Re: [amsat-bb] Re: The hard questions..

[ChrisGW6KZZ@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 16/02/2004 05:29:18 GMT  Standard Time, w4sm@keplerian.com 
writes:

In satellite commanding, as in  my "day job" with sick patients, the end is 
always unpleasant and  inevitable.  Our job can never be more than to hold 
off the inevitable  for as long as possible.  When the inevitable happens, 
some will feel  an irresistible need to "blame".  If it makes you feel 
better to lay  blame on someone, the command team, or more specifically, me, 
for not   being able to foresee an instantaneous catastrophic battery 
failure, then I  can do nothing to stop you.  However, my conscience is 
clear, and I  firmly believe that there is no blame to apportion.  I've 
played the  event through many times in my head and I would not have done 
anything  differently UNLESS I had a crystal ball.

...and I used to wonder why so  few folks were interested in being command  
stations.
<<<<

To the folks who seem to be blaming the  command team and possibly Stacey, 
W4SM, I would like to provide an alternative angle on this subject.

Try and place your self as the satellite or  patient wanting someone in the 
command team control or doctor to help them. They  (satellite or patient) 
cannot tell the command team or doctor what is wrong with  them so they have to 
listen to the problems over a period of time.

Now I  would like to tell you a unique coincidence between satellites, 
doctors and  ailing patients. Like AO-40 needs an expert of outstanding qualities I 
needed  the same, I have an extremely rare and nasty cancer which as gone 
secondary pre  Christmas, the only man / pathologist in the world that as studied 
this cancer  is another fellow AMSAT member by the name of Stacey Mills 
(W4SM). Thanks to  Stacey and his documentation of this cancer I am still alive and 
fighting it on  equal terms. I think and feel that you are fortunate to have 
Stacey on the  command team using his professional analysis of his patient 
because he and the  AO-40 team are the only ones that might save your satellite.

Yes,  patients and saellites die, but it is professionals that keep them 
alive longer  than they would have without their intervention.

Come on folks, give the  command team the breathing space they need to try 
and bring back your satellite  like they have done before. Commercial companies 
would have wrote off this  satellite when the first accident happened, yet you 
still continued to enjoy its  facilities?

The support I have receive from many of the AMSAT members and  board members 
over the years has been outstanding and I feel that all of you  should know 
that they done and are doing a sterling job behind the scenes way  beyond the 
call of duty for you all  too.

73's

Chris
GW6KZZ
AMSAT-UK 5592
RSGB  
----
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