- Eagle (INACTIVE) - mailman.amsat.org

ITAR BS
by Matt Ettus 10 Sep '08

10 Sep '08

Saying that the reason there is no progress on Eagle is because of ITAR is like saying that the reason my dog hasn't read "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" is because he can't reach it on the top bookshelf. The real reasons why there is no progress: Nobody knows what "Eagle" is anymore Everyone who was actually doing any work was summarily "fired". Multiple times in some cases. Matt

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2008 Symposium deadline
by Daniel Schultz 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

We still have a serious lack of presentations on the Eagle and Intelsat programs. Tom Clark has promised some sort of paper but I have not received proposals from anyone else involved in these flagship projects. The symposium at this point will be all about student built satellites and how to work AO-51 with your HT. Eagle team members, please let me know very soon if you have any plans to contribute a paper to this year's symposium. Dan Schultz N8FGV

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The ITAR Nail on the Head
by Bill Tynan 07 Sep '08

07 Sep '08

All: I would conclude that Bill Ress has HIT THE ITAR NAIL ON THE HEAD! The { }ed words or phases from the ITAR document are those I chose to emphasize. The [ ]ed comments are mine. 120 (5) This definition does {not} include information concerning general scientific,mathematical or engineering principles commonly taught in schools, colleges and universities or information in the {public domain} as defined in § 120.11. It also does not include basic marketing information on function or purpose or general system descriptions of defense articles. [I cannot believe that anything we are doing is THAT new and innovative that its basic tenets are not being taught in college. Yes, it may very well be based on using that information in innovative ways.] § 120.11 Public domain. (a) Public domain means information which is {published} and which is generally accessible or available to the public: (1) Through sales at newsstands and bookstores; (2) Through {subscriptions} which are available without restriction to any individual who desires to obtain or purchase the published information; [Our Journal is available to ANYONE who wishes to join AMSAT (subscribe).] (3) Through second class mailing privileges granted by the U.S. Government; (4) At libraries open to the public or from which the public can obtain documents; (5) Through patents available at any patent office; (6) Through {unlimited distribution at a conference, meeting, seminar, trade show or exhibition, generally accessible to the public, in the United States;} [ANYONE can attend our Symposia. There is not even a need for membership.] (7) Through public release (i.e., unlimited distribution) in any form (e.g., not necessarily in published form) after approval by the cognizant U.S. government department or agency (see also § 125.4(b)(13) of this subchapter); [I'm not sure about this one, but I believe it refers to work done under Government auspices/contract.] (8) Through fundamental research in science and engineering at accredited institutions of higher learning in the U.S. where the resulting information is ordinarily published and shared broadly in the scientific community. Fundamental research is defined to mean basic and applied research in science and engineering where the resulting information is ordinarily published and shared broadly within the scientific community, as distinguished from research the results of which are restricted for proprietary reasons or specific U.S. Government access and dissemination controls. University research will not be considered fundamental research if: [This should clear the way for schools with foreign students working on Cubsts etc.] (i) The University or its researchers accept other restrictions on publication of scientific and technical information resulting from the project or activity, or (ii) The research is funded by the U.S. Government and specific access and dissemination controls protecting information resulting from the research are applicable. 121.1 CATEGORY XV-SPACECRAFT SYSTEMS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT * (a) Spacecraft, including communications satellites, remote sensing satellites, scientific satellites, research satellites, navigation satellites, experimental and multi-mission satellites. {*NOTE TO PARAGRAPH (a): Commercial communications satellites, scientific satellites, research satellites and experimental satellites are designated as SME only when the equipment is intended for use by the armed forces of any foreign country.} [I don't know when, or how this provision got in there; but it seems like it's exactly what we have be wanting all along. Our satellites are NEVER intended for use by ANY armed forces, foreign or domestic. it seems to me to let us off the hook as it were. Let's go!] 73, Bill Tynan, W3XO LM-10 Past President and Board Chairman, now Senior Advisor (GEEZER) VerDate

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Re: 2008 Symposium deadline
by Daniel Schultz 07 Sep '08

07 Sep '08

Failure to present papers or other evidence of progress at the symposium will send a pretty clear message to the membership that these projects are well and truly dead. Is that what we want to do? Dan Schultz N8FGV ------ Original Message ------ Received: Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:02:08 PM EDT From: "Frank Brickle" <brickle(a)pobox.com> To: "Daniel Schultz" <n8fgv(a)usa.net>Cc: eagle(a)amsat.org Subject: [eagle] Re: 2008 Symposium deadline > Dan -- > > Understand that I mean nothing controversial by saying this, but it's very > unclear what the status of the Eagle and/or Intelsat projects *is*. There's > potentially a lot to say, but hard to know whether any of it is pertinent at > this point. > > I was prepared to deliver a paper on AMSAT-specific aspects of the same > topic (Delay Tolerant Networking) that I wrote up for DCC. The gist of the > paper was an outline of the specific implementation of a comprehensive > text-messaging service for Eagle. Given the current level of uncertainty > even about *who* the teams are, and the ambient level of acrimony in the > membership, it's questionable whether the time is worth spending. > > 73 > Frank > AB2KT >

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Re: 2008 Symposium deadline
by Daniel Schultz 06 Sep '08

