On Thu, 2009-07-02 at 11:15 -0400, David - KG4ZLB wrote:
On the contrary, we need more LEO's to augment and replace the existing aged fleet.
Whilst AMSAT works on the HEO's lets put some of our efforts towards the Universities who seem to regularly put up 2/70 satellites!
I'm relatively new to both amateur radio and the LEO satellites, I'll admit it. But I just can't see why we aren't constructing and launching more mode V/U LEO sats. A couple of the cubesats that are already flying are basically using stripped-down commercial radios in an off-the-shelf bus. It *cannot* be that hard to do, *if* you avoid getting bogged down in "clever" stuff.
I appreciate that a mode V/U satellite would need to be a little more sophisticated than a pair of cheap Chinese HTs gaffa-taped together and thrown out the driver's window of a passing Space Shuttle, but the fact remains that such a contraption *would* actually work, briefly. Most people on this list probably have enough junk lying around to build a viable mode V/U transponder if not a whole satellite (I'd need to hit eBay after payday for the solar panels, and scrounge around in Clyde Space's bins for the chassis).
The tricky bit is getting launches, but it must be possible somehow.
How hard can it be?
Gordon 2M0YEQ