Re: [amsat-bb] Amateur radio module on commercial Geo Sat?

["Laura Jolley" <jolleybuckaroo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>
>>Why?
>
>Because antenna real estate is already a barrier for
>some to satellite operation, and will only get worse.
>Not only for people who live in neighbourhoods that
>ban outdoor antennas, but also for apartment dwellers.
>
>And, yes, it's a barrier to me. I can afford to put up
>any antenna I want. I just don't have anywhere to put one.
>
>Laura Halliday VE7LDH     "Que les nuages soient notre
>Grid: CN89mg               pied a terre..."
>                                   - Hospital/Shafte
>

Laura.  I sympathize with your plight.  Until recently I lived in a 
community where the community association was on the verge of extincting 
amateur radio (or at least making it very hard).  We took the fight to the 
ballot box and with...incluidng some hanging chads...we pistol whipped the 
old guard, changed the rules and made ham radio a permenant part of this 
subdivision (including 80 foot towers and large dishes).

I have lived and worked the ham sats in college dorms, military housing and 
apartments; all places not conducive to Very Large Arrays.  And in that 
pursuit I found out that the limitation on how big an antenna you put up is 
not "did it fall down last winter" but "did it get caught".  I am not a 
rabid DXer but I do like to hunt the weak signals and to pull (and push) 
what I can into the air.

The concept of a "large bird" that makes every person have a shot at it 
while noble on its face I think has driven us to the place we are today...a 
very large complicated satellite that well at best might be to large and 
complicated for the community that while talented to the max is limited in 
size.  I will never have W5UN's array (although I have flown over it and 
marveled at it) nor a 60 foot dish but I scheme all the time how to put the 
most up I can and work the most I can with that.

That is ham radio...at least to me.  No one guarantee's that I can compete 
with the guy with a 300 foot tower and 3 elements Yagis for 80 but we all 
try with what we have.

In the end I hope we recover AO-40.  If we dont then a long and sober group 
think about what we want the sats to do and what capability we want in the 
sats should be in the AMSAT membership and this board.  My personal pick 
would be that we would have 2 or 3 Oscar 10's (and the launch oppurtunities 
were there had we had a bird) as oppossed to one that someone could hear on 
their J pole.  Yeah that might cut some people out but it also might 
motivate them to get in...it did me.

Robert Oler WB5MZO
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