<div dir="ltr"><h1 style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;margin:0px 0px 0.5em;line-height:1.2;letter-spacing:-0.02em;font-size:64px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif">AMSAT Director Election 2019: It's Time For Change!</h1><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px"><i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Please pass this on to other AMSAT members, until September 15, 2019.</i> The canonical version of this document is at <a href="https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">http://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Election2019.html</a></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">Hi, I'm <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Perens" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Bruce Perens K6BP</a>. You might have seen me as <a href="https://perens.com/2019/02/13/bruce-perens-featured-in-new-ibm-ad/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">the guy in the IBM commercial</a> who says <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Let's Champion Data Rights as Human Rights!</i> I am one of the founders of the Open Source movement in software, and an innovator and evangelist for advanced Amateur Radio technology like <a href="https://freedv.org/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">FreeDV,</a> <a href="http://www.rowetel.com/?page_id=452" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Codec2</a>, and <a href="https://perens.com/2019/05/23/ht-of-the-future-new-design" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">HT of the Future</a>. I founded <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">No-Code International</i> to end code testing, and still work intensively on Amateur Radio policy today. I'm an AMSAT member and AMSAT President's Club donor.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">AMSAT is absolutely vital to continue the role of Amateur Radio in space, one especially important when we're seeing the start of a challenge to our 2-meter band allocation internationally. But there are problems with AMSAT: It's now 15 years since AO-40 went SK. We've not done anything <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">nearly</i> so ambitious again in North America, while Europe and Africa now have a <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">geostationary</i> 10 GHz transponder for Amateur use. AMSAT's current management is hogtied and overly fearful of ITAR while the Open Source community, provider of the cryptography in every web browser back when that was under ITAR, has had that problem <a href="https://openresearch.institute/itar-and-ear-strategy/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">solved</a> for decades. And AMSAT can't support itself with the current member dues.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">I'd like you to consider these candidates for the AMSAT board:</p><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Howie DeFelice AB2S</a> is Senior Principal Engineer with <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Intelsat General Communications,</i> where he designs solutions for government. Howie was also one of the creators of <a href="http://www.50dollarsat.info/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">50dollarsat</a>, the first PocketQube satellite, which validated the usefulness of that kind of 1/8U microsatellite.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Jeff Johns WE4B</a> is a two-decade satellite operator, involved in elmering young people, and frequently made satellite contacts from his patrol car while he served the public as a deputy sheriff.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://n4qx.blogspot.com/2019/07/candidate-statement-for-amsat-na-board.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Brennan Price N4QX</a> was CTO of ARRL, and thus our leader on many technical and regulatory issues. He is now Director of Regulatory Affairs in the Washington, DC, office of Inmarsat.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK</a> (and VA7EWK) is an AMSAT life member, has been an AMSAT area coordinator, ambassador, board alternate, and other positions in his two decades of service to the organization.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Michelle Thompson W5NYV</a> is an AMSAT life member. She holds an MSEE in Information Theory and is a specialist in error correction, signal processing, and communications theory. She formerly worked for Qualcomm and is now a Distinguished Visitor for IEEE. Michelle is second violin in an orchestra, developer of an AI pipe organ called <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Organ Donor</i>, and is recipient of the 2018 <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Don Hilliard award</i> from Microwave Update, for service to and innovations in amateur satellite communications. Somehow she finds time to do that <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">and</i> be a mom of three beautiful children.</li></ul><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">Four slots for directors are open this year, and I've recommended five people. Please select your favorite four. You can read in the candidate's statements why there is need for a new board. Most unsettling to me is that there are <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">conduct issues</i> with the current board which make AMSAT no fun to work for, and that's fatal for a volunteer organization. About 30 of the smartest people I know in Amateur Radio, the names behind some of the biggest projects AMSAT ever did, now either refuse to work for AMSAT or have severely curtailed their activities. Active AMSAT members will be aware of the missing faces. <a href="http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Patrick</a> and <a href="https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Jeff</a> both go into behavior issues of the board in their candidate's statements. <a href="https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/05/candidate-statement-amsat-na-board-of.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Michelle</a> had to move the Phase 4 Ground Station project out of AMSAT due to the ITAR policy and board conduct issues. She <a href="https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">discusses in detail</a> how to solve the problem. <a href="https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Howie</a> also believes AMSAT's ITAR policy must change.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">AMSAT has <i style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">severely limited</i> the candidate's statements on the ballot this year. The ballot sent to you will only include a tiny 350 words from each candidate, allowing no negative statements about anyone, no URLs, and only one phone number and email. So, it's important to read the candidate's unrestricted statements on the web.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">Thanks for listening. You can reach me by email to bruce at perens dot com. Please remember to vote as soon as you receive your AMSAT ballot. Ballots will be counted on September 15. Again, my recommendations are:</p><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://perens.com/static/AMSAT/Candidate%20Statement%20HD.pdf" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Howie DeFelice AB2S</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://we4bravo.blogspot.com/2019/06/jeff-johns-we4b-candidate-statement.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Jeff Johns WE4B</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://n4qx.blogspot.com/2019/07/candidate-statement-for-amsat-na-board.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Brennan Price N4QX</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="http://amsat.wd9ewk.net/" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK (also VA7EWK)</a></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto"><a href="https://w5nyv.blogspot.com/2019/06/campaign-statement-21-june-2019-amsat.html" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto">Michelle Thompson W5NYV</a></li></ul><a href="https://perens.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/07/BrucePerensInIBMCommercial.jpg" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px"><img class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-1184" src="https://perens.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/07/BrucePerensInIBMCommercial.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="575" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-kerning: auto;"></a><br style="box-sizing:border-box;font-kerning:auto;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Helvetica Neue","Myriad Pro","Segoe UI",Myriad,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande","DejaVu Sans Condensed","Liberation Sans","Nimbus Sans L",Tahoma,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:21.3333px">Bruce Perens K6BP</span>  <br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Bruce Perens - Partner, <a href="http://OSS.Capital" target="_blank">OSS.Capital</a>.</div></div></div></div></div>