06 Sep '08

One could hope that the new administration coming in January might fix ITAR. At least one candidate has mentioned it in his space policy. ( http://www.fladems.com/page/-/Obama_Space.pdf page 6). The other candidate may also be willing to listen to reason. I suppose you could project blank slides just to make a point, sort of like what the student newspaper in college did when facing censorship issues. Or maybe Amsat could schedule a "US only" session with proof of citizenship required for admittance to also drive the point home. We have to present some evidence of progress on these projects. If that means speaking in bland generalities, or shooing non-citizens from the room, we have to do something. Explaining how ITAR has hurt Amsat projects would itself be a valid topic for a presentation. Since screwdrivers and wrenches can be used to assemble satellites, I wonder if my local hardware store has the proper export controls in place to ensure national security? Dan ------ Original Message ------ Received: Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:48:51 PM EDT From: Lyle Johnson <kk7p(a)wavecable.com> To: Frank Brickle <brickle(a)pobox.com>Cc: Daniel Schultz <n8fgv(a)usa.net>, eagle(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [eagle] Re: 2008 Symposium deadline > Hello Frank! > > I don't mind being controversial :-) > > My take on all things AMSAT for the past couple of years is: > > 1) ITAR prevents us from any meaningful exchange of ideas, projects or > design with any non-U.S. citizen. While there are ways to do this, they > assume very deep pockets and a large full-time staff devoted to > satisfying unreasonable, unrealistic and arbitrary government demands. > > Feedback from meetings with people who ought to know strongly suggest > that while Amateur satellites are not the intent of the ITAR rules > (duh!), absolutely no one in a position to help us is willing to go on > record with that interpretation. > > The practical result is that ITAR has killed the IHU3 since it was > dependent on cooperation from a non-NA group. P3E and whatever Eagle > was to have been were dependent on the IHU3. The impact is pretty easy > to extrapolate. > > 2) For the same reasons, ITAR prevents us from making a presentation at > any AMSAT Symposium with any technical content except perhaps the most > general. If there is technical content, we have to be ready to cite > chapter and verse of the publicly available source of anything we utter > that might be construed as potentially revealing of any level of > technology that might possibly be applied to any spacecraft in orbit or > supporting such a spacecraft on the ground. > > Unless of course we clear the building of all non-U.S. citizens. > > Sigh. > > 73, > > Lyle KK7P (who now does terrestrial stuff) > > >

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Space Symposium Second Call for Papers
by Daniel Schultz 31 Aug '08

31 Aug '08

We only have about one month remaining before the publication deadline, I am counting on you guys and gals to fill up the Symposium with interesting papers. Dan N8FGV --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2008 AMSAT North America Space Symposium 24-26 October 2008, Atlanta, Georgia - Call for Papers This is the second call for papers for the 2008 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting to be held October 24-26, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite program. An emphasis for this year is an educational outreach to middle and high school students. Another topic if interest is using amateur satellite tracking systems to monitor deep space network objects. In particular, papers on the following topics are solicited: • Students & Education • ARISS • AO-51 • P3E • Eagle • Deep Space Network monitoring • Any additional satellite-related topics. We request a one-page abstract as soon as possible. Camera ready copy on paper or in electronic form will be due by September 1, 2008 for inclusion in the printed symposium proceedings. Papers received after this date may not be included in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to n8fgv(a)amsat.org

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ANSOFT Inspiring Engineering Boston Presentations
by Tom Clark, K3IO 28 Aug '08

28 Aug '08

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[Fwd: Inspiring Engineering, Boston, Sept. 25, Technical Program]
by Tom Clark, K3IO 06 Aug '08

06 Aug '08

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Re: what is going on?
by Michelle 16 Jul '08

16 Jul '08

Bob fired Matt Ettus on 23 June 2008. He fired me, for lack of a better term, on 26 June 2008. It was unnecessarily harsh and inaccurate. It was impersonal, and inappropriate. According to several AMSAT executives, Bob McGwier is mentally ill. I am told he suffers from bipolar disorder. Despite knowing this (if this is true), AMSAT has chosen to appoint him to Vice President of Engineering. They intend, as far as I can tell, to keep him in this position, regardless of the result. While mental illness cannot and should not suffer stigma, it also is a factor in assigning responsibility. I think Bob needs help and support. I also think he needs to resign, and get help, and then return to contribute as a valued and irreplaceable technical volunteer. -Michelle W5NYV ----- Original Message ---- From: Bdale Garbee <bdale(a)gag.com> To: AMSAT BoD <bod(a)amsat.org> Cc: namaste-dev(a)amsat.org; AMSAT Eagle <eagle(a)amsat.org>; Bob McGwier N4HY <rwmcgwier(a)comcast.net> Sent: Monday, July 7, 2008 5:38:59 PM Subject: [eagle] what is going on? I just returned from nearly a month of travel/vacation with my family, including 4925 miles of cross-country road-trip. Two of the personal highlights were my daughter Elizabeth KC0OTR passing her Extra exam in Grand Junction, CO, and my first visit to the NRAO facility at Green Bank, WV. In trying to catch up on the email backlog in preparation for re-engaging in less vacation-oriented activities, I find myself somethere between utterly confused and completely dismayed regarding AMSAT activities I care about. It seems like it has been months since I heard about any activity on Eagle or the associated ride-share opportunity other than what is being discussed on the namaste-dev list. ??? I see references in Michelle's weekly summaries about a meeting in San Diego on the weekend of 18 July, but can't find any information about who is meeting and for what purpose. Is this something I should show up for? I've tried emailing a couple folks directly that I thought might be able to give me details, but have had no replies. I happen to have that weekend open at the moment. An email from Bob McGwier to the eagle list on June 5th indicated that he has resigned as VP Engineering and does not intend to run for another term on the Board. While I'm pleased to see that he remains active on the namaste-dev list, I haven't read anything yet indicating who is expected to replace him? Who's supposedly running our Eagle and related engineering projects now that Jim and Bob have both stepped down? Matt Ettus reports that he has been "fired" and is thus no longer working on the ACP. Why? I find it nearly inconceivable that AMSAT would intentionally push away someone of his talent, vision, and demonstrated persistence of contribution. I sincerely hope this is a misunderstanding of some kind? Would someone *please* tell me what is going on? 73 - Bdale, KB0G _______________________________________________ Via the Eagle mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA Eagle(a)amsat.org http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/eagle

