In the US we have an old saying, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". It means do not be critical of others' generosity. It applies here. The Sumbandila team could have just ignored the amateurs and left no room for a secondary payload. As I understand it the repeater makes use of their secondary command and control radio system, which is likely why it is FM based. Frankly I am embarrassed by the complaining and such that has been posted on their blog and here on the -bb by a very few short-sighted amateurs.
73, Drew KO4MA
I concur it is nice of them to allow the "repeater"...
one can argue over what kind of amateur payload someone puts in "their bird"...and it is pretty pointless since it is their bird for their purposes.
However at the least if it is going to use amateur frequencies, it should in my view have a communication purpose otherwise we are going to see the bands become cheap telemetry bands for payloads which more and more seem to have nothing to do with amateur radio, other then using the frequencies.
anyway the freq sure sounded "wild"
Robert WB5MZO _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141665/direct/01/