SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS018
ARLS018 AMSAT filmed for TV show

ZCZC AS97  
QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 018  ARLS018
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  October 18, 1995
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS018
ARLS018 AMSAT filmed for TV show

A film about the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) and
Amateur Radio is tentatively scheduled for next spring on the
Discovery Channel Network.

The program, set for around March 15, 1996, will be called ''Eyes in
the Sky,'' and is planned to be a two-hour evening special.  A crew
of six spent two days filming during the recent AMSAT Annual Meeting
and Space Symposium in Orlando, exposing more than four thousand
feet of 16-mm film during some 86 takes, said AMSAT Executive Vice
President Keith Baker, KB1SF.  Baker appeared on camera, as did Dick
Jansson WD4FAB, Stan Wood WA4NFY,  and a number of other Phase 3-D
satellite volunteer workers.

Filming was done in three parts: In the first, Baker, Jansson and
Wood troll an Orlando surplus house, Skycraft, looking for parts for
the spacecraft.  In the next, Jansson roams the aisles of a local
Kmart store, looking for P3-D ''antenna'' parts, complete with a ''blue
light special'' announcement giving a price reduction on the
''hardware'' Dick is pulling off the shelf.

The crew finished with shots at the P3-D Lab.

Baker said the theme the producers were looking for was ''High Tech
doesn't need to be High Cost.''  Other themes touched on AMSAT's
''Keep it Simple, Stupid'' approach to spacecraft design and the idea
that the paperwork needed to document a spacecraft need not
necessarily weigh more than the spacecraft itself.

Some time also was spent discussing Amateur Radio in general: who
hams are, and why it's important that their continued access to
spectrum be preserved.  The three also discussed the spirit of
adventure and commitment that's part of the ''glue'' that holds AMSAT
people, and hams in general, together, Baker said.
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