Much of modern satellite comm technology came from amateur radio experiments. Have you heard of OSCAR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR http://en.wikipedia.o

Much of modern satellite comm technology came from amateur radio experiments. Have you heard of OSCAR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR "Throughout the years OSCAR satellites have helped make breakthroughs in the science of satellite communications.... Most of the components for OSCAR 10 were "off the shelf" and tested by group members. Jan King led the project. Solar cells were bought in batches of 10 or 20 from Radio Shack..." Also, OSCAR 1 was just four years after Sputnik (the first artificial earth satellite). Many Ham radio enthusiasts, from all over the world, are hard-core engineers.