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To : SATDIG@WW
Today's Topics:
1. Re: What is the function of a Board of Directors? (W3AB/GEO)
2. Re: ISS and AMSAT? (Fernando Ramirez)
3. Working together (Burns Fisher)
4. Re: BOD meetings (W3AB/GEO)
5. Confidentiality vs. Transparency (Bruce Perens)
6. Re: Working together (Bruce Perens)
7. Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and transmitting
(Phil Karn)
8. Re: Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and transmitting
(Pedro Converso)
9. Re: Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and transmitting
(GEO Badger)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 13:58:24 -0700
From: W3AB/GEO <w3ab@?????.???>
To: Peter <pgprendergast@?????.???>
Cc: amsat-bb@?????.???
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] What is the function of a Board of Directors?
Message-ID: <1ad133c9-11b0-4db9-a6dc-b227b5720ff2@?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Exactly Peter.
Amsat is a 501(c)(3) incorporated club. There is no management team in
place. No Executive Director, no Director of Development, no Program
Offices, etc.
When Amsat was formed, it was a group of bright techies from the aerospace
industry who wanted to put up a ham satellite. They were well connected and
OSCAR 1 was successfully launched. This has continued for quite a while and
Amsat has trundled along quite nicely.
Until the satellite world became heavily commercialized and diversified, and
the costs associated with building, launching and maintaining satellites
skyrocketed. Intentional word.
Amsat was outgrown. The org never grew out of its original model. It became
stagnant.
Now the GM is seeing that there are no real USA ham launches and are
wondering why. Asking questions. No real forthcoming replies. The GM is
asking for some changes.
Humans typically have a difficult time with change. Especially as we age.
Some of the entrenched have no idea what to do. They hunker down, argue,
grow combative and develop a "coat of arms". Arms across the chest with
fingers pointing in opposite directions.
I also have quite a bit of experience with 501(c)(3) orgs. Founding some,
maintaining some, being on the BOD of some and have a individual I am very
close to who got their MBA in non-profit management. I get to see some
pretty nasty stuff going on without being directly involved.
Amsat needs to change. NOW!
I sent a list of ideas for BOD improvement to a sitting member. These ideas
will modernize the BOD and as a result Amsat. Time to move from 1969 to
2021, and beyond.
Creative responses are welcome. Flaming and/or vitriol will be sent to IT,
the sender will blocked & blacklisted.
?___
Sent from my two way wrist watch
73 de W3AB/GEO?
On Jul 16, 2020, 13:17, at 13:17, Peter via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
wrote:
>I've noted some peculiar posts regarding the responsibilities of a
>Board of Directors lately.
>I've been on many boards in my career most of very large organizations
>and have not seen beforeverbiage as posted here.
>A board of directors is responsible for setting the mission, vision and
>values of an organization.The board approves a budget set by senior
>leadersThe board sets the vision for the next year or multiple years
>and the priorities of the organization.The board holds senior
>leadership accountable for executing all of the above.
>What a board does NOT do is engage in operational activity of ANY
>kind.? That sort of behavioris incredibly disruptive and damaging to
>the senior leaders responsible for execution of all the above.
>When you vote, consider these foundational principles.? Choose
>candidates not based on theirtechnical backgrounds as that talent isn't
>necessarily helpful at the board level, but instead ona candidate who
>can inspire, collaborate and can serve as a leader, not necessarily an
>operationalexpert.??
>In fact, candidates who promote technical expertise may find it
>irresistible to intervene in day to dayoperations causing confusion
>among the senior leadership.
>Their are clearly some very talented candidates with significant
>technical expertise.? These individualsare a treasure to the
>organization and must have their energies nurtured in a way to
>productively movethe organization forward.
>I hope you all will ponder this as you prepare to vote.
>PeterW2PP
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
>Opinions expressed
>are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views
>of AMSAT-NA.
>Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
>program!
>Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:10:58 -0700
From: Fernando Ramirez <framirezferrer@?????.???>
To: Dave Taylor <ariss.w8aas@?????.???>
Cc: Frank Bauer <ka3hdo@?????.???>, AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ISS and AMSAT?
