[amsat-bb] President's Letter December 2002

[VEFRH@xxxxxxx]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Since I wrote the November Letter, a number of events have taken place which 
have had an impact on AMSAT. Firstly at the end of November the TRW amateur 
Radio Club in Los Angeles invited me to be the guest speaker at their awards 
night. Very generously they paid all the expenses, and I was able to talk 
about AMSAT and our new projects. One of my Power Point slides showed OSCAR 4 
which was build at TRW in 1965. Several members of the Team that built that 
satellite were present at the awards night meeting.
Earlier this month the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station 
(ARISS) team held one of their semi-annual meetings at Goddard Space Flight 
Center (GFSC) near Washington D.C. with International Delegates from the US, 
Canada, Japan, Europe and Russia. The objective of this meeting was to review 
the progress being made with new Amateur Programs, to try and solve any 
problems, to co-ordinate future programs, and to see that they meet the IARU 
amateur requirements.
On this occasion the elections for ARISS officers took place and the results 
were as follows, Chairman - Frank Bauer KA3HDO, Vice Chairman  Gaston Bertels 
ON4WF,
Secretary Rosalie White WA1STO.  Congratulations to all three.
The three day meeting was considered a success and approval was given to Bob 
Bruninga to incorporate an APRS  transceiver into a US Navy solar cell 
experiment which is to be launched in the middle of next year (2003) and 
which will be attached to ISS for one year. Details of Bob's PCSat2 may be 
found elsewhere on the web.
For those of you who wish to follow the events of ISS closely, you can 
subscribe to  Sarex@amsat.org. This is easily done by sending a one line 
message to Majordomo @amsat org  the one line being         subscribe  
sarex@amsat.org
During the Christmas Shopping rush, it occurred to me that many of us often 
wish we were buying ourselves a suitable present!  well now is your chance to 
do that and show that you are an AMSAT supporter - Why not become a donor to 
the AMSAT President's club? - get the Lapel pin and put it on your club 
Jacket - they sure look good at a club meeting! - The President's Club donor 
form is now available on the AMSAT web page.
Once more may I wish a Happy Holiday to everyone 
73


Robin Haighton VE3FRH
President AMSAT.
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