AMSAT - France Votes to Dissolve

[W3WN]

Excerpt from today's Amateur Radio Newsline:

RADIO POLITICS: AMSAT FRANCE LEADERSHIP VOTES TO DISSOLVE ORGANIZATION

AMSAT France appears to have disbanded. According to a notice published in Frances URC News on Monday April 11th, 21 leaders present at an Extraordinary General Assembly of AMSAT France voted the weekend of April 9th to dissolve the organization.

The actual vote is reported as 11 votes in favor of going out of business and 10 in favor of continuing. The short news release gave no reason for the decision by AMSAT France to dissolve and go away. The original press release, in French is on line at tinyurl.com/3spvx6l. (URC News, F1MOJ)

[NQ6U]

What else would you expect from that bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys?

[N8YX]

Are amateur satellites even relevant at this point in time?

Especially those equipped with mode A/B linear transponders?

Hell yes.

I would love to see a philanthropist such as Gates, Buffet (Warren or Jimmy; doesn't matter) or that rich Ru$$ian oil d00d pony up the cash to construct an RTG/solar powered, hardened AmSAT with HF/2/432/1296 linear/FM capabilities. Say, something with a 15+ year life span...which could be serviced and returned to duty while in space.

Such a project would never be funded by the amateur community - that I can practically guarantee.

[KG4CGC]

Are amateur satellites even relevant at this point in time?

Especially those equipped with mode A/B linear transponders?

Hell yes.

I would love to see a philanthropist such as Gates, Buffet (Warren or Jimmy; doesn't matter) or that rich Ru$$ian oil d00d pony up the cash to construct an RTG/solar powered, hardened AmSAT with HF/2/432/1296 linear/FM capabilities. Say, something with a 15+ year life span...which could be serviced and returned to duty while in space.

Such a project would never be funded by the amateur community - that I can practically guarantee.

What would the cost of the unit-hardware alone be? Not to include launch and etc.

[N8YX]

What would the cost of the unit-hardware alone be? Not to include launch and etc.

SWAGging it here...$2 million for the chassis/electronics, that much (or more) for the positioning motors and fuel supply...and $10-20 million for an RTG of sufficient power. It's going to be van-sized at least.

Built to government (NSA/CIA) reliability specs, one could treble that amount.

If I had a billionaire's money to burn I'd gladly put a constellation of the things into orbit.

[KG4CGC]

Yeah, best start a foundation to hunt and peck others for donations. Also known as Big Game Hunting in the professional donation 'sales' game. Based on the premise of creating a foundation for a disease that doesn't get much name recognition, this could be sold along the lines of educating the youth about technology.

[W3WN]

WB4GCS was heading up the AMSAT Eagle project, which had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, he had to step aside due to some health issues with his family, and the project went up in smoke after that.

The technology is there to build a better satellite. Getting the funds to launch it, that's a different issue.