Message-ID:
<CAGHXx8grY5mseGnTeem5n8XCm85u3q4h1u+fMoaTaOXR-HiHfA@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Please forgive my ignorance but I'm confused about this AMSAT-ARISS USA
deal is going to work. Wouldn't be the rational thing for ARISS USA to
appoint the representatives to ARISS (at least the US representative)? What
if an AMSAT BoD decides to appoint someone who is not a part of ARISS USA?
KF7R
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 1:49 PM Dave Taylor <ariss.w8aas@?????.???> wrote:
> Assume what you like, Bruce. But for clarification of Bob McGwier?s
> statement about AMSAT?s reputation, you?ll have to ask Bob what he meant.
> Neither Frank nor anyone else can speak for him.
>
> As for ARISS, the international working group is and always has been an
> independent activity, co-sponsored by AMSAT, ARRL, and many other ham
> organizations around the world. The ARISS volunteer team in the US has not
> walked away from anyone, merely formed a legal entity to allow actions it
> could not undertake otherwise.
>
> Dave, W8AAS
>
> > On Jul 16, 2020, at 2:09 PM, Bruce Perens via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
> >
> > Until I am told otherwise, I am going to assume that in addition to the
> > Phase 4 project having walked off of AMSAT and formed ORI, ARISS has now
> > walked off and is also functioning as an independent entity.
> >
> > Bob MgGwier N4HY is someone we can trust, and an eminent space scientist
> of
> > long duration and impeccable credentials, but I would much rather hear
> > first-hand from Frank Bauer. I don't know him.
> >
> > ORI now has a lot more missions than just Phase 4. It would be nice for
> all
> > of these former-AMSAT-projects to return to AMSAT.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Bruce
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions expressed
> > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> program!
> > Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>
>
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 17:28:20 -0400
From: Burns Fisher <wb1fj-bb@??????.??>
To: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Working together
Message-ID:
<CABX7KxXvgTawmoS9zqsDXsjS08NEST9sSwp3AeMH805WKuUN1Q@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Hi,
I am Burns Fisher, WB1FJ. I'm a retired software engineer who is currently
writing software as a volunteer for AMSAT. In my career, I have written
software that is not open source, as well as that which is--I don't have an
ax to grind in that fight. I am not going to endorse or recommend against
any candidates in this mail, but I do want to bring to light a few items
that I don't believe have been discussed and to make a suggestion.
One thing that I have not heard in the discussion is that "not fully
open-source" is different from "proprietary". I am NOT and never have been
an AMSAT director nor a policy decision maker in any form, but in my 10
years writing software for AMSAT satellites, I have had to deal with ITAR. I
have been told to talk about things with non-US persons only after they are
published, for example. However, I have NEVER seen or been told that it
was the intent of anyone in AMSAT to keep any information private forever.
We are encouraged to publish work that we are doing in the AMSAT Journal
and to talk and write about it for the Symposium (and I have done so). In
addition, if you look in the back of your AMSAT Symposium Proceedings for
the past 8 or more years, you will find what we called "The ITAR Dump".
That is publishing specs and most everything that we could about the
satellites we were working on to be openly available in order to take it
out from under ITAR.
Another point worth making, and that I have personally seen, is that
sometimes secrets are necessary. For example: We might be asked by a
university partner not to talk about some part of the experiment they want
to fly with us, so we do not talk; otherwise we could not fly the
experiment (and lose the launch opportunity this experiment afforded us).
We are told by our launch provider not to talk about dates and other things
regarding the launch, so we don't (or we don't get the launch--or perhaps
we find it harder to get the next one). Some contacts that we make may be
willing to do really good things for AMSAT, but not if we talk about it
before they are ready for us to do so.
No one I know (and people I know include all the directors, the officers,
and all but one of the candidates) would be unhappy to reduce secretiveness
and especially to avoid ITAR, but nearly every choice we make is a tradeoff
that requires discussion.
Perhaps AMSAT is working under internal procedures relating to ITAR that
are outdated, especially given the law change and the many resulting rule
changes in the past 5 years. If there is a path to fewer onerous
restrictions, that would be great. Working together might lead us to that
path.
What we CAN NOT do is to ignore our previously-undertaken obligations.
NDAs are still in force. Some previous work may still fall under
ITAR/EAR. ITAR penalties are sufficiently draconian that we must step
carefully. Slow and careful is frustrating. However, no matter who gets
elected, infighing only slows things down.