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Re: [Namaste-dev] Re: what is going on?
by Michelle 11 Jul '08

11 Jul '08

This particular part of your message, that follows, is bordering on preposterous. "When I return from a two month deployment overseas last month, and I was given a day to make a big decision at work, I made the decision knowing that my days as an AMSAT executive and director were over. I needed to make big time changes in my position and there were legal issues requiring me to make a very hasty decision. I handled it poorly. I freely admit I was upset at the outcome. I was fighting but I was given an ultimatum and I acquiesced. I was signing an agreement that said I would not have such involvements as AMSAT directorship and officer. I did not sign up to run for the board (Michelle celebrates along with Fred Parker). Two weeks after this, things changed, and the right thing happened. I informed the board that I would stay until they chose to replace me." That I would celebrate along with Fred Parker (a person I am not acquainted with, have not discussed anything with, and would not know if they walked in front of me) about any aspect of your management coming to a complete and utter failure, is wrong. This is not a cause for celebration whatsoever. The rest of the paragraph is news to me, and is after the fact of the personnel and policy changes that you made (which were entirely destructive to ACP leadership). "From this incident forward, I have been completely unable to get Michelle to carry on a conversation with me about Namaste or Eagle matters." This is falsehood. When you state that you are the sole arbiter of engineering decisions of every aspect of ACP, and you alone are the decision maker, and dissent is not tolerated, then conversations cease. I'm not sure what else you would expect, and I don't believe that anyone in the audience is fooled by your attempts to finesse the subject of control. Perhaps you simply can't tolerate empowering others. Regardless of how you feel or what you believe, the sort of management that you're incapable of is a necessity for collaborative projects. I made this clear in February. It's obvious that you don't agree or that it did not stick. If your autocratic management style is what AMSAT wants, then the only real solution, like WOPR discovered in Wargames, is "Not To Play". This is speaking for myself, of course, Certainly, others may feel differently, and you should recruit them. Your email on the 23rd of June came out of the blue, and presented no real opportunity for dialog. I have no problem with AMSAT, and, honestly (like Matt), I wish you success on the project. Instead of addressing Old News, like me and Matt Ettus, why don't you turn your attention to the work at hand? -mdt

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Re: EU Tests Disaster Management Satellite
by Andrew Glasbrenner 10 Jul '08

10 Jul '08

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Re: EU Tests Disaster Management Satellite
by Andrew Glasbrenner 10 Jul '08

10 Jul '08

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EU Tests Disaster Management Satellite
by JoAnne Maenpaa 10 Jul '08

10 Jul '08

Good morning, Disaster management experts of the European Union tested a satellite based system for monitoring disaster areas: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Exercise_For_Rapid_Disaster_Relief_Using_S pace_Based_Technologies_999.html Perhaps this will someday present another rideshare opportunity for offering an amateur radio emergency communications package? Or, hopefully not, "No thanks, we already have our own ." -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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Re: [Namaste-dev] Re: what is going on?
by Michelle 08 Jul '08

