I think a lot of what we (AMSAT-NA) would learn from this has nothing to do with the specific radio technology, but rather in understanding a bit more in how to work within the GEO community. This applies even if we never actually sign an agreement.
The days of just focusing on tinkering on stuff on your workbench are long gone. The reality is that anything done in space is more in getting into the right relationships, and navigating the extensive regulatory landscape, than it is on building the transponder, IHU, battery management, etc.
Just my $.02...
Greg KO6TH
Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB wrote:
I don't see that the Amateur Radio community learns anything from this exercise that couldn't be done with a ground-based system on our own bands. There is no Doppler correction to be done, and path loss can be simulated with attenuation and/or lower power operation. Most of the link is hidden from the operator, and the underlying information encoding is ridiculously complex, far more than is required for a KISS EMCOMM system.