Since most of the ham population is at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, coverage will not be an issue. Those of us at high northern latitudes will find that a Geostationary satellite is low on the horizon. Assuming the Intelsat will chose a mid-continental sub-satellite longitude (90-100W Long), my elevation may only be 5-7 degrees to the Phase-IV. My latitude is 60.67N and Longitude is 151.3W. For stations even farther north there may not be line of sight path. Barrow, AK 70N latitude see the Clark Belt at only 7 degrees above the horizon due south.
However if an Asian Geostationary sat is not more than about 50-deg West of me I may have access to it, as well. Southcentral Alaska is almost exactly north of Hawaii and thus sits at mid-Pacific Longitude.
Earth station antennas will have to consider locations that provide a low horizon in this case. The HEO's like the Phase-3 sats were all inclined to the equator about 60-degrees so that apogee provided high look angles for very extended time periods.
I know about this from operating a TV-Satellite dealership in the mid-1980's installing C-Band TVRO equipment.
73, Ed - KL7UW
At 04:22 PM 10/30/2007, Robert McGwier wrote:
We have kept Eagle satellite alive. The lab at U. Md. ES is being built out and we are going ahead with the structure. We helped fund the completion of P3E with our international partners and stepped up our efforts to finish the IHU-3 for them (and us.
The Eagle satellite structure build out is funded and slated for completion in 2008.
We are really going to try to get P3E a ride on Intelsat to balance against the other offers to see what is best for AMSAT-DL and us.
Stefan's analysis is correct. Any one geostationary bird can cover roughly a third of the earth.
Bob
Stefan Wagener wrote:
Yes,
It is a great project and deserves our full support!
Having said that we also need to realize, that depending on the location of the satellite above the equator we might only have the Americas in the foot print. No Europe or Africa and no Asia. Since the first geostationary satellite with amateur radio has to provide tangible support for government agencies (funding source) it will certainly be primarily centered around a North American footprint. That's why we need to keep Eagle alive
and support
Phase 3E.
All together they will give us the full package of worldwide DX via satellite and reliable high power communication in the Americas.
- Stefan VE4NSA
-- AMSAT Director and VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. ARRL SDR WG Chair "An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?" Descartes _______________________________________________ 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
73, Ed - KL7UW ====================================== BP40IQ 50-MHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com 144-EME: FT-847, mgf-1801, 4x-xpol-20, 185w DUBUS Magazine USA Rep dubususa@hotmail.com ======================================