Reflections on SEA-PAC: Attending My First HAM Radio Convention

I just returned from an awesome weekend in Seaside, Oregon where I attended the SEA-PAC convention, an annual gathering of amateur radio operators at the Seaside Convention Center.

HAM Antenna Farm

HF Antenna Farm

First, a little back story: I’ve been a HAM for 9 years, call KG6PFU, but I’ve not yet been on the air. While attending Cal Poly I became involved with the Cal Poly Picosatellite Program, also known as PolySat. The aim of this program was to involve engineering students in an extracurricular project to design, build, and deploy an orbital satellite capable of remote sensing and downlinking telemetry on a HAM band. Because picosatellite communication involved using HAM radio frequencies, a number of the engineering students involved in the project took the FCC licensing examination and obtained our technician class licenses. Due to external commitments and schoolwork, I was only involved with PolySat for a short time and never had a chance to use my new privileges. Fast forward 9 years and I’m still a licensed HAM with a license that is about to expire, and I’ve still never been on the air. [Read more…]

PolySat Bites the Dust

While studying at Cal Poly, I was a member of the PolySat picosatellite team. We worked on designing and building a small 10cm^3 satellite which would perform remote sensing in space and relay information back to earth via HAM radio bands. While I was only briefly associated with the project, I did the early design work for the command and data handling subsystem which would eventually tie the microcontrollers with the payload sensors and communication subsystem.

Cal Poly’s two picosatellites, along with 9 others from universities around the world were launched toward space today by a Russian Dnepr rocket in Kazakhstan. These cold-war era ICBMs were retooled to serve as launch vehicles, providing a low-cost alternative for launching payloads into orbit. I suppose the old saying, “You get what you pay for”, rings true once again. Our satellites never reached orbit since the rocket’s engine failed shortly after launch. All that work for nothing….. Chinese-built Russian garbage for the lose.

Actually this makes me wonder how great the Russian threat was during the cold war. I suppose it doesn’t matter since the likely scenario that all the Russian ICBMs failed to launch would have been irrelevant since nuclear winter would have quickly ensued following a U.S. Titan II salvo. 9-megaton warheads can really kick up some dirt.

PolySat Latest News Page: http://polysat.calpoly.edu/latestNews.php