I beg the newer directors to back off a bit. I beg the longer term
directors to look for a way to work with the newer ones. And above all, I
beg ALL of you to calm down, look within yourselves for mistakes you have
made in dealing with each other (surely no one is perfect), take ownership
for your mistakes, apologize for what you need to and vow TO YOURSELF AND
EACH OTHER that you will do better.
That is a difficult ask, I understand. Trust has been badly battered.
Perhaps you need a professional mediator (and, while no expert myself, I
know who to ask for recommendations if you need them). What I *know* is
that fighting will not help. Working together does not mean agreeing on
everything. It only means finding SOME things you agree on (satellites in
HEO?) and agreeing to listen to each other. Maybe calling each other by
your first names is a start?
I look forward to more light and less heat.
Thanks for reading...
73,
Burns WB1FJ
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:30:20 -0700
From: W3AB/GEO <w3ab@?????.???>
To: Michelle Thompson <mountain.michelle@?????.???>
Cc: Robert Bankston <ke4al@?????.???>, "amsat-bb@?????.????
<amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] BOD meetings
Message-ID: <9732ab1b-dab2-40d8-9f97-c50879ce8b83@?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
IMHO, remote BOD meetings are quite easy to hold now with advent of Zoom.
Oops, they've been easy to hold for years with an ancient technology
platform called Skype. Who knew?
501(c)(3) rules call for a minimum of 1 BOD meeting/year. An org that
ignores that rule can lose their non-profit status. A good non-profit, and
corporate, practice is to have 12/year.
Time to move into the 21ST century
?___
Sent from my two way wrist watch
73 de W3AB/GEO?
On Jul 16, 2020, 14:18, at 14:18, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
>That is incorrect.
>
>Ignored email is simply not a substitute for a board meeting.
>
>Board meetings must either be called by three board members, or called
>by
>the President. Two of us have patiently repeated the call for regular
>meetings. These requests have been ignored.
>
>Neither of the two Presidents we've had this year have called regular
>board
>meetings. Clayton called one in March, and like I said, it went well,
>and
>was supposed to be the start of a regular schedule. Nothing heard since
>then, which is a disappointment.
>
>This problem started in September 2019. I think Patrick and I have been
>very, very patient with this.
>
>At the 2019 annual meeting, Joe Spier, Mark Hammond, and Jerry Buxton
>spun
>quite the tale of how AMSAT board meetings were unproductive,
>unnecessary.
>Silly even. Everyone went along with this except Patrick and myself.
>
>Not having meetings is bad corporate practice. Others have pointed this
>out. There is no good reason not to have them. We'd be in such better
>shape
>with regular meetings and good decisions.
>
>It isn't too much to ask of the membership to please consider replacing
>people that block board meetings and refuse to meet, either because
>they
>are not capable of coming up with efficient agendas, or because they
>don't
>want to hear from anyone outside of their clique.
>
>-Michelle W5NYV
>
>
>
>
>On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 1:39 PM Robert Bankston via AMSAT-BB <
>amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
>
>> Wow, I can't believe you hijacked this thread to continue to spread
>> misinformation and play the victim card.
>>
>> No one in AMSAT is stopping you from having Board Meetings, other
>than
>> yourselves.
>>
>> Part of being a leader is to build consensus and motivate those you
>work
>> with or under you. When differing positions are present, you work
>towards
>> a compromised solution to allow the organization to move forward and
>grow.
>>
>> Did either you or Patrick reach across the aisle and ask one of the
>other
>> 5 Directors to join you in a call for a meeting? As you said, you
>needed 3
>> Directors to call a meeting. You already had 2. I really find it
>hard that
>> no one would join you, especiall when at least two of the votes you
>> disclosed were split 4-3.
>>
>> Does the meeting have to be conducted by teleconference? The Board
>has a
>> mailing list, so a meeting could be conducted via email. That same
>mailing
>> list could be used to discuss issues and develop a plan of action
>that
>> could then be acted upon.
>>
>> Does the Board have to hold a monthly meeting? If not, how often? I
>> notice that ORI, per their website, conducted 3 meetings in 2018 and
>only
>> one in 2019. Is their work that much less important than AMSAT that
>the
>> Board needs to meet so infrequently?
>>
>> On that same website,
>> https://openresearch.institute/executive-board-meeting-minutes/ I
>see
>> that ORI conducts its board meetings via email. Would that not
>answer the
>> question above.
