Hello all,
I agree also. In addition, don't forget a great benefit of S-band downlink:
the antenna is just a TVRO dish + a patch (or small helix), with great efficiency! I remember the good old days of AO-40, it was possible to access the Satellite just by using a small 10 el. Yagi for Uplink and a small Dish for downlink. The "monster" VHF-UHF crossed Yagi antennas for AO-10 & 13 always was a reason to discourage me from these birds. In contrast, the simplicity of AO-40-gear was very attractive for me and I believe for many other Hams. No Crossed-Yagis, no LNAs, no Coaxial relays etc... Just a Dish, a feeder, a Downconverter and several meters of cheap coaxial cable up to the shack!
I think is wrong to exclude this band from Eagle even the WiFi is grow-up... in any case we have already the S-band equipments and I don't remember an easier way to receive a Satellite.
73, Mak SV1BSX
sv1bsx@yahoo.gr http://www.qsl.net/sv1bsx
LAN eMail-Server: This Email has been checked by NAV 2005 Virus Free
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Glasbrenner" glasbrenner@mindspring.com To: "Rick Fletcher" rfletcher@plumdragon.com; "'AMSAT'" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:38 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: S band downlink on P3E
Rick,
I am in _TOTAL_ agreement. I live in the suburbs of Tampa/St. Pete and
never
had an interference problem on my 3 foot dish. I have used the same dish
to
log well over a dozen WiFi access points in that immediate neighborhood. With properly designed equipment, all that trash on 2.4 ghz goes away with some elevation. What won't work is helixes with multiple sidelobes, and surplus dishes that let one whole polarity of noise right thru the back.
Everyone knows I'm a big supporter of AMSAT, but I gotta call it as I see it. It makes me think of "bait and switch" to collect money for a project featuring such a popular mode and then drop it.
The loss of Mode B on AO-40 caused a lot of the hardcore AO-10/AO-13 types to walk away, and that was tough to overcome. Now that we have, and we
have
people wanting S band, we leave them behind too. Even if it's a sound engineering decision (and that hasn't been proven to me) it's a horrid marketing decision. Bad mojo for a organization that lives on the
donations
of it's members.
Sorry if this causes any pain to those involved with Eagle, but I needed
to
get it off my chest.
73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT LM 2332
While AO-40 was still alive and I was working it from deep within
"Silicon
Valley", an area blanketed by WiFi, 2.4GHz cordless phones, etc., I discovered that a parabolic dish with a properly positioned and designed patch feed (slightly under-illuminating the dish and having no
significant
side-lobes) would bring in AO-40's S-band downlink very nicely and
cleanly.
Of course, other feed or antenna types such as helical antennas/feeds
were
useless in that environment.
I have to admit that I don't buy the "too noisy" argument.
73,
Rick KG6IAL
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
__________________________________________________ ×ñçóéìïðïéåßôå Yahoo!; ÂáñåèÞêáôå ôá åíï÷ëçôéêÜ ìçíýìáôá (spam); Ôï Yahoo! Mail äéáèÝôåé ôçí êáëýôåñç äõíáôÞ ðñïóôáóßá êáôÜ ôùí åíï÷ëçôéêþí ìçíõìÜôùí http://mail.yahoo.gr