25 Sep
2009
25 Sep
'09
10:51 p.m.
At a SmallSat conference I attended on behalf of AMSAT this summer, I was amused at the casual assumption by a researcher that 50, Five Oh, cubesats could be launched as part of an upper atmosphere project using ham frequencies for the downlinks. (They would have a lifetime of only 3-4 months.) Jan King, W3GEY/VK4GEY, who does coordination of satellite frequencies, gently but firmly brought them down to earth a bit.
On the one hand, we get new hams with interests in space communications from these projects, but on the other we need to prevent the de facto appropriation of needed frequencies. A fine line to walk.
Alan WA4SCA