I'm wondering if we can recruit this dog to help us in the satellite design
world. J
Dick Jansson, KD1K
<mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)amsat.org
<mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)arrl.net
-----Original Message-----
While driving around the back woods of East Texas, on one back roads I saw a
sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: "Talking Dog for Sale."
Well I needed a break so I stopped to see what the deal was. I went into the
backyard and see a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.
"You talk?" I ask. "Yep," the Lab replies. Well after I got over the shock
of hearing a dog talk, I asked "So, what's your story?" "
Ah shucks there ain't much to tell. Is that a VUU screwdriver antenna on
your truck out there?"
"How did you know that," I ask?
The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I'm a ham radio operator. I got my Ticket
when I was a young pup and in no time at all I had my 5 band DXCC in Phone
and CW. The CIA heard about me and asked me to do some spy work for them. I
would hang around the communications centers and with my keen hearing I
could copy the transmissions. Because no one figured a dog would be
eavesdropping, I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years."
Copying high speed CW all day really tired me out and I knew I wasn't
getting any younger. So, I decided to settle down. I retired from the CIA (8
dog years is 56 CIA years) and joined a ham radio club. In fact I won first
place in the Oklahoma OSO Party two years in a row. Then I had a mess of
puppies and got away from Ham Radio for a while. I sure miss my radio. Why
don't you buy me and I'll be your CW operator in the Texas QSO Party.
I said "let me see what I can do." I went back in and asked the owner what
he wants for the dog.
"Ten dollars," the guy says.
"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so
cheap?"
"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff. He's just a No Code
Technician."
Many of you have heard that Lew McFadin (W5DID), working with Steve
Bible (N7HPR) and Steve's colleagues (especially Keith Curtis) at
Microchip (the PIC people) have been working on a next generation power
conditioning system. The basic idea is to have a power charge/discharge
conditioner for each cell of the spacecraft's battery pack. This will
allow the use of several different battery technologies (NiCd, NiMH,
LiIon, etc) and also some of the new "super capacitors". Some of you who
were at Dayton may have seen the breadboard mockup of system that Steve
brought and Lew was showing. Lew was also showing some ~2000 Farad(!) 3
volt capacitors (some of us dubbed them "flux gate capacitors").
The SuperCap developments have been exploding of late. One immediate
service is for regenerative braking in hybrid and electric vehicles,
since the capacitors seem to be able to withstand a (virtually) infinite
number of charge/discharge cycles, and then can "soak up" & discharge
huge currents -- must faster than any chemical batteries can do.
Batteries store watt-hours of energy, while capacitors handle large
numbers of watts of power. One German light-rail system employs a total
of 600 2600Farad capacitors for regenerative braking. Some US electric
buses have capacitor banks with 144 18Farad capacitors that deliver 400
Amps at 360 Volts.
Today I received the 11.15.07 edition of Electronic Design magazine, and
there is an interesting technology review paper entitled "Get the
Lowdown on UltraCapacitors" starting on page 45; the article is
available online at
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/17465/17465.html.
Starting on page 50 (the 3rd page of the online version) The
AMSAT/MicroChip effort is described along with schematics (figure 6,
also http://electronicdesign.com/files/29/17465/Figure_06.jpg). The
closing paragraph (which doesn't mention the planed use of these
concepts on Suitsat2) says:
> Microchip worked with AMSAT-NA, the not-for-profit private
organization that develops
> amateur-radio satellites. AMSAT’s next big project, the Eagle
satellite, is slated for
> launch in March 2009. To make Eagle function for decades, it will have
a power system
> based on this work that combines solar panels, lithium-ion batteries,
and ultracaps
> in an integrated power system that will optimize the use of each of
those components.
Pretty good publicity!
73, Tom
I hope this note finds everyone on the Eagle and Suitsat teams having a
pleasant mid-November. For those in the United States, I hope you have
a pleasant Thanksgiving hiatus. For the first time in months, I will
have four days in a row at home!
Tomorrow I go to the intial meeting at the Laboratory for
Telecommunications Sciences at U. Md. for the stand up of my team and
the kick off of my project. This has been the most brutal six months of
my career in the dealing with bureaucrats and it has played hell with
most aspects of my life. I have not stayed with Tom and Elizabeth in
weeks. I have foresworn Gin and Tonic for weeks so you know it must be
bad! After tomorrow's kick off and following the Thanksgiving break and
the GnuRadio Hackfest (next week and now a major activity at my work
place) I expect to return to "full time HAM work" with a very large agenda.
This past Friday night I spent time talking with Bob Davis and Saturday,
I had a very good half a day with him at the Lab. He is just doing a
great job but we have been allowing him to carry the load for us while
trying to do a full time job of his own. I am hoping that more people
will start to go over. AMSAT will support this activity. We are
starting some fun things at the Pocomoke facility and with U. Md. E.S.
