Satgen268  Altruistic Radio Amateurs   by GM4IHJ              14 May 94
BID of this msg is SGEN268  Please use this BID if you retransmit this msg

You do something which is of no great help to yourself, but which helps me
greatly. Typical examples are the two dozen or so Oscar and Radio Sport
satellites, which have allowed thousands of radio amateurs to enjoy the
pleasure of satellite communications. Altruistic behaviour of this kind
has been the corner stone of Amsat achievement to date. But times are
changing .
Many recent satellite launches appear to have very little to do with
amateur radio, except that they use amateur radio frequency bands. These
satellites are built by colleges and universities, apparently with little
regard for the fact that they simple duplicate what college X did last
year , and what very few people are using this year. There are of course
exceptions. The University of Surrey store and forward digital birds have
totally revolutionised international dissemination of amateur radio packet
traffic. The original Uosats were crammed with excellent educational
facilities, and Dove is very close to what the perfect education sat
should be. But most of the rest of these college birds , either in space
or going there shortly, have nothing of any real value to ordinary radio
amateurs.
A typical example has been announced recently. It will , according to one
of its design team " Give project design and building experience to the
College team ". It will carry Earth picture equipment and Navigation
reporting facilities - items which already exist in other satellites , and
which appear to attract only a very small number of users. There is no
mention of provision of any facilities useful to the ordinary radio
amateur .
This process whereby an original success generates a generally unwanted
stream of unemployed clones, is clearly not a useful way to utilize
amateur radio facilities. I suggest that a good topic for Amsat University
of Surrey 94 Colloquium discussion, should be a proposal that :- Any
satellite using amateur radio frequencies , must in future deploy at least
one mode of amateur voice/cw communications via a transponder, plus at
least one amateur band beacon. These to be available on all orbits.
By all means let College teams build satellites if they wish to. But these
satellites should not use amateur radio frequencies unless they conform to
the above provision of services for radio amateurs.
Amsat must grasp this nettle . We are being taken for a ride, which will
only be welcomed , if the college builders help us, as well as helping
themselves.
I would further recommend that Amsat publish a hit list of priority
facilities which radio amateurs want in sats. Each different sat could
carry a different mode transponder and a different beacon frequency/band.
Anyone listening around the amateur satellite bands should clearly see the
problem. We have very few mode A, K , J and S band transponder facilities.
We have a very useful group of 9.6kB store and forward birds and just one
superb education sat ( Dove). The rest of the spacebourne menagerie
consists of abandonned and neglected college specials. If this situation
continues, we can only blame ourselves.  73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN