Sorry all,
My email below wrongly thought we were still talking about EAGLE HEO type satellites doing cross links. And so my answer was correct but for the wrong question.
So YES, two LEO satellites can communicate if they are like PCSAT or PCSAT2 or our future RAFT and ANDE satellites because they all share the same uplink and downlink. And since they are designed for APRS users with OMNI antennas, they can hear each other just as well as they can hear users. The longest two-hop PCSAT1-PCSAT2 contct is shown on our web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pec/pc2ops.html covering 4426 miles from Algeria to the USA. In fact we WELCOME more and future packet satelites on the 145.825 space digipeater frequency! The more the better. More often coverage, and logner hops.
-----Original Message----- Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Two Sats
If two sats like Hamsat (or Echo) were in orbit at the same time and could see each other ... Could User#1 uplink to Sat-A and then Sat-A would link to
Sat-B
Its rather easy to evaluate that situation. Look at what it takes for a user uplink and downlink station just to hit the satellite. Now imagine that you are asking for all that power and gain antennas to be added to one satelite just so now this one satellite can work another satellite. As you can see, it
is
pretty much impractical.
Bob, WB4APR
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