I think that a degree of legacy support helps people whom aren't innovators to more easily adopt and enjoy newer aspects of the hobby. In addition, I'm not so arrogant and selfish to think that my way is the only or best way of doing things. This is why I don't go out of my way to crap on threads about things that I am ambivalent to or actively dislike...
So in other words having an opinion different from yours is not acceptable and your precious feelings get hurt and you have to call other people either names or classify them in a negative way just to please your way of doing things? Got it. Let's give everybody a trophy and everybody's a winner. Please accept my apology for not automatically agreeing with you. Where I'm from open and healthy discours is the foundation for advancement of all.
Please read my post more carefully; there was no insult implied in my post. I was simply stating my philosophy and not trying to give offense or curtail the free exchange of ideas. I, like you, don't understand why someone would post negative comments in two threads on a topic that doesn't seem to impact them at all. Again...we actually agree.
I read your post as a direct reply to mine. So if the selfish and arrogant bit was not directed at me then there simply is a misunderstanding.
HT's for direct use? https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/datasheet/index.mvp/id/4191 When 1.2 and 2.4 GHz were new, we got going with the new equipment. Why not now?
Unfortunately the ICs are no longer available. Would've been interesting. But then again, look at the packaging of these. You'd have the next faction of complainers that SMD is not for hobbyists.
I was think a HT could be marketed. We got triband HT's when 1.2 GHz came out. How about a HT for this "bird"? How about a LMB and update for my Birdog?
There are much more integrated transceiver chips available today. The Analog Devices AD9361 is popular and will be used on the spacecraft. http://www.analog.com/en/products/r...eceivers/wideband-transceivers-ic/ad9361.html https://github.com/phase4ground/doc...s/AMSAT_DSP_Hardware_Paper_by_Mike_Parker.pdf The same chip is used on the ground station development SDR, the Ettus B210. http://www.ettus.com/product/details/UB210-KIT You can browse other Phase 4 documents here. https://github.com/phase4ground/documents
It was stated somewhere that the power requirement was 1w. 1w at 5GHz is more complex and probably wouldn't fit into a HT form factor. Besides, you would still need an antenna which would be applicable. A likely setup probably would be more a 144MHz IF rig with transverter or converted existing commercial equipment.
We already have a few of those: AO-7 in "mode B" (its uplink is at 432 MHz, but close enough for this discussion), AO-73 and XW-2F. XW-2A is occasionally on, too. Workable at QRP power levels with small stations, even portable stations. Not in high orbits, but these are popular satellites. 73!
Understandably, my "as exciting as a Skpe call" triggered plenty of reactions. As requested by somebody, I am happy to clarify. I will not necessarily make many more friends, but I am glad to explain where this comes from. Mine is the cry of frustration, almost despair from somebody who was actually operating on AO40 when it died. That was January 2004, exactly 12 years ago. 12 years means 144 months. I say this because during this period, AT LEAST once a month I have been scanning the AMSAT bullettin board for news - or at least a vague hope - of any upcoming launch of a replacement HEO, or at least a MEO. I've seen an untold number of discussion threads, initiatives, proposals, misplaced enthisasm. Every single time, I came away bitter and frustrated, with a deepening realisation that the amateur satellite activity as some of us have known it is gone forever. Multiply this by 144, and likely much more, and you'll have an idea of my state of mind when I began reading the latest news. I hope you will appreciate that I am not advocating for a return to spark transmitters. I am making the point that digital voice over MESH systems - whether terrestrial/internet or gateway/satellite - are and remain for me as exciting as a Skype call. And that using a once-in-a-lifetime chance like a spot on a geostationary satellite (and 100 w of power!) just for that is an atrocious waste. I am a dinosaur, you have to understand. I don't understand the appeal of D-STAR, Fusion and the like, and yet they are popular. I don't even understand what's the big thing about using the same computer one uses all day at work to push function keys and exchange memory messages - exactly the same message, hundreds of times... - over PSK-31, and yet a lot of people do just that, and enjoy it. I never understood what the appeal of packet radio was - the fact that one enters the ham radio hobby to be a network engineer. As a dinosaur, I like the sound of ssb and cw. I like *using* my radios. I like it when things are difficult and, especially, somewhat unpredictable. After many years of meteroscatter on 2 metres, for instance, even EME seemed too predictable - a simple game of path losses - and I quickly abandoned it. And, when things are easy, I still like the magic of the radio - a magic I really cannot find in the sterile, clinical sound of digital voice. I am not only a dinoasur, you see, I also am a bore. But perhaps I am not entirely alone in my Jurassic Park reservoir. I'd like to poll the AMSAT membership and see how many - given the choice - would swap the digital voice system with an analog transponder (which, by the way, given the BW we're talking about, could easily accommodate tons of digital applications). Keep the up/down frequencies (now, there's one interesting challenge!) but keep the radio part in Amateur Radio. Moreover, I suspect that this is not even an "either/or" situation: couldn't the digital voice system co-exist with a JAT (Jurassic Analog Transponder)? Anyhow, all these dinosaur rants are pointess, as I understand that the satellite's footprint will only cover the Americas. For us in Europe, there was much fanfare about the Arab geostationary satellite carrying an amatuer transpoder, supposed to go up next year. Still featured prominently on the AMSAT-DL webpage, but haven't heard a peep in recent months... 73 and happy new year. pete MM0TWX
