At 7:53 PM -0400 10/19/06, Brad, K1GTo wrote:
You were a little hasty to shoot down the basis of the idea. If we think about it for a moment, how many people do you know with dual-band radios in their vehicle? Then think about how many people can full duplex between those bands. There are a few but most can't. My 706 can't, and that is what is driving me to write this application.
My objection was to the proposed implementation (using a remote Predict server), not to the function.
However, now that I understand your goal I will say that I am not really in favor of it. If you run a half-duplex transceiver on an analog transponder, you will have to rely on guesses and reports from other operators to set your uplink power level. That's less than ideal. There's not a lot of range between too weak to hear and too loud, and that range is not entirely predictable. Perhaps when we have SDX-based transponders with effective alligator control, it will be OK to set your power open-loop.
Nonetheless, it's an interesting project and I wish you success.
As a side note, phase-2 of the project will let the user plug in key attributes (probably about 5 numbers) of an upcoming orbit, so they can work the sat without network connectivity. Even these calculations can be simplified enough to allow for a small phone to continuously tune the TX and RX freqs on the radio, or tune the TX after the user adjusts the RX.
I will be interested to see what you come up with along those lines. I have speculated about something similar, but never stopped to think it all the way through.
73 -Paul kb5mu@amsat.org