08 Jul '08

This version of events is not true. I wish the best for the project, but I can't be involved in such an incredible fiction. AMSAT as an organization has to realize that when literally dozens of highly motivated volunteers are chased away by one particular person, that perhaps that one particular person is at fault, for reasons not necessarily visible or easily resolved. All involved have my sympathy and support. I have not refused to communicate with any AMSAT member or volunteer, and I let the work on Namaste speak for itself. -Michelle W5NYV Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis. ----- Original Message ---- From: Bob McGwier <rwmcgwier(a)gmail.com> To: Michelle <w5nyv(a)yahoo.com>; Bdale Garbee <bdale(a)gag.com> Cc: namaste-dev <namaste-dev(a)amsat.org>; eagle(a)amsat.org; bod(a)amsat.org Sent: Monday, July 7, 2008 8:06:55 PM Subject: RE: [Namaste-dev] Re: [eagle] what is going on? Thank you for your positive contribution. I do not suffer from bipolar disorder as the armchair psychiatrists suggest. I have not ever had a mental illness. Once every two years I undergo a major, multi-day psychological evaluation as part of my employment. I have always and continue to pass whatever that means and my personal records show no disorder is present to the satisfaction of my employer and our sponsor. I have been in a stable marriage to the same woman since the early 1970’s and all my children tell me they love me for whatever that is worth. Do I get angry, yes. Everyone knows this, but I am not violent, nor bipolar. I think the last time I got into a fist fight I was in middle school. The last time I had a mood disorder was last year when my brother, sister-in-law, and niece were almost killed. When my favorite aunt died of cancer. When her husband, my uncle, was almost trampled to death by horses that she owned when he was trying to put them into a trailer to sell them. When my mother almost died of medical incompetence, etc. I sought help to get through what seemed a never ending crisis, took antidepressants for six months and then quit them, all under a doctor’s supervision. I should have quit this job then because I did AMSAT no good whatsoever for months but the thing about this kind of crisis reaction is you cannot see out of the fog. The fog is gone now. My aunt is stil dead, but while not whole, the rest of my relatives are recovering their lives. Matt was indeed removed as leader of the ACP. He is a brilliant engineer and I believe he and I will work together for years to come. Unlike Michelle, Matt was big enough to talk to me, I gave my reasons, we disagreed and we have had technical discussions via email since. While I hope Matt continues to contribute to the technical effort that he has been visionary on, we need a manager to bring the pieces together. It will not be Matt. He is busy and very preoccupied with multiple pieces of work, almost all professional and very demanding of time. He was aggravated and clearly upset with all sorts of things in dealing with ACP, AMSAT, etc. and I made a decision that I thought was in the best interests of AMSAT. I demanded that Michelle give me some oversight so I could try to right the ship and to talk to me. None of this has been forthcoming. As a member of the senior officers and a member of the board of directors, when you have a major failure in a project, you report it to the officers and board. I did this. I provided a courtesy copy to Michelle. She sent the privileged communication to Matt. Both of them took exception to its contents and addressed their exception to the same audience I did. This was not a public message. It was addressed those people responsible for running this organization. We are attempting to come up with a plan by August and I saw all of this as a crisis and they needed the information. They made many corrections to my statement, I have not defended against their statements of disagreement, hoping we could work this out. Michelle was asked repeatedly to talk to me on many occasions before the real outbreak of hostilities.. I told her that if she did not talk to me about how to proceed in the current situation, that she was effectively resigning since this cannot work. That said, Michelle is doing a very good job of building a collaboration. It is my OPINION that she has a real problem with any hierarchy. I don’t care, just so she talks to me and allows me to help her. I believe in her ability to do this organization but it will not be without guidance from the senior engineering executive in an engineering organization and that is me until I am replaced. I realize that the people in the Eagle group are getting blind sided by all of this. My apologies. Dick Jansson made this completely clear in a note he sent to the board. When I return from a two month deployment overseas last month, and I was given a day to make a big decision at work, I made the decision knowing that my days as an AMSAT executive and director were over. I needed to make big time changes in my position and there were legal issues requiring me to make a very hasty decision. I handled it poorly. I freely admit I was upset at the outcome. I was fighting but I was given an ultimatum and I acquiesced. I was signing an agreement that said I would not have such involvements as AMSAT directorship and officer. I did not sign up to run for the board (Michelle celebrates along with Fred Parker). Two weeks after this, things changed, and the right thing happened. I informed the board that I would stay until they chose to replace me. From this incident forward, I have been completely unable to get Michelle to carry on a conversation with me about Namaste or Eagle matters. I asked Barry to help me get a meeting together. When I could not get answers to several questions (some I subsequently learned were available online but not the major questions) at 1 PM of the day I needed to okay a meeting so the contract could be signed to hold the meeting by 6 PM that day, I cancelled the meeting. As the senior engineering executive of this organization with a busy life just like many of you have, I could not see spending AMSAT money or my and other executives time on a feel good session. Maybe there was more to it, I know that I could not find out and my designated go to guy did not have answers. If Michelle will talk to me, I will beg her forgiveness for any real or perceived injustice she feels she has been subjected to and attempt to work out a working relationship while I complete my tenure, whether that is 3 months or 30 years, we need to make progress before August on making real on what steps to take next. I believe the Namaste group is ready to take steps. I hate sending it fall into disarray just when it arrives at a turning point from position papers to action. What you have done here is beyond the pale of what anyone should be subjected to. However, the important thing is AMSAT and its best interests. I forgive it completely. I am uninterested in how you perceive me or what you think of me so long as you will attempt to work out a working relationship with me, I will do it. I believe you are good person and that you have been subjected to all sorts of wrong headed talking and thinking at my expense and the organization’s. I am damn easy to work with technically. I have the exact same technical partners I have had in some cases for 3 decades and more for two decades. My phone number is 609-731-5289. I AM the VPE and I will talk to you and attempt to help you do a good job for this organization or you will have removed yourself from the job. This is your choice. I am more than willing to work it out. There is no other way. We cannot have completely autonomous groups without oversight. If you can call an emergency board meeting and get me fired, you can win the day. If you like, I will call it for you. I do not fear the outcome, up, down, or sideways. AMSAT needs me, I love AMSAT, and I will be here for as long as I am able to be. If the board wants me out, I will say aye aye and we will move on. 73’s Bob N4HY ARRL SDR Working Group Chair, AMSAT VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. “Trample the slow .... Hurdle the dead" From:namaste-dev-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:namaste-dev-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Michelle Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 10:10 PM To: Bdale Garbee Cc: namaste-dev; eagle(a)amsat.org Subject: [Namaste-dev] Re: [eagle] what is going on? Bob fired Matt Ettus on 23 June 2008. He fired me, for lack of a better term, on 26 June 2008. It was unnecessarily harsh and inaccurate. It was impersonal, and inappropriate. According to several AMSAT executives, Bob McGwier is mentally ill. I am told he suffers from bipolar disorder. Despite knowing this (if this is true), AMSAT has chosen to appoint him to Vice President of Engineering. They intend, as far as I can tell, to keep him in this position, regardless of the result. While mental illness cannot and should not suffer stigma, it also is a factor in assigning responsibility. I think Bob needs help and support. I also think he needs to resign, and get help, and then return to contribute as a valued and irreplaceable technical volunteer. -Michelle W5NYV ----- Original Message ---- From: Bdale Garbee <bdale(a)gag.com> To: AMSAT BoD <bod(a)amsat.org> Cc: namaste-dev(a)amsat.org; AMSAT Eagle <eagle(a)amsat.org>; Bob McGwier N4HY <rwmcgwier(a)comcast.net> Sent: Monday, July 7, 2008 5:38:59 PM Subject: [eagle] what is going on? I just returned from nearly a month of travel/vacation with my family, including 4925 miles of cross-country road-trip. Two of the personal highlights were my daughter Elizabeth KC0OTR passing her Extra exam in Grand Junction, CO, and my first visit to the NRAO facility at Green Bank, WV. In trying to catch up on the email backlog in preparation for re-engaging in less vacation-oriented activities, I find myself somethere between utterly confused and completely dismayed regarding AMSAT activities I care about. It seems like it has been months since I heard about any activity on Eagle or the associated ride-share opportunity other than what is being discussed on the namaste-dev list. ??? I see references in Michelle's weekly summaries about a meeting in San Diego on the weekend of 18 July, but can't find any information about who is meeting and for what purpose. Is this something I should show up for? I've tried emailing a couple folks directly that I thought might be able to give me details, but have had no replies. I happen to have that weekend open at the moment. An email from Bob McGwier to the eagle list on June 5th indicated that he has resigned as VP Engineering and does not intend to run for another term on the Board. While I'm pleased to see that he remains active on the namaste-dev list, I haven't read anything yet indicating who is expected to replace him? Who's supposedly running our Eagle and related engineering projects now that Jim and Bob have both stepped down? Matt Ettus reports that he has been "fired" and is thus no longer working on the ACP. Why? I find it nearly inconceivable that AMSAT would intentionally push away someone of his talent, vision, and demonstrated persistence of contribution. I sincerely hope this is a misunderstanding of some kind? Would someone *please* tell me what is going on? 73 - Bdale, KB0G _______________________________________________ Via the Eagle mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA Eagle(a)amsat.org http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/eagle

