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N4XEO > SAT 06.06.04 06:16l 70 Lines 3764 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-158.01
Read: GUEST
Subj: President's Letter - May 2004
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ON0AR<7M3TJZ<SP7MGD<ZL2TZE<WB0TAX<N4ZKF<
N4XEO
Sent: 040606/0409Z @:N4XEO.FTP.FL.USA.NOAM #:8231 [Fort Pierce, F] FBB7.00g
From: N4XEO@N4XEO.FTP.FL.USA.NOAM
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 158.01 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. June 6, 2004
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-158.01
I have just received some excellent news this morning from Jim White, WD0E
who has been testing and finally integrating ECHO before flight. After
explaining the details of installing the wiring harness and orientating the
magnetometer Jim comments "As far as I can tell we are on track and looking
good. Echo is going to be a very cool bird." A few minor items have to be
completed as the spacecraft makes it way to the launch site, but I am
confident that it will be 100% by the time it gets to Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile at Dayton the Launch fund with its objective of $110,000 took a
jump upwards to slightly over $93,000 with the assistance of many donors and
one anonymous donor who matched every dollar with another one. Now we should
make the final push to get to the $110,000 - can we do it? What are the
consequences of not meeting our targets? The answers are as follows, Yes we
can do it, and quite easily, if every member of AMSAT and everyone who works
the satellites (including non members) is prepared to meet the target. The
consequences of not doing so are simple. It means that we will be somewhat
delayed in meeting the reserves that are necessary to develop, design,
construct, integrate and test EAGLE. As we have had to borrow from our
reserves in order to launch ECHO, all of our funding for satellite projects
comes from your donations, membership dues run the organization, (ie Office,
Lab, expenses, journal, postage etc so the faster we recover the Launch
expenses the sooner we can work on EAGLE.
I will be attending the AMSAT-UK annual meeting and colloquium at the
University of Surrey, if you can be there it is always a worthwhile event
and this year the IARU satellite meeting will be at Surrey. In addition I
am arranging an AMSAT-International meeting to take place on the Friday
morning, the objective of this meeting is to try and provide a greater
degree of cooperation between the various AMSATs around the world, both in
communications to our members and to provide technical expertise as
necessary. Hopefully this may provide more information to the worldwide
membership and we may eventually be able to schedule a continuous flow of
satellites both LEO and HEO. For details of the AMSAT-UK meeting see their
website (_www.uk.amsat.org_ (http://www.uk.amsat.org) )
Returning to thoughts on Dayton, our AMSAT booth this year was excellent,
probably the best I have seen, thanks to Art Feller W4ART, Barry Baines
WD4ASW, Martha and many others. The AMSAT Forum was very well attended
with over 200 people in attendance, in spite of the rather poor room we
were allocated with even worse access. (Look for a change in this next
year.) Rick Hambly W2GPS, gave an excellent talk on ECHO and brought us
right up to date. Gould Smith WA4SXM reviewed his new Book (on ECHO which
gives details of the development, the specifications and operation. (Book
available from the AMSAT Office), and Frank Bauer brought us all up to date
on the Amateur Radio in ISS (ARISS). Together with the many individuals who
spent time putting up the booth, and taking it down again, as well as those
who operated the booth I would like to thank the speakers for a job very
well done.
Finally, today is Friday May 28 2004, ECHO's launch window starts in 32
days ..... I am very optimistic that all will proceed well let's hope so,
statistics for this launch vehicle and this launch site are excellent, but
remember this is rocket science!.
73
Robin Haighton, VE3FRH
President, AMSAT-NA
[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH for the above information]
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