This is a letter from AMSAT-France President Bernard Pidoux, F6BVP to the other AMSAT organizations detailing the situation with the new satellite.
Letter from Bernard Pidoux regarding Beatnik
Dear AMSAT colleagues,
AMSAT-Russia, with the help of SCSC (Space Flight Control Centre) in Moscow has contacted AMSAT-France in December 1998 for the design and manufacture of an RF module and electronic PCBs similar to the ones used on board RS-17 and RS-18 satellites. By contract we agreed that AMSAT-Russia was in charge of building the satellite frame, integrating the VHF and electronic modules into the frame and choosing and implementing the messages to be sent by the satellite. The contract signed by Vladimir Solovyev (SCSC) and Gerard Auvray F6FAO (AMSAT France) specifically mentionned under paragraph 8.2 that "the voice messages and HTML pages transmitted by the satellite should comply with the international amateur rules. No direct advertising can be made on the air".
Soon after the contract had been signed, we discovered through the technical discussions we had with SCSC that they had made a separate commercial contract with the Swatch company in Switzerland. This company wanted to call the satellite "Beatnick" and to send voice and HTML messages about Internet Beat time. We said to SCSC that these message contents were not compliant with amateur radio ITU regulations. Oleg Volkov replied that they took all the responsibilities and that we could not cancel the contract with them or they would suit us.
Thus AMSAT-France was obliged to deliver the electronic modules with the software for CPU. The EPROM program comprized test messages and the ESD circuit was filled with pre recorded test voice messages by AMSAT France. Acceptance certificate of the work was signed by SCSC and Gerard Auvray. We received a copy of the voice message recorded by SCSC and we still think that they are not acceptable. The name of the satellite itself, "beatnik", indicates the identity of the sponsor. Some voice messages refers to the BEAT, a registered trade mark by Swatch. Thus we suggest that no AMSAT organization should describe the contents of the message or encourage listening to this non amateur compliant satellite using our amateur band. Furthermore we ask that keplerian elements of this satellite should not be published in the AMSAT keps bulletins. The batteries capacity of the satellite is however limited and the expected lifetime is 30 days.
I would like to tell you that AMSAT France is very sorry for this bad situation and hopes that you will understand that we did not want to achieve this. We had good relationship with the former team under the management of Viktor Kourilov, of the Astronautical Federation of Russia who was responsible of RS-17 and 18 projects and we did not realize the risks of contracting with a new one.
The character of the present satellite lead us to cancel our educational project. Formerly AMSAT-France has been deeply involved in the RS-17 and RS-18 projects, including technical support and flight model manufacture. With the help of French schools AMSAT-France is now developing his educational amateur satellite project.
I apologize for the trouble this project could make to the amateur satellite community and hope that you will help us to limit its impacts.
Best regards,
Bernard Pidoux, f6bvp
President AMSAT France
http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/physio/amsat-france/
Homepage http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/physio/f6bvp/