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what is going on?
by Bdale Garbee 07 Jul '08

07 Jul '08

I just returned from nearly a month of travel/vacation with my family, including 4925 miles of cross-country road-trip. Two of the personal highlights were my daughter Elizabeth KC0OTR passing her Extra exam in Grand Junction, CO, and my first visit to the NRAO facility at Green Bank, WV. In trying to catch up on the email backlog in preparation for re-engaging in less vacation-oriented activities, I find myself somethere between utterly confused and completely dismayed regarding AMSAT activities I care about. It seems like it has been months since I heard about any activity on Eagle or the associated ride-share opportunity other than what is being discussed on the namaste-dev list. ??? I see references in Michelle's weekly summaries about a meeting in San Diego on the weekend of 18 July, but can't find any information about who is meeting and for what purpose. Is this something I should show up for? I've tried emailing a couple folks directly that I thought might be able to give me details, but have had no replies. I happen to have that weekend open at the moment. An email from Bob McGwier to the eagle list on June 5th indicated that he has resigned as VP Engineering and does not intend to run for another term on the Board. While I'm pleased to see that he remains active on the namaste-dev list, I haven't read anything yet indicating who is expected to replace him? Who's supposedly running our Eagle and related engineering projects now that Jim and Bob have both stepped down? Matt Ettus reports that he has been "fired" and is thus no longer working on the ACP. Why? I find it nearly inconceivable that AMSAT would intentionally push away someone of his talent, vision, and demonstrated persistence of contribution. I sincerely hope this is a misunderstanding of some kind? Would someone *please* tell me what is going on? 73 - Bdale, KB0G

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Re: KC0OTR/AE
by rjansson＠cfl.rr.com 15 Jun '08

15 Jun '08

Bdale: What a great Fathers Day present that is, and what a masterful accomplishment for Elizabeth. Dick Jansson, KD1K ---- Bdale Garbee <bdale(a)gag.com> wrote: > Pardon this brief intrusion, but the list has been fairly quiet lately, > and I suspect a number of you who know her will be tickled to hear that > my 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth passed her Extra exam! > > :-) > > 73 - Bdale, KB0G > > _______________________________________________ > Via the Eagle mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA > Eagle(a)amsat.org > http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/eagle

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KC0OTR/AE
by Bdale Garbee 15 Jun '08

15 Jun '08

Pardon this brief intrusion, but the list has been fairly quiet lately, and I suspect a number of you who know her will be tickled to hear that my 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth passed her Extra exam! :-) 73 - Bdale, KB0G

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Re: ACP questions on Eham forum
by Michelle 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

