Mode A: necessary? sufficient?

[Laura Halliday <ve7ldh@xxxxxxxxx>]

After posting my last note about Mode A satellites, I started
to wonder how much Mode A access hams have had, historically.

According to Appendix A of the Satellite Experimenter's
Handbook, hams have had more-or-less continuous low-orbit
Mode A capability since the launch of OSCAR 6 on 15 October
1972. That's 25 years, and if Mode A by itself was enough to
popularize satellite operation, shouldn't it have done it by
now?

I submit that the frequency of operation is irrelevant: what
is needed is education and outreach, to dismantle the widely
held belief that satellite operation is the expensive,
incomprehensible pastime of a technological elite.

...laura