AMSAT - 2011 Symposium Banquet Speaker

850 Sligo Ave. Suite 600
Silver Spring, MD 20910
1-888-322-6728

fahnen/San_Jose_banner.jpg 2011 Symposium Banquet Speaker

Launch Pad

Navigator

2011 Symposium Banquet Speaker

Lance Ginner, K6GSJ
2011 AMSAT Symposium Banquet Speaker

AMSAT is privileged to have Lance Ginner, K6GSJ as our banquet speaker. As AMSAT and the amateur radio community celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of OSCAR 1 (placed in orbit on 12 DEC 61), we look forward to Lance’s remarks about how OSCAR 1 was developed and the impact of amateur radio satellites on his professional career. We will hear about the personal, technical, political, and security issues regarding the early OSCARs.

Born in 1938 and first licensed in 1954 at the age of 16, Lance started his amateur career as a novice (KN6GSJ) and quickly upgraded to become K6GSJ, the same general class license he holds today. His initial amateur operating interests focused on 160/40/15 meter operations.

A California native who grew up on an orange ranch in Central California, Lance graduated from California Polytechnic College and College of the Sequoias in 1959. From 1956 to 1959, during the summers, he worked in the Sequoia Kings Canyon Park for the National Park Service installing and maintaining remote backcountry repeaters.

Following his graduation from college in 1959, he moved to Mountain View, CA and joined Lockheed Missiles and Space Division in Sunnyvale, CA. In 1960, he started a 37- year career with the company where he worked on classified satellite systems and payloads in various engineering and management positions. His initial area of involvement with Lockheed was with their Satellite Systems Checkout for “Discoverer” Spacecraft. This was later revealed to be the early “Corona” Imaging Spy Satellites designed to photograph earth sites with the film returned to earth for processing and analysis.

While at Lockheed, Lance became involved with Chuck Towns, K6LFH and others in Project Oscar and helped build OSCAR 1 (Launched on 12 DEC 61) and OSCAR 2 (Launched on 2 JUN 62) and test and integrate those spacecraft to the Discoverer host vehicle. Indeed, OSCAR 1 became one of the first free flying ‘secondary payloads’ to be flown into space. Lance’s involvement with amateur radio spacecraft continued when he worked with Don Norgaard, W6VMH and Ed Hilton, W6VKP in the development of OSCAR 3 which flew on 9 MAR 65 and which was the first amateur radio satellite to feature solar cells (used only to backup the battery) and a transponder, using two meters for both the uplink and downlink. He was the primary integrator of that spacecraft to a still classified launch vehicle. He also worked with the TRW Radio Club to integrate Oscar 4 to a Titan 3C which was launched on 21 Dec 65. This was the first amateur radio satellite to be placed in High Earth Orbit as well as use both two meters and 70 CM to create a 10 KHz wide transponder.

By now a recognized authority on amateur radio spacecraft, he provided technical assistance to students at the University of Melbourne (Australia) as Project OSCAR agreed to help them with their project that became known as Australis-OSCAR 5. The satellite was shipped to Project OSCAR in California in June 1967. Due to loss of their launch opportunity and the need to incorporate changes into the spacecraft (which was done by the newly formed Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.-AMSAT), the AO-5 spacecraft was launched on 23 JAN 70 using a NASA launch vehicle. This was the first OSCAR satellite not to be placed on an Air Force launch vehicle.

Lance’s involvement with the early OSCAR satellites continued with AMSAT, working with Jan King, W3GEY (AMSAT VP-Engineering), Perry Klein, W3PK (AMSAT’s first President), and Dick Daniels, W4PUJ (AMSAT Propulsion). Lance was able to secure a significant amount of parts/hardware that were used in various AMSAT satellites (AO-6 through AO-8) as well as designed and built the spacecraft structure that became OSCAR-8. Indeed, some of the parts that Lance obtained for AMSAT were used in later spacecraft as well.

Lance notes that he married in 1960 and his family ‘grew’ as he was working on the OSCAR satellites. His first son was born one month prior to the launch of OSCAR 2 and his second son was born a year later during development of OSCAR 3. As he notes, “When you are young, you seem to be able to handle a lot of things at once.” Lance’s youngest son is an amateur (KI6OIE) and his son (now 13) is licensed as KI6SLY, creating three generations of amateur radio operators.

Having been retired from Lockheed since 1996, Lance and his wife, Wanda (now married for over 50 years) spend time at their home in Portola Valley, CA. Lance does some consulting on high speed microwave for internet backbone links and just as he worked on remote sites while in college, Lance continues to install mountain top systems today in the San Francisco Bay area for various purposes. He is trustee of the WA6YCZ repeater system that was first installed in 1962. At age 73, he continues to climb towers (with two titanium knees).

As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of OSCAR 1, Bob Allison, WB1GCM of ARRL’s Technical Lab led the refurbishing of the OSCAR 1 prototype that has been sitting at the ARRL Headquarters since the1960s. Lance provided Bob and his team with technical advice to help in this effort. The refurbished OSCAR-1 was on display at the ARRL exhibit area at the 2011 Dayton Hamvention. We look forward to having the OSCAR 1 prototype on display during the AMSAT Symposium as well as hear the CW transmissions (now managed by a PIC controller) in the 145 MHz band. Bob will also be at the Symposium and will give a brief talk on the refurbishment process.

Updated: 27 Sep, 11