>>
>> AMSAT Directors are elected by the members, and the Directors elect
>the
>> Officers (thank you for your vote, by the way). You also have the
>right as
>> a Director to call for the dismissal of an officer when they do not
>perform
>> to standard. To my knowledge you and Patrick have made not such call,
>yet
>> you continually continue to berate AMSAT Officers and fellow
>Directors in
>> public and in private.
>>
>> Let's be honest. The only way you can get what you want is to take
>control
>> of AMSAT. That's not leadership.
>>
>> Enough of the political spin and outright lies. Let us do our job
>and you
>> and Patrick do your.
>>
>> Robert, KE4AL
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, July 16, 2020, 12:51:54 PM CDT, Michelle Thompson via
>> AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
>>
>>
>> It is not fair to say "you guys are AMSAT" (only guys?), when so many
>of us
>> for so long have proposed things to officers that are ignored or
>rejected
>> without cause.
>>
>> Asking the customer to fix the problem means that current leadership
>> doesn't know what to do.
>>
>> Some of us have been prevented from even having access to
>communications.
>>
>> Patrick Stoddard and I were denied access to the BoD email archive
>for many
>> months.
>>
>> With no board meetings, by definition there is no direction or
>oversight
>> for IT. It's run completely by officers without any input from anyone
>> elected by the membership.
>>
>> Joe KM1P is a hero. He has served and produced excellent work, under
>trying
>> conditions, for a long time. He does this out of generosity and does
>this
>> with care.
>>
>> So, yes, we should speak up for what we want and yes, "we are AMSAT".
>>
>> Please speak up. But also vote for a functional board that will help
>> volunteers like Joe have an easier job, support what needs to be done
>to
>> modernize AMSAT-BB, and will have his back.
>>
>> Volunteers like Joe will get that from Patrick and myself. We need
>more on
>> the board to make this happen.
>>
>> Please consider voting for Bob McGwier, Howie DeFelice, and Jeff
>Johns.
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> -Michelle W5NYV
>> _______________________________________________
>> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
>Opinions
>> expressed
>> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views
>of
>> AMSAT-NA.
>> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
>program!
>> Subscription settings:
>https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>>
>_______________________________________________
>Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
>Opinions expressed
>are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views
>of AMSAT-NA.
>Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
>program!
>Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:48:14 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@??????.???>
To: Michelle Thompson <mountain.michelle@?????.???>
Cc: Robert Bankston <ke4al@?????.???>, "amsat-bb@?????.????
<amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Confidentiality vs. Transparency
Message-ID:
<CAK2MWOswijwkv1YuXa8q_A_Xv9B_qZ6Nrz8L=ksqs3LPzSY4bQ@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
What Michelle reports reminds me very much of the recent Confidentiality
versus Transparency debacle at ARRL. They censured one of their own board
members just as Patrick and Michelle have been censured. And it was all
about keeping things away from the membership, which of course brought the
membership up in arms, and it originated in bad advice from corporate
attorneys.
The stars aligned for the confidentiality bloc to lose its majority in one
election. I don't believe that anyone is saying we should go back to the
old ARRL.
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 15:09:16 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@??????.???>
To: Burns Fisher <wb1fj-bb@??????.??>
Cc: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Working together
Message-ID:
<CAK2MWOtiUuqugvTrkUOOL4QXssGBqx=m_b_7vPi1NNqY14jD1w@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Just to make sure we're under the right assumptions: NDAs about launch
schedules aren't really going to get us in trouble about ITAR, you can give
your international team a ready-by date and leave it at that. Information
about ground support equipment potentially under ITAR, and sometimes that
will have to be compartmentalised. You will notice, however, that SpaceX
makes their user guide public . This may indeed be because of ITAR. And
these days most of what we launch comes out of a p-pod, which is a public
standard and should not be subject to NDA.
It would really help to know what the partnerships are. We sort of wave our
hands about them without discussing what they are, whether they are still
useful, and what alternatives we might have to them. For example, at this
late date it might be better to replace a partnership with AHA with an
entirely open gate-array design which would not require NDAs. We have Open
Cores and many similar open projects to partner with in that case.
And may I suggest that monthly board meetings might be a good way for the
directors to start working together?
