On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 11:29 AM, G0MRF@aol.com wrote:
Cubesats built by students from universities in Poland Spain Italy Switzerland Romania France and Belgium have been selected for a free ride to low earth orbit. The launch is scheduled on the Vega maiden flight from Kourou at the end 2008 / early 2009 TBC.
_http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEM2BPUG3HF_index_0.html_ (http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEM2BPUG3HF_index_0.html)
Thanks
David
If their plans have not progressed too far, I wonder if we can encourage any of these projects to use an s-band downlink. I know the path loss needs to be compensated by a more directional antenna, and that means pointing; and it's also the case, I believe, that the amplifiers are not as efficient. They'd also have to take into consideration the noise level in urban areas (though I don't think this is yet at a level that will trouble LEO signal levels). Add to this the fact that they'd have far fewer stations capable of receiving the signals.
From the perspective of the amateur service, though, having a few
university experiments making use of this band would colonize it very nicely. And it would let us calibrate and exercise our s-band equipment.
73, Bruce VE9QRP