Radio Amateurs have been in the forefront of wireless telecommunications technology from the very beginnings of the art and science of radio. Guglielmo Marconi, the "father of radio" referred to himself as only an "amateur" when he began working in his Bologna, Italy laboratory. Since that time, in the late 19th century, Radio Amateurs (Hams) have continued to explore new and innovative ways to communicate. Many of those ways, once perfected by Hams, have been readily adapted and exploited by both governments and commercial interests.The world of satellite telecommunications is no exception. Indeed, since the very dawn of the space age, Radio Hams have been in the forefront of this new communications technology, building and launching their first satellite barely four years after they helped the world hear the very first sounds from Russia's first Sputnik. In 1958, a West Coast group of Hams formed the Project OSCAR Association (the acronym OSCAR stands for Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur .Radio), an organization that designed, built, and later, with the aid of the United States Air Force, successfully launched the very first Amateur Radio satellite into Earth orbit.Since that time, Hams around the World, inspired by the early Project OSCAR, and its modern day counterpart, AMSAT (The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) have built and launched over 30 of these satellites into orbit. Working quite literally in their garages and basements to build these orbital flying test beds, Radio Hams were the first to both pioneer and perfect many of the satellite telecommunications technologies that we take for granted today.In this paper, we will outline some of the satellite communications technologies that first evolved in the Amateur Satellite Service, and how they have been subsequently adapted for use in other governmental and communications services. We will also explore some of the very latest satellite telecommunications technologies that Hams are now perfecting, and then offer insight into how these new technologies might be (or are being) adapted for commercial use. Our goal will be to give the reader a better understanding of where and how some of the satellite communications technologies that are now enabling the explosive growth of worldwide telecommunications first came from, and what could possibly be on the horizon for the future.
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