WG3K > ANS 13.04.25 00:30z 46 Lines 2440 Bytes #83 (0) @ AMSAT BID : ANS103.5 Read: GUEST Subj: A New Breed of Satellite and Space Focused “Makers” is E Path: ED1ZAC<ED1ZAC<GB7CIP<VK2RZ<ZL2BAU<WG3K Sent: 250413/0021Z 16194@WG3K.#SMD.MD.USA.NOAM LinBPQ6.0.24 Several threads have come together pointing to a new breed of space oriented individuals who may be attracted to Amateur Radio. Exploding interest in inexpensive small board computers (SBC), satellite specific firmware for handhelds, 3-D printed parts for satellite antennas and soda can size “satellites,” and makers using small board computers. According to Wikipedia, “maker culture is a contemporary subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hardware-oriented parts of hacker culture and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_culture Taken as a whole, this points in the direction from which new hams, especially students and young adults, may arise. This article is the first of a series about makers as potential recruits for Amateur Radio clubs. To learn more about makers, simply go to YouTube. YouTube is an abundant source of maker videos with some produced by satellite oriented Radio Amateurs and others. You may recall that the 3-D printed components and Raspberry Pi (RPi) SBCs have been key components of many recent AMSAT projects. RPi. Is often the SBC of choice, especially in severely volume-restricted cubesats. For example, the AMSAT CubeSatSim v1.3 hardware including two RPi SBCs and four matching cameras. An excellent overview of AMSAT education with the CubeSat Simulator project sessions were presented by Alan Johnston, KU2Y, the CubeSatSim creator. Another session, Integration of the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator for Education and Research, was presented by Rachel Jones, KO4HLC. Learn more about the CubeSatSim here: https://cubesatsim.com/. Also, members may download any of the 1986 to 2024 AMSAT Symposium Proceedings here: https://launch.amsat.org/Proceedings. Non-members who join AMSAT may download the 184 page Proceedings and utilize all other AMSAT information and member services: https://launch.amsat.org/Membership. To attract young adults Amateur Radio clubs may want to consider acquiring 3-D printers for shared use in member projects. Also, widely publicized activities using SBCs and open source software can attract fresh participants to clubs. Well be covering more topics about makers and means of attracting them to Amateur Radio clubs in following issues the AMSAT News Weekly Bulletin. [ANS thanks David Vine, WA1EAW, for the above information]
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