OBSERVATIONS GM1SXX 16th NOV 2009
John Branegan GM4IHJ
'We cam only blame ourselves.'
For those who never knew him, John Branegan GM4IHJ was a very keen experimenter with an 'enquiring mind'. Although I met him on a couple of occasions, I didn't know John Branegan personally, but he was well known and respected in the amateur radio community and in amateur satellite circles. He lived in the village of Saline in Fife, on the East coast of Scotland.
John wrote the popular e - magazine SATGEN which was distributed globally over the AX25 Packet network. He was a bachelor and an ex Royal Navy man, Commander, although he never used that title in 'civvy street' and had a wealth of professional and practical radio experience, exactly the sort of man our current education system would strive to stifle. He would have been horrified at our current system just of 'ticking the boxes', instead having an enquiring mind, and preferring to do his own experiments, make his own mistakes, and learn from the process. He *must* have done 'something' right, because SATGEN was deservedly a very popular read. This website is dedicated to the memory of John Branegan GM4IHJ and Makis Matiatos SV1BSX.
The entire SATGEN series is archived at http://www.observations.biz/Satgen/index.htm with John's permission. He used to send updates to me on a regular basis.
http://www.observations.biz/Satgen/index.htm is the SATGEN series by Subject.
http://www.observations.biz/Satgen/satfile.txt is the SATGEN Chronological series.
http://www.observations.biz/Satgen/gm4ihjobit.txt is John's Obituary, written by David Anderson GM4JJJ, and, although sad, it makes very interesting reading. Armed with the above links, you can now find any subject in the SATGEN data set. I recommend that you bookmark them for reference.
John wrote several books, which is how I first met him. He was working at a local rally selling RSGB gear, including books of his own. That's where I bought 'The Space Radio handbook', from John personally.
I read all of the SATGENs over the years, but the one that had the most impact on me was SATGEN268, 'Altruistic radio Amateurs'. SATGEN ran from the 19th April 1989 until 25th August 2001. For me, it's an important historical archive. I hope you will find it just as fascinating. I'll finish today's OBS with SATGEN268. It seems fitting.
Best 73,
Al. GM1SXX
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Satgen268 Altruistic Radio Amateurs by GM4IHJ 14
May 94
BID of this msg is SGEN268 Please use this BID if you retransmit this msg
You do something which is of no great help to yourself, but which helps me
greatly. Typical examples are the two dozen or so Oscar and Radio Sport
satellites, which have allowed thousands of radio amateurs to enjoy the
pleasure of satellite communications. Altruistic behaviour of this kind
has been the corner stone of Amsat achievement to date. But times are
changing .
Many recent satellite launches appear to have very little to do with
amateur radio, except that they use amateur radio frequency bands. These
satellites are built by colleges and universities, apparently with little
regard for the fact that they simple duplicate what college X did last
year , and what very few people are using this year. There are of course
exceptions. The University of Surrey store and forward digital birds have
totally revolutionised international dissemination of amateur radio packet
traffic. The original Uosats were crammed with excellent educational
facilities, and Dove is very close to what the perfect education sat
should be. But most of the rest of these college birds , either in space
or going there shortly, have nothing of any real value to ordinary radio
amateurs.
A typical example has been announced recently. It will , according to one
of its design team " Give project design and building experience to the
College team ". It will carry Earth picture equipment and Navigation
reporting facilities - items which already exist in other satellites , and
which appear to attract only a very small number of users. There is no
mention of provision of any facilities useful to the ordinary radio
amateur .
This process whereby an original success generates a generally unwanted
stream of unemployed clones, is clearly not a useful way to utilize
amateur radio facilities. I suggest that a good topic for Amsat University
of Surrey 94 Colloquium discussion, should be a proposal that :- Any
satellite using amateur radio frequencies , must in future deploy at least
one mode of amateur voice/cw communications via a transponder, plus at
least one amateur band beacon. These to be available on all orbits.
By all means let College teams build satellites if they wish to. But these
satellites should not use amateur radio frequencies unless they conform to
the above provision of services for radio amateurs.
Amsat must grasp this nettle . We are being taken for a ride, which will
only be welcomed , if the college builders help us, as well as helping
themselves.
I would further recommend that Amsat publish a hit list of priority
facilities which radio amateurs want in sats. Each different sat could
carry a different mode transponder and a different beacon frequency/band.
Anyone listening around the amateur satellite bands should clearly see the
problem. We have very few mode A, K , J and S band transponder facilities.
We have a very useful group of 9.6kB store and forward birds and just one
superb education sat ( Dove). The rest of the spacebourne menagerie
consists of abandonned and neglected college specials. If this situation
continues, we can only blame ourselves. 73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN
Postscript.
Should you be curious about the situation as it has evolved up to today, have a look at the IARU Satellite Co-Ordination pages which are positively littered with these 'educational' satellites . The list *only* represent projects for which the frequencies used have been co-ordinated. Against this backdrop, AMSAT is now an 'also ran' in the 'amateur satellite' game. They have now been so for a considerable time. IMHO, 'amateur satellites' should do useful things for radio amateurs. Most of these birds only produce degree students and little else.
http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/finished.asp