?
Cheers,
Pat N8PK
From: Samudra Haque [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 1:23 PM To: Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [amsat-dc] Re: AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
Pat, just a question, in a common room, what is the noise level there? will we need any sort of intercom/talkback system to coordinate trainer/group/exercise?
Or, also, how about a remote screen sharing program for accessing a projector - to allow instructors to show teams on what to do? (unless there will be a projector)
Last question, will we be able to use our laptops to get internet access there using the GSFC guest wi-fi network?
-samudra
On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) <[email protected]mailto:[email protected]> wrote: Hi Bruce,
Thank you for your great comments and ideas!
First, yes, please check with MARC to see what conditions they would like to set for sponsorship. A $20 across the board fee for AMSAT members sounds okay. With a followup to the discounts if possible. (Would be nice if we don't have to deal out money during the event.)
Please check to see if the wildapricot system can "refund" half of the fee after the event for where it is confirmed that a person indeed (1) brought a "substantial" demo station or (2) gave a "substantial" presentation knowing that individuals will be offering extemporaneous short talks/guidance throughout the event, or (3) that the attendee is an AMSAT-NA Life Member.
I really like the idea of offering Life members the discount, even though *I* do not qualify today.
So, maybe (gulp!) it should be $30 for non-members, hoping that those individuals will call Martha to become a member and effectively get "$10 off" in a way??
To recap: $30 non-members; $20 AMSAT-NA members and sponsor/MARC members (claim one, unfortunately not both); $10 AMSAT-NA Life Members, right off the top. And we consider to apply any discounts *after* to those who wish to claim a discount.
Thoughts?
(I expect to pay full AMSAT $20 price -- to test the system? -- and probably won't bother to claim a discount.)
"Leftover" money can be used to buy more goodies/ food/misc/other for the event itself and then and only then any further "left-over" be donated to AMSAT-NA. Drinks all day and a catered lunch is sounding better all the time.
I will drop the idea of a raffle or a silent auction SOON unless we find someone to delegate the task after the more important roles are filled. Since I just might consider doing this SAME workshop annually then some things like this might wait a year before implementation.
Yes, there is a dual-use factor between the high-altitude balloon portable ground station and the amateur satellite portable ground station. In fact, one of my RF sources is to be one of the PICetSat modules beeping on 433.920 MHz AM/ FM/USB.
I am working on getting a LARGE room with 6-ft tables and chairs available with lots of elbow room. Not the same building as before, it is under renovation.
A live demo is good but depending on which building we are in, and the complexity of who's station employed, will dictate.
I'd hate to hold a concurrent flea market and have to answer to that with my employer, but there HAS to be a low-impact means to barter gear.
SDR yes! Maybe Tom Clark will show his little toys and provide color commentary???
Things are starting to gell. Let's keep the idea exchanges alive. More comments?
Cheers,
Pat
-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Semple [mailto:[email protected]mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:09 PM To: Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680); [email protected]mailto:[email protected] Subject: RE: [amsat-dc] AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
Pat, Dan, Steve .. and all
Pat - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this --
1. Great!
2. Our Club (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club - MARC) has recently purchased a subscription to a Membership Registration Service - to manage the club membership -- One of the functions it offers is event registration (http://www.wildapricot.com/event-registration) I have initiated an inquiry with our board to see if MARC is willing to be a "sponsor" of the AMSAT-DC workshop -- and allow us to use the event registration feature of this SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Notice it would handle the fee collection, and if needed, a structured fee plan.
3. I am in favor of a basic fee -- $20 seems reasonable. Yes, I could see waiving some or all of it for presenters / demonstrators. I agree to stay "on site" for lunch would be more efficient.
Option D: -- let's see how many "helpers" we get to see if we a silent auction is an option. I am assuming we would have to have some contingency plan if some items don't get "bought" at their minimum price.
4. people are probably going to block the whole day -- so we could probably run until 4:30 -- Maybe have all the "formal" activities wrap up by 3:30 - Do we need to allow for some cleanup time -- to get the donated space "back in order"
-- it would definitely be good to get rolling by 10:00am -- are we thinking lunch @ 12:30 - 1:00 -- maybe we should start a little earlier?
-- I think it would be nice to have a couple of 20-30 minute talks or talk/demonstration planned. -- Would we be meeting in the same room as last time -- could it be partitioned off -- so that if someone did not want to attend a "talk" they could keep browsing? --
5. Do we have the option of opening it up for "satellite related" equipment swap" if hams want to bring in some equipment they want to sell?
6. Other Ideas -- -- Obviously SDR's is one of the hot tech topics -- I went ahead and got one of the $20 SDR dongles (January QST) and got the SDR# software up & running -- -- I'm still not completely sure what the I & Q signals are -- how are they created -- It would be great to have a SDR SME there to answer questions.
Regarding "working the birds" -- I think one of the biggest challenges - Especially with the linear birds is managing the Doppler shift ... -- how are you doing it on your portable station? It would be interesting to have some sort Doppler shift simulator and let participants get a sense of the tuning required.
7. Are you thinking about working a pass during the workshop? FO-29 goes overhead between 11:30am - 12:30 We should also be able to get in an SO-50 (FM bird) pass
8.Possible Talk Topics - "getting ready to work the next AMSAT-NA cubsat - SDR's how they work - AMSAT-NA - Current Operational Status of existing sats -- Near future plans - (can we get Drew to stop by?) - Pat - do you have any of your balloon hardware you want to show off -- or talk about recent flights?
73, Bruce WA3SWJ
_______________________________________________ Via the AMSAT-DC mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA [email protected]mailto:[email protected] http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-dc
Just received the DVD from AMSAT. It has copies of all Proceedings from 1986 to 2012 and mire, WOW!
John WA4WDL
participants (4)
-
Bruce Semple -
jmfranke -
Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680) -
Samudra Haque