Thanks
Bruce
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020, 2:52 PM Burns Fisher via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am Burns Fisher, WB1FJ. I'm a retired software engineer who is currently
> writing software as a volunteer for AMSAT. In my career, I have written
> software that is not open source, as well as that which is--I don't have an
> ax to grind in that fight. I am not going to endorse or recommend against
> any candidates in this mail, but I do want to bring to light a few items
> that I don't believe have been discussed and to make a suggestion.
>
> One thing that I have not heard in the discussion is that "not fully
> open-source" is different from "proprietary". I am NOT and never have been
> an AMSAT director nor a policy decision maker in any form, but in my 10
> years writing software for AMSAT satellites, I have had to deal with
> ITAR. I
> have been told to talk about things with non-US persons only after they are
> published, for example. However, I have NEVER seen or been told that it
> was the intent of anyone in AMSAT to keep any information private forever.
> We are encouraged to publish work that we are doing in the AMSAT Journal
> and to talk and write about it for the Symposium (and I have done so). In
> addition, if you look in the back of your AMSAT Symposium Proceedings for
> the past 8 or more years, you will find what we called "The ITAR Dump".
> That is publishing specs and most everything that we could about the
> satellites we were working on to be openly available in order to take it
> out from under ITAR.
>
> Another point worth making, and that I have personally seen, is that
> sometimes secrets are necessary. For example: We might be asked by a
> university partner not to talk about some part of the experiment they want
> to fly with us, so we do not talk; otherwise we could not fly the
> experiment (and lose the launch opportunity this experiment afforded us).
> We are told by our launch provider not to talk about dates and other things
> regarding the launch, so we don't (or we don't get the launch--or perhaps
> we find it harder to get the next one). Some contacts that we make may be
> willing to do really good things for AMSAT, but not if we talk about it
> before they are ready for us to do so.
>
> No one I know (and people I know include all the directors, the officers,
> and all but one of the candidates) would be unhappy to reduce secretiveness
> and especially to avoid ITAR, but nearly every choice we make is a tradeoff
> that requires discussion.
>
> Perhaps AMSAT is working under internal procedures relating to ITAR that
> are outdated, especially given the law change and the many resulting rule
> changes in the past 5 years. If there is a path to fewer onerous
> restrictions, that would be great. Working together might lead us to that
> path.
>
> What we CAN NOT do is to ignore our previously-undertaken obligations.
> NDAs are still in force. Some previous work may still fall under
> ITAR/EAR. ITAR penalties are sufficiently draconian that we must step
> carefully. Slow and careful is frustrating. However, no matter who gets
> elected, infighing only slows things down.
>
> I beg the newer directors to back off a bit. I beg the longer term
> directors to look for a way to work with the newer ones. And above all, I
> beg ALL of you to calm down, look within yourselves for mistakes you have
> made in dealing with each other (surely no one is perfect), take ownership
> for your mistakes, apologize for what you need to and vow TO YOURSELF AND
> EACH OTHER that you will do better.
>
> That is a difficult ask, I understand. Trust has been badly battered.
> Perhaps you need a professional mediator (and, while no expert myself, I
> know who to ask for recommendations if you need them). What I *know* is
> that fighting will not help. Working together does not mean agreeing on
> everything. It only means finding SOME things you agree on (satellites in
> HEO?) and agreeing to listen to each other. Maybe calling each other by
> your first names is a start?
>
> I look forward to more light and less heat.
>
> Thanks for reading...
>
> 73,
>
> Burns WB1FJ
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 15:44:02 -0700
From: Phil Karn <karn@????.???>
To: amsat-bb@?????.???
Subject: [amsat-bb] Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and
transmitting
Message-ID: <6da1d733-4e93-c830-9a53-ec7b9edcb965@????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Over the past year, Randy, KQ6RS and I have mentored the MCHSARC in
designing and constructing a simple marine buoy that was deployed from
the R/V Sally Ride this morning about 700 km off the coast of southern
California. It is up and transmitting WSPR on 20m using the callsign
KQ6RS, and is being received all over the US and into Canada and Brazil.
The electronics is the 20m WSPR version of the WB8ELK "pico tracker"
that has been flown quite a few times (including by us) on long duration
balloons. We removed the solar panels and substituted 21 ordinary
alkaline D-cells wired to supply 4.5V. We estimate battery lifetime will
be 6 months.
