Hmmm, where to begin when so much opportunity is afoot?
... If I don't have a really good reason to put together a complex and expensive microwave station, I probably won't do it
Yes, a 10 GHz downlink can be converted into a range of frequencies covered with an off-the-shelf SDR for $100-$200. I'll admit that a microwave transmitter is more costly (for the present time) but $100 and some ingenuity to participate in one of amateur radio's next frontiers is likely within reach!
Work all the grid squares, all the states, bag all the DX? I see an opportunity to make so many more friends and earn so much wall paper you'll be considering building another wall in the shack so you can display all the certificates ;-) And, you'll still be able to hear that the XYL wants to go to the store, the dog wants out, and you had a really good hot dog for lunch ... oh, behave!
Heaven forbid, I gotta learn something new?
What if a GEO presented an opportunity for multiple high-definition channels. The proposed DVB-S on a hamsat could bring us ...
+ A channel for every ham radio podcast and ham radio video cast we know of ... on demand, sans Comcast, or AT&T? + ARRL on line? + Licensing classes on demand? + Self learning for everything we could think of or aspire to produce? + AMSAT meetings and nets in real time? + The next time an entire island gets wiped out by a hurricane real-time delivery of the ground-truth to FEMA in HD quality? + FEMA's ICS training on-demand? + Access some of the above with your 145/440 MHz HT via terrestrial gateways? + Everything ARISS does we'd have a channel? + Good stuff on NASA TV, ariannespace.com, spacex.com ... maybe we could watch?
I'm excited ... and, I'm hoping my friends will be able to fill in all the features yet to be named!
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm@amsat.org