Hi Dave! I am looking forward to OpenKM to provide archive (revision record and control) and document fetching. The plan from here is to use it as back-end support for the website, and not require participants to get a login/password for OpenKM. Blog, wiki, whatever - if it's useful it will get used and should be at least tried. I think they're great ideas. The blog for Namaste is our document feed source, but it gets very few comments because it's more of a utility than a place to post comments. If you want to see what it looks like it's here: http://namasteforamsat.blogspot.com/ We're more likely on Namaste to use wikipedia than something like eaglepedia. The construction of a useful wiki takes a lot of time and a critical mass of people willing to edit and contribute. It's worth trying since it can be a great resource. Whatever we can learn from eaglepedia, though, we need to apply going forward. I expect we will continue to use the Amsat News Service and the Journal to post articles, and whatever people gravitate towards (twitter has been really useful for us) to post status and smaller items. -Michelle W5NYV ----- Original Message ---- From: Matt Ettus <matt(a)ettus.com> To: Dave hartzell <hartzell(a)gmail.com> Cc: Michelle <w5nyv(a)yahoo.com>; eagle list <eagle(a)amsat.org> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 11:08:32 AM Subject: Re: [eagle] Re: ACP questions on Eham forum Dave hartzell wrote: > On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 10:12 AM, Matt Ettus <matt(a)ettus.com> wrote: > > >> So developments have been proceeding informally and in [unfortunately] >> private email and phone conversations. There is no desire to keep >> anything secret, closed, or difficult to find. >> > > One of the disadvantages of going away from the wiki was the closure > of some activities to the public. > > It will be possible to open up OpenKM to the public, but do we really > want to expose the document management system to the public? Trac/SVN > architecture is inherently more "open" to the world. > I think the best solution would be to put all our larger documents in OpenKM. In the Wiki, we could have a link which fetches the latest version from OpenKM. That way we don't need everyone going into OpenKM to find docs. > Would team leaders (or team members) be interested in a public Blog, > to post items and status for public consumption? > That's an idea. We could also informally do this through the wiki. Matt

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Re: ACP questions on Eham forum
by Michelle 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

Here's my thoughts on documentation and the challenges you are facing. I strongly prefer simple and completely configurable work areas. This usually means doing something on a server I know I'm going to have access to for the foreseeable future. For example, I do recording projects for another organization. After three server moves due to people quitting, deciding they wanted to use the space for other projects, or getting evicted because someone accidentally didn't pay the bill and no one could decide what to do about it, I moved everything to my own server and that worked until we combined sites and things were run well enough to where I could move the project to the organization's servers. Now they complain about disk space, so it's not perfect, but the lesson learned was if you need something to be reliably available, you may have to do it yourself. Depending on another person's server is like depending on borrowing a car for getting to work. Sooner or later, it won't be available, for often very legitimate reasons, like getting to the hospital. Sometimes not, like the car is still parked at the bar they went out last night to. Anyway, you get the point. Simple in this case means that not all functions are going to be available. However, simple means it's easy to set up and maintain. OpenKM seems good for specific and/or closed teams. It's accounts-based, no? The good side of this is that it puts up a barrier to entry and prevents someone from checking out all your documents and doing whacky things with them for fun. The bad side of this is that it also provides a barrier to entry for interested persons or casual contributors, which are absolutely definitely desired and needed if the project is to be finished before the year 2025. Those casual drop-by, non-amsat people are high grade ore - especially the ones that are looking for just this exact hobby. It's not as useful as a public presence place for documents. Putting them there won't help the collaboration unless everyone has an account. The fact that the Eagle list was secret is one of the two reasons why namaste-dev was started. The other is that Eagle is about a satellite thingie, and I didn't want to piss off a bunch of people by hijacking the list for my own nefarious groundling purposes. I hate flying in airplanes. I don't like satellites. I don't like spaceships, have never wanted to be an astronaut, don't like the shuttle, and the ISS can suck it. I love ground stations. The goal with the website is to make all engineering documents available to anyone that wants to read them and then hopefully participate, and then archive all documents to amsat servers as soon as possible so that they're there, for the foreseeable future. The website continues to be the public front-end for the project, which allows anyone to interface with the developers, etc. and I'll maintain it as long as there is interest in the project. Setting up something like the ground station website for the payload project should be an easy thing to accomplish on the amsat server, if you don't have another one available. The amsat server already has stuff like subversion and trac on it. I'm happy to help solve the challenges in any way I can. Is there anything that you can think of that I can do to help? Making the Eagle list public should be easy enough, and would greatly help solve that issue. Your goal seems to be to publish the work that you are doing, and that's great news. -Michelle W5NYV ----- Original Message ---- From: Matt Ettus <matt(a)ettus.com> To: Michelle <w5nyv(a)yahoo.com> Cc: Andrew Glasbrenner <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com>; eagle list <eagle(a)amsat.org> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:12:38 AM Subject: Re: [eagle] Re: ACP questions on Eham forum > > I have the powerpoint presentations from Matt, and I have a paper for the physical link that is based on the content of the presentations, but I don't have any other engineering work for ACP to show people or that can help us with ground station design. We need to see the results of payload engineering work in order to continue to make progress on the ground station. > We have been running into a number of problems here -- - I have asked repeatedly for a Trac and subversion setup for a wiki and to post less formal documentation, actual code, sims, and other work. I still don't know the status of it, but I am assured it either has materialized or will soon, along with a password for me to use it. I presented an alternative outsourced service, and even offered to pay the bill, but that was vetoed. - OpenKM is great, but it doesn't let you post python or matlab code, and isn't really the right vehicle for that anyway. I have posted some documents there. - Most of my team members are not on the Eagle list, and can't get on there because it is invite only, and the inviter has been hard to get a hold of. - I have asked for an ACP mailing list as an alternative, but that hasn't happened either. So developments have been proceeding informally and in [unfortunately] private email and phone conversations. There is no desire to keep anything secret, closed, or difficult to find. Matt

