[amsat-bb] President's Letter November

[VEFRH@xxxxxxx]

I thought I should report to you on the events of the Annual meeting and 20th 
Space Symposium held in Fort Worth this last weekend. 
Firstly let me congratulate Keith Pugh and the members of the Lockheed-Martin 
Amateur Radio Club for their excellent organization and warm welcome. Their 
tour of the local surplus stores was great, (of course local was by Texas 
standards!) it was enjoyed by all who participated.
The papers in the Space Symposium were very good and I must take this 
opportunity to thank the authors and presenters. Copies of the proceedings 
can be obtained from Martha at the AMSAT Office.
I was delighted to see that we had a group of students present who from a 
school which is a test or trial school in the ARRL "Big Project".

The new 'Presidents Club Core' donors program was introduced with thirty-five 
new members at this level plus new members at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. 

Our Fund raising objective is to  have a large majority of AMSAT-NA members 
at one of the four donor levels, - Gold, Silver, Bronze or Core dependent on 
their own donation capabilities, Tax receipts are available for USA members.

Two of our members have provided a challenge grant effective from November 10 
until December 10. Any donations received up to $1000  and specifically 
marked for "EAGLE EARTH SENSORS" will be doubled by the first Challenger, 
Donations received over $1000 and up to the $2000 mark will be doubled by the 
second Challenger

This is specifically because we can purchase these Earth Sensors at a good 
price right now ($4000 each) normal cost is $20,000 and we need two of them. 
The price will return to the full $20,000 in the new year - will you help by 
making our challengers double your donation?

The ECHO satellite is due for launch in November 2003, and at this time all 
appears to be proceeding according to schedule for the launch. A second 
article on Echo will be appearing in the November/December issue of the AMSAT 
Journal.

An EAGLE technical meeting took place on Sunday November 10 in Fort Worth, 
many design items were discussed and co-ordination  between Eagle and 
AMSAT-DL's P3E was a major topic. 
It seems that there are several items in common between these two satellites 
(such as the IHU), and although the main mission objectives for each of the 
birds may be somewhat different, we anticipate a significant amount of 
co-operation between the design teams of the two satellites.

AMSAT-NA's objective being to complete our design by the end of 2003 for 
launch in 2006, while one of AMSAT-DL's objectives is to  launch in 2004, the 
two satellites are to be launched into different orbits but both are 
anticipated to be variations of the Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit.

The Guest Speaker at the Saturday evening banquet was Chris Imlay, General 
Council for ARRL.  Chris talked about the problems of frequency preservation 
between 1.0 and 10.0 GHz and noted that  all of these frequencies are under 
attack from commercial interests. However he concluded that it is primarily 
due to Amateur Satellite usage that some of these frequencies are being 
preserved by the FCC (and other  national bodies) for Amateur applications. 
Without the use by AMSATs and their members, S,C, and X bands would probably 
no longer exist for amateur use.
In an earlier meeting with AMSAT Officers and Board Members, Chris Imlay and 
Walter Ireland (ARRL Technical) discussed frequency preservation, Education at
 the University Level, and the need for maintaining a close working 
relationship between AMSAT and the League.

Finally I would like to thank the following retiring Officers of AMSAT-NA,
Keith Baker KB1SF, who stepped in as Executive Vice-President for 2002 and 
has been a wonderful support and help during the Year. Keith remains on the 
Board of Directors and is the Immediate Past President.

Keith Pugh W5IU, retiring from Vice President of Operations after seven years 
of work, many thanks Keith for a great effort. Keith will continue to 
co-ordinate the AMSAT-NA nets.

Steve Bible N7HPR, retiring from VP Educational Liaison (since 1998), thank 
you Steve for developing this Vice Presidency and getting the "Ball Rolling"

On your behalf I would like to welcome Rick Hambly W2GPS as Executive Vice 
President, Stacey Mills W4SM as VP Operations, JoAnne Maaenpa WB9JEJ as 
Journal Editor

73
Robin Haighton
President AMSAT
----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org