Dave hartzell wrote:
- Most of the uplink freq's are in the 5.9 GHz range (out of our
allocation) and downlink in the 3.7 GHz range, again, (out of our allocation).
That may be _the_ problem. I don't know the current capabilities of these birds, and if they have any capability of either "retuning" to a close amateur band, or if there are other assets on board, but inability to transmit/receive on one of our bands would probably make this a non sequitur. Those with more intimate knowledge of current flying technology would need to speak to this.
I heard that several years ago there was talk of putting an amateur transponder onboard a commercial geo-sync bird. But I suspect economics and the fact that all extra mass is reserved for stationkeeping fuel. Plus power is always critical, and over time, the solar panels generate less. Anyone know more about this?
Another idea I floated a few years ago (here, I think) that was shot down rather quickly. However, this one may probably have more merit. A micro-sat sized transponder wouldn't take much space at all, and as in the previous item, donation of space on a new bird to a non-profit organization would be an ongoing tax writeoff, as well as a nice PR piece. The satellite owners would, of course, have the ability to terminate use of the amateur portion, and current could be limited easily, but again, someone has to have the contacts to actually propose such an item.
A corollary idea would be to place an amateur-band transponder on a new satellite, and only activate it periodically and during emergency situations.
73, Karl, WA5TMC