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Re: ACP questions on Eham forum
by Michelle 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

Greetings Eagle! Siddhartha did indeed get what he was looking for, and some other radio astronomy stuff he was looking for as well. He posted to the namaste-dev list the other day. This brings us to Drew's question, to which I have an offer of a solution, or at least a partial solution. I'm happy to provide a web presence for documents concerning the ground station projects (Project Namaste) as well as the engineering documents for the payload that are relevant to the ground station, such as expected user interface, loading, congestion plans, call flow diagrams, quality of service, air interface, and anything relating to expectations of how the ground station is expected to behave from a satellite perspective. I have the powerpoint presentations from Matt, and I have a paper for the physical link that is based on the content of the presentations, but I don't have any other engineering work for ACP to show people or that can help us with ground station design. We need to see the results of payload engineering work in order to continue to make progress on the ground station. Since this mailing list is where I would expect to find people working on ACP, I'd like to invite anyone that is interested in working on any payload that wants ground station support (i.e. the 2m/70cm SuperPortable and the 5.8GHz/3.4GHz Portable/Fixed stations) to send any and all engineering documents, thoughts, requirements, goals, and lists to me or namaste-dev(a)amsat.org, and I'll be more than happy to present these work products on the website as well as include them in our document feed for delivery to readers and technical reviewers. Please see www.amsat.org/namaste to see the current presentation and organization. This is where your documents would be presented. This would provide an offsite storage. I don't currently provide any revision control other than hosting the current document. In other words, a document on the site is the current document. If any of you are interested in participating in the development of payload documents that affect ground station engineering, please let me know, and I will help you present them to the ground station team and the rest of the world to the best of my ability. I consider public relations and evangelization concerning the ground station to be primary responsibilities of leading the ground station team. Having a publicly accessible and open process goes a very long way towards spreading the word and increasing the chances of the project's success. Anything towards that end I'm ready to assist with. This leaves the question of what I mean by partial solution, above. Any engineering for the payload that doesn't have relevance for the ground station (like mechanical issues or other aspects that don't affect any part of ground station design) probably need to be made available elsewhere. -Michelle W5NYV Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis. ----- Original Message ---- From: Andrew Glasbrenner <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com> To: eagle list <eagle(a)amsat.org> Sent: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 8:17:00 PM Subject: [eagle] ACP questions on Eham forum Word is getting out, but I really don't know where to point him other than the Symposium Proceedings? 73, Drew http://www.eham.net/forums/Satellites/1725 Hi, I attended a presentation by Matt Ettus, N2MJI, at the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association's monthly meeting about the Advanced Communications Package. The project sounded very interesting and as I remember, Matt said that the ACP project's goal was to send up these amateur stations on commercial satellites in the geostationary orbit so that it eventually, someday, gives a trans-global reach for amateurs with portable/handheld radios. This was supposed to be an alternative to the Eagle project. I got talking to a friend and fellow operator who used to be very interested in amateur satellite work and he was very interested in knowing more about ACP. Is there a whitepaper, wiki or some kind of documentation briefly describing the project? I looked at the AMSAT site and could not find much. Any pointers will be appreciated. 73, - Siddhartha WV6U _______________________________________________ Via the Eagle mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA Eagle(a)amsat.org http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/eagle

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This fall
by Bob McGwier 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

I have informed the board and the officers of AMSAT that I am not a candidate for board of directors and cannot retain my VP position. I will continue to work as a technical volunteer and will serve gladly whomever the board chooses to replace me with should they wish my help. My workload has increased tremendously. When Rick asked me to be VPE, I was essentially retired and starting to doing SDR for fun. I was supported at work to do it because that is the nature of my employment. It has turned into a full time job and will require more and more of my time. This is good for SDR in my estimation, less so for AMSAT except insofar as it needs this SDR work. I thank all who have worked with me and I look forward to our continued collaboration. 73's Bob N4HY

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ACP questions on Eham forum
by Andrew Glasbrenner 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

Word is getting out, but I really don't know where to point him other than the Symposium Proceedings? 73, Drew http://www.eham.net/forums/Satellites/1725 Hi, I attended a presentation by Matt Ettus, N2MJI, at the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association's monthly meeting about the Advanced Communications Package. The project sounded very interesting and as I remember, Matt said that the ACP project's goal was to send up these amateur stations on commercial satellites in the geostationary orbit so that it eventually, someday, gives a trans-global reach for amateurs with portable/handheld radios. This was supposed to be an alternative to the Eagle project. I got talking to a friend and fellow operator who used to be very interested in amateur satellite work and he was very interested in knowing more about ACP. Is there a whitepaper, wiki or some kind of documentation briefly describing the project? I looked at the AMSAT site and could not find much. Any pointers will be appreciated. 73, - Siddhartha WV6U

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AD6IW Dubus article
by Matt Ettus 04 Jun '08

