At 11:29 PM 9/19/2006, sco@sco-inc.com wrote:
Maybe someone can explain why Eagle could not use the L Band for its digital uplink instead of S Band? Then you would have a L/C mode and many users already have a L band uplink capability.
My understanding is that there is not enough room for an antenna of the size required for 1296, at least not one with much gain. I'm sure that someone from the engineering team could speak further to this.
This was heavily discussed each night at the DCC in Tucson, and antennas and band availability were discussed ad nauseam.
No one is trying to ignore the users - heck, why build it if there would be no users, but they WERE trying to make sound engineering arguments so that there would actually be something worthwhile available. One AMSAT member present, someone who I recognized as an operator with some experience, made a number of suggestions that the engineers seemed to embrace, so you may see some additional info come forward by the time of the AMSAT meeting.
Dave VE3GYQ/W8 Spencerville, OH