I have also "wondered" if any of the older commercial surplus satellites can be "reprogrammed" for our use. I realized that idea is no doubt an over simplification. Today's speculation can be tomorrows reality.
73 Bob W7LRD
----- Original Message -----
From: "Howie DeFelice" howied231@hotmail.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org, tomdoyle1948@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012 12:48:06 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] perfect groundtrack contest
I vote for Intelsat G-11 at 304.5 deg E. This is a Ku band only bird, however, the semi-retired Intelsat 805, which is co-located with this sat has a global C band beam with a downlink that extends into the amateur 9cm satellite band (3400-3410 MHz). I often wondered if Intelsat would consider "donating" a few Khz to AMSAT. We could then tie a single, commercially licensed uplink station via echolink and hear it on the 9cm downlink. At least it would be a reason for people to use the 9cm band before it's taken away for the latest mobile broadband gizmo.
Howie AB2S _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb