[amsat-bb] President's Leter January 2004

[VEFRH@xxxxxxx]

President's Leter January 2004.
January, the start of a New Year and one which I believe will be an  
excellent year for AMSAT.
Echo is due for launch in a window which starts March 31st  and  continues 
through April and into May. Of course we are all looking for the  launch to be 
early, but that does not depend on AMSAT as much as on the Launch  Agency. Our 
ECHO Launch Fund Campaign is progressing well and is now over $51K  almost 
half way towards the goal of $110K which would pay off the costs  incurred in 
launching the satellite and maintain our reserve fund at a level  which would 
enable an early return to working on EAGLE.
AMSAT is auctioning off a beautiful sculpture of AO-40. I thought that  you 
might be interested in looking at it. Please point your browser to our  eBay 
auction at 
_http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3656287556&category=1346_ 
(http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3656287556&category=1346) 
Or, you can go to _http://www.amsat.org_ (http://www.amsat.org)   and click 
on the link on the main page. 
So far the response has been excellent, please take a look and if you would  
like to buy this sculpture, please put in your bid, the donation to AMSAT  
will go into the ECHO launch Campaign Fund.
I would also like to acknowledge a donation of $1000 from AMSAT-YV toward  
the Launch Campaign. Every donation is greatfully received, this is the only way 
 in which we can design build and launch our satellites.
ECHO is now in the final stages of integration and test, it has made its  
first flight , by aircraft, and is now in Colorado where the flight ready L and  
S band units are to be installed and where the Digital Voice Recorder will be  
integrated all within the next week or two. In my next letter I hope to be 
able  to report that ECHO is either on it's way or is packed and ready to go to 
the  launch site.
Many thanks must go to those who have worked so hard and diligently  on the 
ECHO project.
73
Robin Haighton VE3FRH
President AMSAT
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Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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