Hi Gordon,
Why bother with the rants if you feel so pissed?
I also liked the "old" amsat site but also realise things have moved on
since then.
Way back (!) I used to get my keps from the scheds on 20 metres along
with several other folk, we all used to pool our handwritten notes to
get consensus on the probable keps.
Then they were entered manually into a derivative of Tom Clark's
"orbit" program, thanks to Phil ZL1PK, who had access to the work
computer and then disseminated to other interested amateurs.
Sometimes by MAIL!.
Today I fire up SATpc and upload the latest keps, have a look at the
track of the selected sat, look at the mutual visibility and decide if
it's worth going on air...... Tragic really when I think that I used to
listen for AO10 and then try to get onboard using all (really) home brew
gear.
So I guess , is the amsat community about grid chasing, moaning about
the HEO LEO FM APRS ISS DATA ETC satellites or about amateur
experimentation on OUR frequencies using space based technology?
In any event I expect a heap of replies about the direction that some of
the posters to this forum seem to be heading in.(hi Keith!)
In my opinion(!) the majority of folk on the board are far more
interested in chasing grids and complaining about the minutiae of
operating a given sat instead of debating the real issues... like where
or who is going to provide more space junk for us to (hopefully)
experiment with. Notice I did not say grid chase, position finangle
systems, space relay systems, or any thing else.... All I would like to
see is real debate and experimentation on AMSAT (as in real, and
hypothetical future sats, as opposed to the present fixation on the lack
of "x" satellites). As an old curmudgeon these topics exercise my
limited mental capabilities but I would still like to see some
intelligent discussion on at least some of of the crazy "I'm entitled to
this (information) I see far too often on this board.
Get real: Search for it your selves...Google...Join your local club, get
on air and ask, go to a local college and join there science class,
do some research at your local library...etc etc.
I really worry that the "amateur" service is going to vanish mainly due
to "the we are entitled to it" mentality.
We aren't.
Don,
ZL1THO
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