--- On Wed, 30/11/11, Gordon JC Pearce gordonjcp@gjcp.net wrote:
You know, from 50km up you can see a fair chunk of the earth. While it might not be as cool as flying a satellite, a balloon-lofted repeater could be quite good fun. What next, though? Well, maybe a UAV-lofted repeater. I wonder how well a combination of a balloon for the heavy lifting with a UAV-based payload for station-keeping would work?
I believe there are problems with maintaining a High Altitude Platform in position above 25 km.
Current research is based on platforms between 17 and 22 km high. At that height they could provide coverage over a radius of up to 500 km.
In the UK we have the drawback that aeronautical amateur radio systems are not permitted by our regulator.
http://www.elec.york.ac.uk/research/comms/haps.html
http://www.port.ac.uk/research/telecoms/researchareas/satellitecommunication...
73 Trevor M5AKA