Sorry I hit a nerve with you: however, the aforementioned sophmoric comment does NOT lend credence to the cause. Merry Christmas.
There's nothing sophomoric about his observation; it's spot-on in that the 'real' price of radios has never been lower and that $1K isn't a 'big-ask'. I really don't see what the issue with spending a fraction of the price of most HF rigs to obtain a useful and fun microwave capability.
This is not a LEO satellite. It is roughly 40 dB lower from the greater path loss; you will not be able to do this with a handietalkie alone, with a simple hand held sntenna. Congrats to AMSAT and others on this major accomplishment.
WOW! About as exciting - in Amateur Radio terms - as making a call through Skype. Perhaps a little less. Good luck to you all.
Really? I like HF as much as anybody but you're not the least bit interested in tinkering with another form of propagation? Or tinkering with newer technology? Probably for the best you aren't. More bandwidth for me
Because everything new is bad, and we should all be working CW through spark-gap... There's more to the hobby than CW and SSB on HF. I know that this isn't everyone's 'cup of tea', but there's a lot more to amateur radio than simply maintaining a technical legacy and I applaud every effort to extend the hobby - even the initiatives I don't directly participate in.
The hams who are really interested in operating direct are allowed by virtue of their license to build it themselves. Wasn't that part of amateur radio? Building stuff, learning? This is a fantastic opportunity to grab the large number of Technicians who don't care about HF and show them a path in amateur radio that may be more exciting to them. Seriously, reading some of the responses here makes me wonder. There finally is an opportunity to have access to a geo sat for hams, and all that some can come with is bitching? How lame! 73 Mike K5TRI
This is easy-peasy for the ham who tinkers, as I am: Lots of articles out there about re-purposing a small TV-Sat dish for the gHz bands. Also, I built a 10gHz xceiver some 25 years ago using design in ARRL Handbook. Worked fine on terrestrial QSO's when I was DA1BB. I think you can probably pull together enough spare parts, junk box items and cheap stuff at hamfests to get on this bird for about $150 or so. Using a Linux computer as front end control, I see this as a great opportunity for direct and relative clear comms. Rain and ice or snow will be your enemy, just like with direct TV today. Also, being geo-sync means you only have to position the antenna system once. With that much bandwidth, I can see myself using the digital recordings I have of me sending CQ using my chain saw, weed-wacker and hedge trimmer. Actually, off the subject, a chainsaw CQ sounds a lot like the old Spark sounds ... which occasionally you will hear on 14.313 mHz. Back seriously, I am pretty sure the 10 gHz horn antenna design in the ARRL Antenna Book would work; add a preamp, put it on camera tripod in back yard and listen to the sounds of the ISS transponder. I could go on, but will encourage you all to do some easy research. 73 and Merry Christmas You All! Dave, N4CVX, ex-DA1BB, ex-VP2EHF CWO4 USA (Ret)
Tell us how you really feel. It must be of particular interest to you given that you managed to comment twice on this already. But then again you couldn't be bothered to be super original with copy'n pasting the same comment between threads.
The plan is actually to include a standard linear transponder contained within with the digital system. Direct TV type LNBs can be modified for 10GHz and fed to a $20 SDR dongle for receive. 5GHz parts are plentiful as surplus, and I'm sure once we get closer to launch, band specific commercial uplink converters will appear on the market.
You know the answer to that... And I don't have a major issue with that, as long maintaining nostalgic modes and practices do not preclude innovation.
Drew, that is very exciting. I too would like to see the "legacy" tech of an analog signal transponder being included. Can you explain that further? I watched the PARC video on Phase 4B. A generally good presentation but perhaps was a bit too intensely focused on the newer digital tech. Could have been made a bit more clear regarding the operating experience(s) to be expected. From that description it does seem like the only operating style will be flippin' channels on a set-top box till one finds someone calling CQ, joins a QSO in progress, or lands on a clear one to make an own call... Question - the "signal aggregator" ground stations, of which four are initially being planned, would act as relays and enable low gain antenna / HT / mobile operations through the satellite, but only in those local QTH's? If so, could more be added elsewhere some time in the future? 73 de John - WØPV
How about not including old nostalgic modes for once and using that as a forcing function to adopt new technologies/ modes? If old, or as you call it nostalgic modes are included, there won't be much incentive to innovate. Of course there will be always those who will do it anyway just because, but what if we could increase that number? If you want to play, you actually have to learn and advance. If you don't want to do that, fine, but then this may not be for you. Not everybody can (or should be) a superstar, despite the media trying to tell us often otherwise . 73 Mike K5TRI