The basic design was inspired by Bob, WB4APR, at the US Naval Academy.
Physically, the buoy is just a 5' section of 4" PVC pipe, ballasted at
one end to float vertically in the water. The top is closed by a sewer
pressure test plug I found at Home Depot; it has a bolt in the center
that acts as a convenient feed-through and mounting point for the
antenna, a stainless steel CB whip with a matching network designed,
tested and carefully tuned by Randy. We use the sea as a counterpoise,
but to avoid direct metal/seawater contact we lined the inside of the
pipe with copper tape to form a capacitive connection. We probably spent
too much time on this; Randy even modeled the electrical fields in the
seawater with a professional RF analysis package.
In our first flotation tests in Randy's swimming pool we found that the
ballasted pipe, by itself, was remarkably stable in pitch, roll, sway
and surge but oscillated a lot in heave (up and down). To damp this
Randy added cross arms at the water line to add drag in the vertical
direction. (It wasn't our intent to mimic a religious icon but that's
where the physics went.) Tuning the antenna required sea water, so Randy
did it from a dock on Mission Bay here in San Diego.
We tried to make this thing as rugged as we could. (My favorite saying
to the students was that the sea *always* wins in the end, but we can
delay that long enough to be useful.) Everything inside is held in place
with epoxy or polyurethane foam. Randy reinforced the sewer plug with a
PVC end cap with a hole cut in the center. Although the antenna is
stainless steel, Randy covered it with a type of heatshrink with a
waterproofing compound inside. Activation was by removing an external
magnet placed over a parallel pair of normally closed magnetic reed
switches. (Using two instead of one was my idea.) We even argued how to
guard against the crew forgetting to remove the magnet before
deployment. Randy found some adhesive that would dissolve and let the
magnet fall away; I suggested a big REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag and a float
that would pull it away if it was tossed into the water.
That left the problem of deployment. We couldn't just drop it close to
the coast because it would quickly wash back up on the beach. We needed
a boat ride. We were originally going on a NOAA vessel in April, but
that trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. Randy secured a trip on the
R/V Sally Ride, a research ship operated by Scripps Institute of
Oceanography and home ported here in San Diego.
This map shows the "lawn mowing" pattern they follow to measure and
sample sea water off southern California. We were deployed early this
morning at the most southwestern point shown here:
https://calcofi.org/cruises/2020-cruises/calcofi-2007sr.html
First report was at 12:52:30 UTC this morning from 29 51.25N, 123
37.50W. That's grid square CL89eu, which I figure is pretty rare for
grid hunters. The current carried us east into CL89fu at 20:32:30. This
is a little surprising since we thought the currents in that area are to
the southwest. But that's why you do science!
You can track us on aprs.fi here:
https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FKQ6RS-1&others=1&timerange=604800&tail=3600
We also show up on wsprnet.org
http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map
Because of the funky way Bill encodes position in WSPR (which was never
designed for this), you'll see some weird-looking callsigns (like
0W7NFU) in addition to KQ6RS.
This was our first buoy, just to get our feet wet (ha ha). Now to think
about what we want to put in our *second* buoy. Two-way links, satellite
tracking, sensors, the works. But remember the "second system" effect...
73, Phil
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 20:13:08 -0300
From: Pedro Converso <pconver@?????.???>
To: Phil Karn <karn@????.???>
Cc: amsat-bb@?????.???
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and
transmitting
Message-ID:
<CANTZqK=7XnQk7kxz4iuGkANNznRPHX+e4xw9miSj73Q3jWjfMQ@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Congrats Randy ! and thanks Phil for information.
Wishing good luck ! Buoy already copied by 148 stations !!
Can see stations copying and trajectory using:
http://lu7aa.org.ar/buoy.asp?other=KQ6RS (slow but lots of info)
73, lu7abf, Pedro
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 23:20:02 +0000 (UTC)
From: GEO Badger <w3ab@?????.???>
To: amsat-bb@?????.???? Phil Karn <karn@????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Mount Carmel HS ARC marine buoy deployed and
transmitting
Message-ID: <2142765169.2935342.1594941602469@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Very cool Phil.. Thanks for sharing that.
As an ex-employee of MBARI, I can tell you that we threw a lot of stuff in
the water that took more development time and cost than yours with similar
results.