The question reading this is: have you actually looked behind the curtains of lets say Packet Radio? Pushing macros on PSK-31 is indeed boring after a while, but you can have a regular QSO IF the other OM knows how to type on a keyboard. The problem there is that apparently many OMs don't really understand how this PSK-thingy works. Packet Radio can be very complex if you start to build infrastructure, go beyond direct QSOs and bring in TCP/IP. Now go on and build a large network over radio channels using AX.25 with TCP/IP on top and learn something that can then in turn lead to a great career. Yes, wouldn't it be great to have a CW QSO between continents via a HEO satellite? But that's been done before. Nothing new here and what is the incentive to spend the money on launching such a satellite? The bird itself does exist (P3E) but the funds for launching don't. What have you contributed to any of these efforts? It's always easy to want, ask for things. Don't poll the AMSAT membership if they would like to swap one for the other, poll them what they are willing to do to get it done. I'm afraid your level of responses will be much lower. Talking after all is much easier than doing. 73 Mike K5TRI p.s.: And while we're at it, I want a unicorn that farts rainbows and can fly me to the moon (or Mars, I'm easy).
Ah, Michael, nothing better than a good discussion board dogfight on boxing day! ;-) Joking aside, just imagine how many times exactly the same arguments have been brought up during the years... "What have you contributed to any of these efforts?" I have repeatedly said that I would be ready to sign a check of 1,000 Dollars to help P3E fly. We both know that it is not 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 Dollars that would make that happen. But please do not automatically assume that people who express a different opinion from yours are just lazy, uncommited naysayers. I, and many, many others, do not commit/contribute/participate becasue there is no viable/realistic/feasible project we can contribute to. "Yes, wouldn't it be great to have a CW QSO between continents via a HEO satellite? But that's been done before. Nothing new here and what is the incentive to spend the money on launching such a satellite?". Spending days battling the hordes in a DXpedition pileup has been done an incalculable number of times since the introduction of DXCC in 1945. And yet, to this day, a top-level operation makes not far from 100,000 QSOs and works about 25,000 individual callsigns. That is twenty five thousand amateurs around the world who engage in an activity that should have died long ago. As I write this, there are 276 callsigns listed as active on the worldwide DSTAR network... "Don't poll the AMSAT membership if they would like to swap one for the other." And then you complain that people don't contribute... Now, let me remind you of the latest developments, as seen from a casual but highly interested observer like myself, and you will tell me if this is a sad joke or what. 1) From the AMSAT newsfeed, on July 25 we learn that "AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-DL, and Virginia Tech Announce Potential Phase-3E Opportunity". 2) In the following months there has been absolutely NO FOLLOW-UP, no information whatsoever on this potentially crucial piece of information. 3) A couple of days ago, completely out of the blue, we learn that "AMSAT Ground Terminal Development Expands to Texas". Hello? WTF is going on here? The P3E launch opportunity has morphed into a geostationary satellite (never heard a thing about that). The projct has morphed from a P3E "old school" satellite into this digital monster (never heard a thing about that). Things have developed to such an extent that now "ground terminals are being expanded"... I feel like I just woke up from two years in a coma. To the small group of committed enthusiasts behind this projct I say: kudos! Good for you. I admire your intiative and technical knowledge, which is vastly superior to mine and the one of most amateurs around the world. But you are developing a platform that is as intersting to me as a skype call, and you are doing so in total secrecy (as far as I, a casual but intersted observer, am concerned). Therefore, I feel frustrated and further alienated from a sector of the hobby that I miss terribly. More 73. Pete
It's called healthy discussion (which I have to admit seems far easier in Europe than the US. And of course as long as we don't involve soccer since everybody knows that Germany beats England anytime ). I also don't assume, just ask questions. As for the secrecy in the US, it may have to do with ITAR which could restrict the sharing of certain information. OK, that in fact is an assumption based on what I know from the FOX-1A project. You may also have misinterpreted (Internet forums are very good for that) my comment about the "has been done before" part. It has been done before and thus finding someone willing to sponsor a launch for a AO-10 type satellite just so that hams can make contacts is far more unlikely IMHO than finding the same for testing and developing new tech that could have broader commercial applicability. The DXpedition comparison doesn't work as there are actually people contributing funds. If not, they wouldn't happen as the big ones these days seem to easily run up into the $500k budgets which is crazy. What would a P3E launch cost? Two or three DXpeditions? I don't know. 73 Mike K5TRI
These are separate projects which are both ongoing. Unfortunately the P3E opportunity is still at the point where not much can be said publicly, other than what was presented at Symposium this year, which was a considerable amount. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations
