I'm too busy with other things to read AMSAT-BB or digest Eaglepedia (or whatever it's called). Speaking only as an satellite QRPer, i do have a naive question...

Various amateur satellites, such as AO-7, AO-13, FO-29, AO-40, and AO-51, have been programmed to operate in a variety of different modes. Generally speaking a given frequency is usually an uplink or a downlink. On Eagle, i believe we are contrained by size considerations in terms of antenna placement, so we can't put everything we like on that bird.

Assuming S band is not on all of the time, might it be feasible for it to be switchable between being an uplink or a downlink?

I see this as allowing newcomers to use existing and/or inexpensive S-band downconverters some of the time, and others to use the wider bandwidth of S-band uplinks for digital experiments at other times. This might also be a way of occupying our allocated S-band spectra enough of the time to make an impression on other users while still providing an easy path for people to get beyond mode J-FM. And perhaps allow the kinds of experiments that i really had hoped that would have happened with RUDAK in parallel with AO-40 voice operations. -- KD6PAG (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)

P.S. I was able to work AO-40 QRP via a pair of homebrew quagis. I'm looking forward to doing something similar on P3E and Eagle.