During the Symposium in Baltimore last week there was a discussion that I found quite interesting. Billed as a proposal for fairly long-term, future AMSAT HEO possibilities, this blue-sky proposal offers projects that will be fun for myself (and maybe yourself) to learn what's next ... or could be next ...
It seems the cubesat form factor is here to stay for practical launch opportunities available to us ... (please don't ask for getting a phase III-B form factor in this thread!) Wiser people than myself have assured me of this.
Analog SSB and CW modulation in a 3U to 6U cubesat may not be practical at HEO apogee due to antenna size limits on a cubesat and power generation capability of the cubesat limited number of solar cells. Digital techniques were described as a way to make this work.
FreeDV HF Digital Voice for Radio Amateurs was one of the types of technologies mentioned just as an example. I found a demonstration at: http://nicktoday.com/freedv-hf-digital-voice-radio-amateurs/
Interesting, eh? A soundcard interface to your existing radio, sound card in the PC, we're teaching ourselves the first steps into digital radio ... getting ready for the future.
I've only had to interface my soundcard interface to my Yaesu 857D just once. The interface remains stable from a hardware point of view. My PC runs the appropriate software for FUNcube telemetry, SSTV from ISS and prior ARISSat-1, PSK31, JT65, RTTY ... and when I get some time in between preparing the next issue of the Journal I'll add the software for the FreeDV codec.
Perhaps we'll hear more interesting ideas or a fresh approach! At least we could have a thread with some fun discussion ...
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM [email protected] AMSAT VP User Services