A geosync AMSAT Phase 4B as described would be a functionally HUGE new public comms medium! A thousand simultaneous multi-mode capable QSO's is more traffic then SSB @ 2.5 khz spacing on ALL HF phone bands 80-10 meters COMBINED! . That's well worth the price of an equivalent HF base station. And regional community sponsored aggregator relays will open up some of that bandwidth to traditional rigs, even HT's. With an HF ionospheric propagation lull approaching I can hardly wait - make it so.
I was a fan of RS-10 as well, and "found" RS-15 before I read about the launch. (This was before the rise of the internet.) We did have a pretty nice packet network back then, though.
Why yes, since you asked. AMSAT Fox-1E will have a Mode J V/U linear transponder. A sop to all those whining about expensive equipment and days of yore! *************** http://www.amsat.org/ February 18, 2016 NASA announced the selection of RadFxSat-2, the Space Radiation Effects CubeSat, for participation in NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) is another partnership opportunity between Vanderbilt University ISDE and AMSAT, similar to RadFxSat (Fox-1B) which is scheduled to launch in January 2017. Vanderbilt University, with cooperation from AMSAT, submitted the RadFxSat-2 CSLI proposal in November 2015. Out of 21 proposals, NASA is recommending 20 for participation in the CSLI opportunity. RadFxSat-2 is prioritized #1 out of the 20 selected and has been offered an opportunity for a launch date. The opportunity is being evaluated by Vanderbilt University and AMSAT to determine if it meets our mission and orbital parameters. RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) will carry a radiation effects experiment similar to RadFxSat (Fox-1B) but will study new FinFET technology. The Fox-1E spacecraft bus will be built on the Fox-1 series but will feature a linear V/U (Mode J) transponder “upgrade” to replace the standard FM repeater which Fox-1A through D have carried. The downlink will feature a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry channel to carry the Vanderbilt science in addition to a 30 kHz wide transponder for amateur radio use. Further details of the mission and timeline will be published as they become available and are cleared for public release. *********************
Honestly, i'd like to see a geo sync sat up for ham use ..... no Doppler, no waiting for it to fly by -- 24/7 usage But i guess it could get crowded .... and power hungry i suppose ...
Equipment might be cheaper to use on 10Ghz soon .. LimeSDR is building a 3.5Ghz 5dbm SDR ... if it makes it to full support they might use the LMS8001 witch goes to 12Ghz ....
I see they did mention the freqs after you posted this, but I wondered the same thing. Well 5 and 10Ghz. I'll just Boefeng my way in there... P.S. Too bad they couldn't allow us to make use of all those KU band dishes left over when you change Sat TV providers. X band has not been a band of interest to me but maybe now I should.
Yes, in the following demonstration(below), an excited molecule of RF reflects off of one KU dish without a feedhorn, bounces off the ironicsphere, returns to earth and is reflected back by another KU dish without a feed horn. The two zeros in the animation are the commuted free paste loss of a signal in each direction.
I never thought any one would try to run their radio out to an end of a piece of coax with out some kind of termination ... KY5U just showed me the errors of my ways .... i would of made a different feed horn .. but i guess any piece of coax will do. Love the Dog food avatar ... My Great Dane likes it ...
A worthy achievement. And that all changed with Mode S and its 2.4GHz downlink. I went to Hawaii 20+ years ago with a 2 ft dish and a hombrew receiver converter. My antenna positioning system was a bunch of wooden blocks! With a 5' long 70 cm Yagi and 6 watts, I not only made a bunch of contacts from Japan to the East Coast, but figured out that I could hear as well as anyone--no big expensive Yagi and rotator required! And those were my very first satellite contacts! Zack W1VT
Well it seems this is going to be a boon to Down East Microwave transverter segment of the business. K2WH
I'm fascinated that this now old news post is still getting hits and comments. I think that somewhat demonstrates the perceived worthiness of the proposed endeavor. Ironically, the monumental achievement of the subject title, "FIRST amateur radio in geosynchronous orbit", may actually refer to a mini "space race" that has shaped up between too separate entities. It appears that prestigious title will be up for grabs between two groups - the MSS / VA Tech Hume group with AMSAT-NA involvement, versus Qatar’s Es’hailSat 2 satellite carrying AMSAT-DL Phase 4 transponders. It will be interesting to see who gets up first! Bragging rights for first place aside, it would be really great to see them both successful. Since the Earth surface coverage footprint of each geo-sync bird will probably not overlap at all, it would have been very cool if an inter-satellite relay link between them could have been provided as well! And/or tracking and making relays from LEO sats passing under, like a ham TDRS. 73 de John - WØPV
I wouldn’t exactly call this an "old" post ... I don't even think the satellite has been launched yet ...
