At 03:17 AM 7/3/2009, MM wrote:
Hi James:
I am in favor of any band that has the desired results. I just used the 2/440 bands as the opener. Remember the higher in frequency the less affordable the system becomes and the fewer Amateur Radio operators and Short Wave listeners will have access to those frequencies. We do not want to design a system that only 2 people can afford.
V/U are the bands with the _most_ expensive antenna requirements, because of the sheer size of the arrays required on both ends. L/S would be much cheaper, and particularly the S side is nowadays well supported, just have to enlarge those dishes a bit.
In years gone by, I would never have been able to operate a HEO on 2m and 70cm. However, microwave bands were more practical at the time. Even now, I still believe a HEO would work better for me on microwaves, because of the more modest mechanical requirements. I don't have the mechanical skills to hoist large antenna arrays into the sky. A small dish? That's much more likely. :)
73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com