Hello Ray, 

Some sort of standard would be good. That way AMSAT could potentially offload some of the overall costs. 

For example a commercial transceiver for a CubeSat is $10,000 USD. That many CubeSat builders likely go to as they are not radio experts. But ISIS uses a standard form factor.

https://www.cubesatshop.com/product/isis-uhf-downlink-vhf-uplink-full-duplex-transceiver/

A standard reference like the PC104 interface is taught in many schools as part of computer engineering. So students would have less of a learning curve adapting it to their CubeSat design. As nothing is proprietary. 

If a design of a transceiver that can be tested and found space worthy can be developed for a more reasonable cost. It would incentivize schools to allow their CubeSats to be used for amateur radio en mass.

Dimitrios
VA3DSZ

On Tue., Feb. 2, 2021, 10:25 Ray Soifer via AMSAT-BB, <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:

The Cubesats thread that I started several days ago has morphed into a general dscussion of AMSAT satellites.  Mr Moderator, please change the thread accordingly.

Before that happened, some excellent technical points were made about Cubesats.  What;s the best way to get them into the hands of designers and builders?

Speaking personally, I was impressed by how little things have chaged since the early days.  As the French say, "plus ca change, plus la meme chose." 

Proolems with negative power budgets, antenna deployment, thermal design, lack of rad-hard components, and IHU failures, to just a few, were evident in the 1970s and 1980s, and were written about at the time.  If anything, they have been made worse by the inadequate financial resources and lack of technical sophistication which are all too common in the Cubesat world.

To those who participated, thank you.

73 Ray W2RS

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!

View archives of this mailing list at
https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/amsat-bb@amsat.org
To unsubscribe send an email to amsat-bb-leave(a)amsat.org
Manage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!

View archives of this mailing list at
https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/amsat-bb@amsat.org
To unsubscribe send an email to amsat-bb-leave(a)amsat.org
Manage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org