It was July 1971 that AMSAT submitted the initial proposal to NASA.
Here is some information ANS received from Perry Klein, W3PK, who worked on
the proposal:
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-219.06
AMSAT History: 40th Anniversary of First Synchronous Satellite Proposal
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 219.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
August 7, 2011
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-219.06
July 24 marked the 40th anniversary of AMSAT's original SYNCART proposal
to NASA, in 1971, to fly a Synchronous Amateur Radio Transponder on NASA's
Applications Technology Satellite ATS-G. NASA's response to our proposal
appeared to be favorable, but unfortunately NASA cancelled the ATS-G
mission.
The SYNCART proposal is on AMSAT-DL's web site at for those who would
like to read it. It gives the justification why NASA should fly it for
free, listing a number of amateur experiments and applications, most of
which would still apply today.
The 1971 WARC on Space Technology was held around the same time
(June 7 - July 17, 1971, in Geneva). That's the ITU conference that
established the amateur-satellite service and allocated frequencies to it.
Several satellite manufacturers are now advertising that they host pay-
loads aboard their satellite platforms. Think how it would transform
amateur radio if we could get SYNCART packages aboard one or more of
them!
Read a copy of the original proposal at:
http://www.amsat-dl.org/images/stories/satellites/syncart/sync.pdf
AMSAT-DL article (in German) at:
http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-97/185-syncart
[ANS thanks AMSAT Past President Perry Klein, W3PK for this information]
/EX
--
73 de JoAnne K9JKM
k9...@amsat.org
Editor, AMSAT News Service
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