04 Jun '08

I just wanted to send congratulations to ACP team member Goran Popovic, AD6IW, on his cover article in the latest Dubus Technik magazine. The article is about his beautifully designed 350 W solid state amplifier for 1296 MHz. Appropriately enough, Goran will be designing the 3.4 GHz downlink power amplifier for the ACP. It will mostly likely be a Class E amplifier based on silicon carbide transistors. Matt

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revision control, wiki, web, etc.
by Matt Ettus 29 May '08

29 May '08

I have been talking with Dave Hartzell and Johnathan Corgan about the web resources necessary to back the development of ACP, Namaste and other AMSAT projects. We talked about setting up Subversion and Trac, which we have used very productively for a few years on the GNU Radio project. Trac provides a wiki, bug tracking, milestones, history, and source code browsing. We could set it up on the server in Rick's office, but that would involve a lot of volunteer time to set it up, manage it, and back it up. It also would involve putting more access into a box which will apparently have people's credit card info on it, which is clearly a bad idea. These roll-your-own solutions, like Eaglepedia are hard to sustain. Johnathan has been using, and suggested that we use, devguard.com which provides exactly the kind of Trac and SVN hosting we need. For $7.95 a month they'll host it, back it up, and support an unlimited number of users. As the total data size and number of projects grows, you simply move up to larger plans which top out at 5 GB and $60/month. Free volunteers don't come cheap. Neither does bandwidth. Proper security and backup systems are hard. Why not leave these things to professionals who do it all day long for a reasonable price? Please check out their services at: http://devguard.com I would appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts on this. I feel strongly that this is the right way to go. This is a multi-million dollar project, so 20 bucks or so a month is in the noise. Matt

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Ronald A. Parise, WA4SIR, SK
by Tom Clark, K3IO 10 May '08

10 May '08

Forwarded from Frank Bauer: -----Original Message----- From: Frank H. Bauer [mailto:ka3hdo@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, May 9, 2008 08:48 PM Subject: Ronald A. Parise, SK It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of a great friend, colleague and fellow ham radio operator. Dr. Ronald A. Parise, WA4SIR, left this Earth today, Friday May 9, 2008 after a very long and courageous battle with cancer. Ron Parise was--and continues to be--an inspiration to countless students, ham radio operators, and friends the world over. His accomplishments were many, including: space explorer, pioneer, astrophysicist, pilot, ham radio operator, avionics and software expert, inspirational speaker and motivator, student satellite mentor, husband, father, and friend. While he certainly did some truly extraordinary things in his lifetime, Ron Parise is best known and cherished for keeping family and friends first?and for this, we will miss him most. Ron flew as a payload specialist on two Space Shuttle missions: STS-35 on the Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990 and STS-67 on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in March 1995. These two missions, called ASTRO-1 & 2 respectively, carried out Ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy observations. He logged over 614 hours and 10.6 million miles in space. Ron and his crew members on ASTRO-1 became the first astronomers to operate a telescope from space, making hundreds of observations during the mission. His personal contributions to these two missions have provided scientists with an unprecedented view of our universe, expanding our understanding of the birth, life and death of stars and galaxies. Ron was also the ultimate ham radio operator?in space and on the ground. First licensed when he was 11, Ron kept the amateur radio hobby at the forefront of everything he did?including his operations from space. During his two Space Shuttle flights, he talked to hundreds of hams on the ground, giving new meaning to the phrase the ?ultimate DX-pedition?. He was instrumental in guiding the development of a simple ham radio system that could be used in multiple configurations on the Space Shuttle. As a result, his first flight on STS-35 ushered in the ?frequent flyer? era of the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) payload. He was the first ham in space to operate packet radio. And his flight pioneered the telebridge ground station concept to enable more schools to talk to Shuttle crew members despite time and orbit constraints. In his two shuttle flights, he inspired countless students to seek technical careers and he created memories at the schools and communities that will never be forgotten. Ron?s love for the amateur radio hobby and his love of inspiring students continued well beyond his two Shuttle flights. During the formation of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, Ron was a tremendous resource to the newly forming international team. I know of many instances where Ron?s wisdom and sage advice was instrumental in helping our international team resolve issues when we reached critical technical or political roadblocks. And he was a key volunteer in the development of the ham radio hardware systems that are now on-board ISS. The ARISS team is deeply indebted to WA4SIR for his leadership, technical advice and tremendous vision. Ron worked hand-in-hand with the students at the Naval Academy and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the development of their student satellites. He helped develop Radio Jove?a student educational project to listen to the radio signals emanating from Jupiter. And he spoke at numerous schools over the years, inspiring them to pursue careers in science, math and technology. I feel blessed to have had Ron as a friend, colleague, ham buddy and mentor. He gave so much, cheerfully, to our collective hobby and was always there with the right answer no matter the topic. I will miss him dearly. In an effort to continue Ron?s tireless work to inspire the next generation, the Parise family has set up a scholarship fund in Ron?s honor. The scholarship is for students pursuing technical degrees at Youngtown State University, where Ron received his Bachelors of Science degree. In lieu of flowers, those interested are welcome to send donations to the Dr. Ronald A. Parise Scholarship Fund, Youngstown State University, One University Plaza, Youngstown, Ohio 44555. On behalf of AMSAT and the ARISS International team, I would like to extend our collective condolences to the Parise family and to all Ron?s friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. And to Ron Parise, WA4SIR SK: Our sincerest 73's and 88's?may your exploration spirit live on in us all!! Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT-NA V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs Chairman, ARISS International

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