----- Original Message ----- From: "John B. Stephensen" kd6ozh@comcast.net To: "i8cvs" domenico.i8cvs@tin.it; "george abbott" ka1ajf@cox.net; "'Bill Ress'" bill@hsmicrowave.com; "G0MRF David Bowman" g0mrf@aol.com; brobertson@mta.ca; "AMSAT-BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 3:51 AM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: The Mode B tradition
The European contacts are similar to my experience in the U.S. Are you certain that the contacts outside Europe weren't cross-band -- one end UV and the other US or LS? These would also have been completed on UV.
Hi John KD6OZH
The US mode of OSCAR-13 was available only for short periods of time at low squint angle while all the other modes where OFF In addition there was not S downlink with L uplink on OSCAR-13
Uplink 435.603 to 435.639 MHz Downlink 2400.711 to 2400.747 MHz G.Beacon 2400.664 MHz was ON
My biggest concern about the S downlink is that it is becoming
increasingly
harder to use in many parts of the world so that it becomes less and less useful over the life of the Eagle satellites (2010-2030).
Only God know 20 to 25 years from now......... I am 74 years old !
When AO-13 was in
orbit I could use the S downlink all the time, but by the time AO-40 was
in
orbit, I had S9 WiFi interference for hours at a time -- even with 3-foot dish and feed. The dish was fairly deep (0.33 f/d) and the feed shielded
so
sidelobes were low.
I also experienced an increase of noise floor beginning from OSCAR-13 and going to AO40 but here for the moment the S-band is still viable but this is like to randomly fire a shot to my head with a revolver with only one shot i.e. just in case a WiFi channel 1 will operate from the next door no way !
Some in the U.K. say that we'd be better off flyng an S2 downlink (3400-3410MHz).
The downlink of EAGLE in the S2 would be a great choise if we Europeans in Region-1 could get ITU to allow operation in S2 but who know if receiving only in a well protected and scarcely used band not allowed to us or to unlicenced services should be good even without a rules changes ? ?
Unfortunately for the moment I don't own a 3400-3410 MHz converter with a feed for my dish to scan the band but just for curiosity I will try using my spectrum analyser.
73,
John KD6OZH
73" de
i8CVS Domenico