On 10/15/2012 10:18 PM, Ben Jackson wrote:
It may be easy to reliably work a future generation of satellites with an HT and a rubber duckie. But that won't be challenging. And we (the operators) won't be learning anything new.
But instead folks are promoting an anachronism. They're discussing learning something new at the same time saying we should be using a technology that has been in use since the 1960s.
So then instead of focusing on linear transponders how about deploying HSMM nodes into space, TDMA, or DMR technology? (No idea how feasible any of of this is)
I'm in favour of all this. But as Robert WB5MZO said, you want to maximize usability as well. A linear transponder allows more people to use the satellite, and is probably less demanding on the satellite as well. I'd like to see a satellite that operated in FM mode around perigee so simple equipment could work the bird, and as the slant-range and path losses, as well as the size of coverage circle and potential numbers of hams within the circle increases, as the bird heads on up to apogee, it could switch to linear mode.
Newer technology and more advanced modes can be made available for experiment, either simultaneously, on (say) bands L, S, C, etc, and also on more accessible bands (U, V) by having the bird switch mode accordingly.
As far as meshed networks, etc, are concerned, I fear that multiple birds will be necessary (obviously) and I don't know how practical it is to consider this, when we have so much difficulty getting a single bird in the sky. But I'm all in favour! If orbits could be coordinated, and sat-2-sat links established, your uplink could appear as coordinated downlinks in several parts of the globe simultaneously.
How about something that supports TCP/IP? People were discussing how a AMSAT could generate interest in a kickstarter for a HEO? Promise a bunch of hackers and geeks that with a small donation, sitting for a ham radio test, and buying some kind of kit, they can get a (slow) network connection in far flung locations I'm feel fairly confident that they would start hurling their wallets at you screaming "Shut up and take my money!"
I'm not convinced that slow TCP/IP is much of an inducement. You may be right, but I think there are precious few places that you can't obtain connectivity at a reasonable price, and the places that you CAN'T are not likely to be inhabited by people who can finance a satellite launch. I think it is a laudable goal, to make connectivity available in such locations, but I don't see it as a potential source of funding. But I've been wrong before...
What I think might work is to build a big satellite, and "rent" or "sell" space on board to people who want to perform space-born experiments without messing about with communications hardware. Data from various experiments can be stored, and downloaded an orbit at a time as the satellite passes within range of selected amateur ground-stations. The data can be separated out into individual feeds for the individual "tenants" and forwarded to them via terrestrial internet. Telecommand can be via the reverse path. If the satellite is one that operates at higher altitudes with a longer anticipated lifespan, educational institutions may find it an opportunity to perform experiments that a short-lived, LEO bird can't support.
However, the SSB mafia is firmly entrenched in their ways and will simultaneously bemoan the easy sats, yet pooh-pooh "hard sats" that won't support the divine mode.
I should be mad at you for making this comment, because I suspect "SSB mafia" is targeted directly at people just like me. But I'm not mad, because the other SSB mafia probably feel just as I do. I won't apologize for enjoying SSB, CW and even RTTY (once, tried but no response) via satellite. I don't groan about the "easy sats" because they are "easy sats". I gripe about the fact that there aren't anything BUT "easy sats". Where are these "hard sats" you mention? And why DON'T they support the divine mode, damnit?!?? I have a divine-mode transceiver here that I'd love use, even if as nothing more than a gateway mode to these "hard sats" you speak of. And if I remember correctly from my days on the Microsats, the divine mode was the basis for many digital encoding schemes.
Naturally, I would also enjoy doing some DXing and ragchewing with the divine mode as well. (Enjoying ragchewing and DXing is, I'm told, another thing I need to apologize for.)
By the way, what is so easy about these "easy sats?" Don't you have to stand in the yard, in the dark, with the rain falling on your head, operating two HTs and a voice recorder with one hand and waving a broomstick yagi with the other, while your laptop gets wet? In comparison, sitting back comfortably in my chair, with the mic/key in one hand, a Planters Punch in the other, the cat in my lap and Fido at my feet, while I work DX or ragchew with a friend (There! Those expletives again!) doesn't sound all that hard!