My outdated (by present standards) 110-MHz Pentium PC is finally getting a workout. Prominently positioned in my home lab and Amateur Radio "ham shack," it's been doing a yeoman's job recently running STSOrbit Plus.

STSorbit Plus is a satellite-tracking package authored by David H. Ransom, Jr. Freely available, you can download a copy at Ransom's Web site at http://www.dransom.com/. In its latest iteration, this software is known simply as STSPlus, and the "plus" moniker is well deserved.

I get excited about running STSPlus because it lets me know the position of virtually any orbiting object, displaying it on color maps ranging from a projection of the world to zoomed-in local charts---all with great detail, and with incredible accuracy.

STSPlus even gives me a visual track of a satellite's radio "footprint," using orthographic projections where the Earth is seen as a globe, or cylindrical projections similar to Mercator maps. These displays show the Earth's land areas and oceans, with the selected satellite depicted as a moving icon.

I find this capability nothing short of extraordinary. For me, STSPlus underscores what an amazing age we live in. Hams, students, amateur astronomers, and satellite watchers are using the same software as NASA and the US Space Command (formerly NORAD of Cheyenne Mountain fame)!

One of the first applications for STSPlus was at NASA's Lewis Telescience Support Center, where it displayed the ground track of the first Space Shuttle. Intelsat also ran STSPlus at its Launch Control Center in Washington, DC, and at five tracking stations around the world during the STS-49 mission. That was the maiden flight of Endeavour, with a rescue and re-boost mission for the Intelsat VI satellite. The Canadian Space Agency also used STSPlus to brief officials during Space Shuttle mission STS-52 in 1992.

In the latest version, Ransom's software includes features implemented at the request of NASA astronauts, as well as the good folks at the US Space Command, and still others at Johnson Space Center. Thanks to Mr. Ransom and his friends, plebeian attic and basement experimenters like me can predict the position of the Space Shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope, as well as homemade satellites.

What's this? Home made satellites?
On December 12th, 1961, the first home-grown Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) was kicked into orbit, piggybacked as a partial payload atop a NASA rocket. Since then, scads of ham-built "birds" have been deftly placed into orbit. These satellites let terrestrial-bound ham radio operators like me send and receive telemetry, voice, data, and video---across the globe.

I especially enjoy tracking Radio Sputnik 12, a ham radio relay bird that can be accessed with simple HF radio equipment. When I know that RS-12 is making a pass that's within range of my basement radio station, I use its transponder to re-transmit my signals from outer space, making contact with like-minded hams in many parts of the world.

As you can tell, STSPlus helps make such feats possible. This isn't a trivial piece of software, which is why I'm eternally grateful that it's up-and-running on a timeworn PC in a dusty corner of my basement. It's my personal link to NASA and the US Space Command. STSPlus, and other readily accessible scientific and engineering packages like it, remind me that ham radio is alive and well in the 21st century.

Recently, the value of Amateur Radio was driven home again, although in a markedly different way. I was at a meeting with Nino Amarena, a product manager at Proxim, a company known for its spread-spectrum RF products. Amarena called my attention to a corner of a tiny hybrid module that was part of an upcoming new product. There, almost invisible, etched into a spare bit of real estate in the corner of the board, was the designer's ham radio callsign! Hidden callsigns, software such as STSPlus, and ham radio satellite technology ring bells for me.

Not too long ago a Federal Communications Commission official decried the lack of innovation in the Amateur Radio Service. I disagree (and did so publicly at the time). There are myriad ham radio enthusiasts in our industry, and quite a few make significant contributions.

The Unusual Suspects
Off the top of my head I count Paul Seamon, a senior engineer at ILC Data Devices. Paul is a military systems hardware expert. Then there's Lee Brown, a product manager at Ramtron, as well as Dave Angel, former president of ISD. Frank Perkins, a VP at RF Monolithics is another, as is Dave Hollander from Motorola Power Products.

Gary Breed, former editor of RF Design magazine, is another; he's a wizard when it comes to circuit simulation and antenna modeling. Likewise, Phil Karn is an inveterate experimenter and codesmith. He single handedly published source code in the mid-1980s for a ham radio TCP/IP suite running under MS-DOS.

Closer to home, at CMP we rub shoulders with EE Times technology editor Vince Biancomano. Vince recently released a unique radio propagation study as well as software for it. His work is under review by the Department of Defense for military applications. Another erudite ham, and engineer, is ChipCenter's own Paul Schreier, former chief editor and publisher of Personal Engineering and Instrumentation News magazine, and now ChipCenter's DSP editor.

The list goes on, but I think you get the idea. In my view, these hams, and others like them, are part of the evolution of electronics and technology. In addition to satellites, today's hams work with microprocessors, DSPs, digital communications systems, video, circuit design and simulation, and advanced antenna-modeling software, to name a few areas of investigation and development.

Hams are shakers-and-movers at many levels in industry too. Some are presidents of leading-edge technology companies. Others are engineers and technicians sweating in R&D labs large and small.