---?
Ciao baby, catch you on the flip side??
73 de W3AB/GEO ???
http://www.w3ab.org
You can say "over", you can say "out", you just can't say "over and out".
On Thursday, July 16, 2020, 03:48:27 PM PDT, Phil Karn via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
Over the past year, Randy, KQ6RS and I have mentored the MCHSARC in
designing and constructing a simple marine buoy that was deployed from
the R/V Sally Ride this morning about 700 km off the coast of southern
California. It is up and transmitting WSPR on 20m using the callsign
KQ6RS, and is being received all over the US and into Canada and Brazil.
The electronics is the 20m WSPR version of the WB8ELK "pico tracker"
that has been flown quite a few times (including by us) on long duration
balloons. We removed the solar panels and substituted 21 ordinary
alkaline D-cells wired to supply 4.5V. We estimate battery lifetime will
be 6 months.
The basic design was inspired by Bob, WB4APR, at the US Naval Academy.
Physically, the buoy is just a 5' section of 4" PVC pipe, ballasted at
one end to float vertically in the water. The top is closed by a sewer
pressure test plug I found at Home Depot; it has a bolt in the center
that acts as a convenient feed-through and mounting point for the
antenna, a stainless steel CB whip with a matching network designed,
tested and carefully tuned by Randy. We use the sea as a counterpoise,
but to avoid direct metal/seawater contact we lined the inside of the
pipe with copper tape to form a capacitive connection. We probably spent
too much time on this; Randy even modeled the electrical fields in the
seawater with a professional RF analysis package.
In our first flotation tests in Randy's swimming pool we found that the
ballasted pipe, by itself, was remarkably stable in pitch, roll, sway
and surge but oscillated a lot in heave (up and down). To damp this
Randy added cross arms at the water line to add drag in the vertical
direction. (It wasn't our intent to mimic a religious icon but that's
where the physics went.) Tuning the antenna required sea water, so Randy
did it from a dock on Mission Bay here in San Diego.
We tried to make this thing as rugged as we could. (My favorite saying
to the students was that the sea *always* wins in the end, but we can
delay that long enough to be useful.) Everything inside is held in place
with epoxy or polyurethane foam. Randy reinforced the sewer plug with a
PVC end cap with a hole cut in the center. Although the antenna is
stainless steel, Randy covered it with a type of heatshrink with a
waterproofing compound inside. Activation was by removing an external
magnet placed over a parallel pair of normally closed magnetic reed
switches. (Using two instead of one was my idea.) We even argued how to
guard against the crew forgetting to remove the magnet before
deployment. Randy found some adhesive that would dissolve and let the
magnet fall away; I suggested a big REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag and a float
that would pull it away if it was tossed into the water.
That left the problem of deployment. We couldn't just drop it close to
the coast because it would quickly wash back up on the beach. We needed
a boat ride. We were originally going on a NOAA vessel in April, but
that trip was cancelled due to the pandemic. Randy secured a trip on the
R/V Sally Ride, a research ship operated by Scripps Institute of
Oceanography and home ported here in San Diego.
This map shows the "lawn mowing" pattern they follow to measure and
sample sea water off southern California. We were deployed early this
morning at the most southwestern point shown here:
https://calcofi.org/cruises/2020-cruises/calcofi-2007sr.html
First report was at 12:52:30 UTC this morning from 29 51.25N, 123
37.50W. That's grid square CL89eu, which I figure is pretty rare for
grid hunters. The current carried us east into CL89fu at 20:32:30. This
is a little surprising since we thought the currents in that area are to
the southwest. But that's why you do science!
You can track us on aprs.fi here:
https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FKQ6RS-1&others=1&timerange=604800&tail=3600
We also show up on wsprnet.org
http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map
Because of the funky way Bill encodes position in WSPR (which was never
designed for this), you'll see some weird-looking callsigns (like
0W7NFU) in addition to KQ6RS.
This was our first buoy, just to get our feet wet (ha ha). Now to think
about what we want to put in our *second* buoy. Two-way links, satellite
tracking, sensors, the works. But remember the "second system" effect...
73, Phil
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AMSAT-NA.
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Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
_______________________________________________
Sent via amsat-bb@?????.???.
AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide
without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
End of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 15, Issue 266
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