At 03:14 AM 4/25/2007, Roger Kolakowski wrote:
Speaking of TV wasteland, as all TV stations have to transition to digital in 2009, the initial figures look like they are abandoning Ch 2 thru Ch 6 opening up the VHF lowband (under 88mHz) for whatever. 4 meter satellite or hambands anyone?
Hmm, 4m would be nice, but down here it's a well occupied commercial band (never was used for TV). If that did happen though, there's a LOT of surplus equipment out there that can be easily retuned. :) Some of it currently gets converted to 6m, other models are too hard to convert and they tend to kick around on eBay and the like for cheap prices and wind up as spare parts or for those people who are looking for a real challenge. :)
I know it wouldn't take me long to get on 4m, if it ever (dream on ;) ) became a ham band here.
As far as a satellite allocation goes, another VHF band would be a nice dream. The low Doppler shift, relatively high signal strengths and modest (compared to HF) noise floor and antenna requirements on the satellite are unbeatable, especially for mobile LEO applications. Can't see it happening for several WRCs though, in all honesty.
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