Special Message from the Publisher of Satellite Times, September 1998 issue

 

The Uplink Comes Down...
The End of a Four Year Experiment

"The operation was a success, but the patient died" is a well-known, whimsical anecdote among physicians. The same may be said of Satellite Times.

We began this adventure just four years ago as a service to both the satellite industry and the end users. We were a niche publication, addressing the technical angle of satellite communications, occasionally throwing in a little related astronomy as well.

To do this successfully, we retained some of the best writers in the business, and we addressed topics that were not readily available elsewhere. We didn't concentrate on any one aspect of the satellite industry; rather, we looked at military, domestic communications, weather, entertainment, and amateur as well.

Even with this multifaceted outlook, we discovered that there are precious few readers interested in the "how-to" aspects of satellite radio. We saw the same basic disinterest that is endemic in experimental electronics in general. Our society is accepting high technology just so long as it is plug and play; publications using terms like "resistor" and "frequency" hold about as much interest as a doctoral thesis on quantum mechanics.

And, of course, there are other astronomy magazines with lush photography, aerospace publications of long-standing respect, satellite television guides, and hobby radio/electronics subscriptions to draw from.

Since ST is subscriber supported, not advertiser supported like our competitors, we relied on increasing subscription numbers to keep us going. It costs us the same to prepare one magazine as it does 10,000 magazines. And now our printer has told us that our costs are going up again for paper as well as printing. That was the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back.

In order to keep the title Satellite Times alive, we attempted to turn the publication overto other responsible entities since it is an excellent medium to propagate information as well as new products. Unfortunately, the businesses we contacted were already under their own pressures and deadlines, and reluctantly turned down the opportunity to take on ST.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our advertisers as well as our subscribers. ST has been fun to publish, and our interaction with all of you by letter and in person has been most enjoyable. We have all learned by sharing the pool of informational wealth contained in the pages of ST.

And a special thanks to our professional staff of writers and editors who have put their hearts and souls into preparing accurate and comprehensive articles of interest every month. ST held the respect of the satellite industry with its unfailing quantity and quality.

But the important thing is that this momentum will not be lost. Monitoring Times, ST's older and bigger sister, will absorb the balance of your subscription. MT, already the leading source of monitoring information, will be strengthened even further, offering you many of the popular topics that you have enjoyed in ST. And if you are already an MT subscriber, you get an added bonus--your MT subscription will be automatically extended to include your unexpired subscription to ST!

So many thanks for your loyalty; I hope you have enjoyed reading ST as much as we have preparing it for you. And now, look forward to receiving MT beginning with the October issue, and by the November issue, we will be incorporating exciting and informative articles to satisfy your interest in the satellite communications spectrum.

Bob Grove, Publisher


Monitoring NASA Communications

By Bob Grove and Larry Van Horn. Originally published in Satellite Times and Monitoring Times, this is the most comprehensive NASA frequency list ever published outside the government.

Information and Resources

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