Good job, Bob.
I think that the Hamsat folks exploited these differences quite adroitly when they announced that FM was permitted via VO-52 over India, etc., but not over NA. For all our concern about misuse of these resources, *that* human contract has held well. I think future developers should seriously consider it, rather than develop both FM transponders and linear ones in one bird. The last time I brought this up, the stations from India assured me that the FM operation in their part of the world and elsewhere did not overwhelm the power budget of the bird.
Of course, a really fun geeky solution would be to hook up a SDX to GPS and program a LEO bird to switch from FM over Africa to SSB/CW over Europe. You could also modulate the output power, making the bird easier to work with minimal antennas in places where Amsat operations are less common, or over the Arctic, where low-horizon DX is probably the only way a QSO will be made. Kiwisat is flying a GPS; perhaps they have something like this in mind. Or perhaps, 18 years into *its* life they'll give it a go :-)
73, Bruce VE9QRP
On Jan 29, 2008 6:11 PM, Geoff vk2tfg@ozemail.com.au wrote:
On Wednesday 30 January 2008 08:10, Robert Bruninga wrote:
Well, I took a crack at a possible draft Map: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/AMSAT/AMSAT-OAs.GIF
I used the minimum distances such as for the ISS. I have no idea about loading over Sibera, India and the Middle East.
Just an idea. Bob, WB4APR
lots snipped