[Ground-station] Call for discussion: ORI satellite program

[Robert McGwier]

Well Phil, I can tell you there that you are not completely accurate.

At the 30th anniversary of Smallsat in Utah they honored the attendees who
are credited with much of the earliest smallsat work.  2500 people honored
the roll we played in the industry.


Jan, Gordon, Martin, Bob Twiggs and they made a mistake and included me
(Microsat) and you and Tom would have been included had you attended and we
sat at the honorees table.   There were surprised people including my
cofounders at Hawkeye 360 but the industry recognized the role played.

If you want to argue that AMSAT is not on the leading edge of technology
now in space, there you won't get an argument.

Bob


On Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 2:18 PM Phil Karn via Ground-Station
<ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:

> On 4/23/18 10:14, Michelle Thompson wrote:
>
> > Another surprising thing I found is that no one in the US academic scene
> > had any idea of who AMSAT was.
>
> Yes, my experience too. As you know, I couldn't agree more strongly with
> your comments on this topic.
>
> > This was not the case at all for the
> > European and Asian and South American professors/industry people that
> > presented work where amateur radio was incorporated and highlighted.
>
> At least that's encouraging.
>
> > Asking around industry and labs in the US, I didn't get a different
> > result. Most people I talked to were surprised that amateur radio was
> > still around as an experimental force - like, surprised it still existed
> > at all - and were really surprised that we had a satellite service.
>
> EXACTLY!! And AMSAT has become so hidebound that they have absolutely no
> clue that this is the case. Or at least they refuse to admit it. They
> still seem to think that the small satellite world maintains a shrine to
> AMSAT's pioneering role in creating their field. In fact, most have
> barely even heard of AMSAT, if at all.
>
> It's a classic case of resting on your laurels. AMSAT did some truly
> novel and innovative stuff in the 1980s, but that was 30+ years ago!
>
> And now they're flying an unending series of unstabilized satellites
> carrying single-channel analog FM repeaters with link budgets that
> barely work. I can't think of a worse modulation choice for a multiple
> access satellite system.
>
> And to add insult to injury, whenever I propose a digital alternative
> I'm accused of being an elitist out of touch with what the members want.
>
> Next week I'll be at the Cubesat conference in San Luis Obispo. I was
> there two years ago, and among the crowd of university students and
> researchers, entrepreneurs and military people I think I met just one or
> two other AMSAT people. The world has left AMSAT behind.
>
> Phil
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