The HASP balloon project has been joined by AMSAT through Hawk/AMSAT in
Pocomoke. It will give us an early opportunity to fly our Suitsat 2
payloads and we will be pushing to finish those pieces (all of them) in
time to get on the balloon. This will give us the focus we need to
finish the RF pieces and the experiment interfaces.
We are going to build the frame of Eagle in the lab this year.
We hope to stand up an AMSAT Institute, a two week "camp for teachers"
at UMES and Hawk in the coming summer.
Bob and his volunteers have done a great job getting a lot done in the
last few weeks.
http://n4hy.smugmug.com/gallery/3841264
Soon the fire systems will be in and a certificate of occupancy granted
and work can begin!
Hawk has a Cubesat project. It is to be launched from Wallops on the
DelMarVa peninsula next summer unless there are slips. Our labs are in
the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences offices as seen in the photo's in
the gallery above. There is work that needs to be done to help finish
this off. I do not have a list of tasks yet but that will be coming
soon. I will be doing my best to set a good example by going down there
on two Friday's a month and working through most of Saturday starting in
December "on my way home" from Maryland to NJ. This will be reasonably
straightforward to figure out. N2HPE is off every other weekend and I
will work in Md when she is working.
We can accomplish a lot in the coming months and I hope you will soon
feel the enthusiasm I do for the prospects for the end of the year and
also 2008.
Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. friends.
Bob
--
AMSAT Director and VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT-DL,
TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. ARRL SDR WG Chair
“An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why
must the pessimist always run to blow it out?” Descartes
Bob:
While you are looking at the plans for what we need to accomplish in 2008, I
think that in the RF area we should include a physical modeling of at least
the key parts of Tom Clark's suggested phased array antenna. We need to
prove the principle. We will need the RF amplifiers and distributed gain
aspects of this antenna to meet our orbital RF power and directivity goals.
This then demands the creation of some real hardware - getting us past the
heise luft part of the design into something that can point us to what the
all-up, on-orbit hardware should look like.
If this line is not examined, we then need to have a proposal for what we
should pursue..... Tom's proposal seems like a reasonable starting point.
Such an project will require the efforts of a multi-technology team.
'73,
Dick Jansson, KD1K
<mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)amsat.org
<mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)arrl.net
Team:
Last night I transmitted a significant letter to Rick Hambly, Bob
McGwier, and the AMSAT Board of Directors.
As a result of life changing events this year, I have realized that I no
longer have time for amateur radio and therefore Eagle. With GREAT
regret, I tendered my resignation as Project Manager and Assistant VP
(Director) of Engineering. I simply do not have the time to do this
right, and would therefore prefer someone else do it.
I deeply regret having to take this decision. I got into this when
asked because I saw it as a chance for me to give something back to
AMSAT. It also gave me the wonderful opportunity to work closely with
the awesome intellect that you all represent. Working with you people,
this team, has been a highlight of my personal and professional life.
It is painful to step away, but I must do so -- I'm over extended, and
must reprioritize some things in my life.
Many of you have worked very hard and have worked hard at doing things
differently. In the process, you've taught the ENTIRE ORGANIZATION some
new things that we must deal with in todays era of electronics -- both
process and technical details. I beg you all to not give up and please
continue.
I will support and encourage from the side lines, as I can.
Thank you all for all that you've done. I wish you, and Eagle, only
good things.
Very 73,
Jim
wb4gcs(a)amsat.org
Tom:
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
The answer in NO, not at my stage in life.
I was thinking in terms of Barry Bains - replace one retiered Navy officer
with another.
73,
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Clark, K3IO" <K3IO(a)verizon.net>
To: "Bill Tynan" <btynan(a)beecreek.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: [eagle] Re: Eagle Management Change
> Bill Tynan wrote:
>> Jim:
>>
>> I am very sorry to learn of your resignation as Eagle Project Manager.
>> Big
>> programs such as Eagle, no matter what kind of organization is doing
>> them,
>> require the type of disciplined management you have been providing. I
>> can
>> think of an AMSAT project
>> completed a few years back which would have benefited greatly from your
>> kind of leadership.
>>
>> It know your work as Eagle Project Manager has been a strain, especially
>> since you are also holding down a full-time job. Many AMSAT functions
>> require talented people who don't have to work for a living. But such
>> people
>> are hard to find.
>>
>> I hope the AMSAT officers will be able to locate someone who can fill
>> your
>> shoes, but that will be difficult.
>>
>> Good luck and hope to see you active in AMSAT again when that becomes
>> possible.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Bill, W3XO
>>
> Would you be interested? -- Tom