Update: Rent GEO bandwidth for US
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV
MIchelle,
Every disaster drill I have ever done makes the assumption that the Internet is *not* available. Will this system work without Internet access? It could still be fun to play with and do proof of concept work but absent the Internet might not be too useful in an emergency setting.
Please clarify.
John
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 9:38 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Yes, it works without Internet access.
What goes up does come down over the entire footprint. No internet required.
Streaming from a receiver somewhere over the Internet is just a nice additional way to monitor it if you don't want to build your own Ku receiver.
-Michelle W5NYV
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 6:51 PM John Kludt johnnykludt@gmail.com wrote:
MIchelle,
Every disaster drill I have ever done makes the assumption that the Internet is *not* available. Will this system work without Internet access? It could still be fun to play with and do proof of concept work but absent the Internet might not be too useful in an emergency setting.
Please clarify.
John
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 9:38 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Very interesting idea! Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs%C2%A0 . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 06:38:04 PM PDT, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Michelle,
This is absolutely wonderful ! 1 MHz is ample for a start. Say, 300 KHz for legacy ham radio modes, analog and digital (ala 40 M HF). The rest for DATV (might be tight).
Please set up a Paypal account and link. I will be your first contributor.
Now off to the shack bench to start building the ground station ! We are waiting for details.
Bernard, KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 21, 2019, at 9:05 PM, Robert MacHale via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Very interesting idea! Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://spaceCommunicator.club/aprs . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration
On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 06:38:04 PM PDT, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Michelle, What a fascinating opportunity. I'd like to try to describe this using different words to see if I get it. Echostar 9 is a geosynchronous satellite with 1 MHz of spectrum to sell. Both the up and down frequencies are outside of the amateur bands. To use it, an aggregator is needed. An aggregator is a "bridge" device that converts amateur-band RF to satellite uplink RF and setellite downlink RF to amateur-band RF. Amateurs simply need to be in range of an aggregator. It is the aggregators responsibility to remain aimed at the satellite.
The aggregator determines if it will bridge FM or Linear (SSB, CW, PSK31, etc.) modes. Is this right? Regards,Ev, W2EV
On Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 9:38:12 PM EDT, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
There is that Geo bird over Africa.
I had the URL for a site that lets you listen to the whole bird passband.
When it first went up I listened to it a LOT and was amazed at all the different modes and coverage.
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com On 8/22/2019 10:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB wrote:
Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Try https://eshail.batc.org.uk/
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm@amsat.org
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/
They have a wideband webSDR too now which I hadn't seen yet: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/wb/
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 12:40 PM Joe via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
There is that Geo bird over Africa.
I had the URL for a site that lets you listen to the whole bird passband.
When it first went up I listened to it a LOT and was amazed at all the different modes and coverage.
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com On 8/22/2019 10:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB wrote:
Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Here is the narrow band WebSDR for QO-100 over Africa. Very active with all the latest sound card digital modes. From the Goonhilly ground station in England.
We will hopefully have the same type of WebSDR for our 1 MHz bandwidth on Echostar 9.
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/
Bernard, KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 22, 2019, at 10:44 AM, Joe via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
There is that Geo bird over Africa.
I had the URL for a site that lets you listen to the whole bird passband.
When it first went up I listened to it a LOT and was amazed at all the different modes and coverage.
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 8/22/2019 10:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB wrote: Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
I personally think that instead of spend money on renting GEO bandwidth a better idea would be trying to see if any companies going to GEO would be willing haul up and power a small Amateur Payload. Or even just getting a highly elliptical orbit on a normal bird. (Which for de-orbiting sails/drags could be deployed.)
Unless that GEO bandwidth is actually in the Ham bands why bother.
On Aug 22, 2019, at 11:57 AM, KC9SGV via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Here is the narrow band WebSDR for QO-100 over Africa. Very active with all the latest sound card digital modes. From the Goonhilly ground station in England.
We will hopefully have the same type of WebSDR for our 1 MHz bandwidth on Echostar 9.
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/
Bernard, KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 22, 2019, at 10:44 AM, Joe via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
There is that Geo bird over Africa.
I had the URL for a site that lets you listen to the whole bird passband.
When it first went up I listened to it a LOT and was amazed at all the different modes and coverage.
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 8/22/2019 10:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB wrote: Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Joe,
Further to Bernard mail, I confirm that the GEO bird over Africa is QO-100 (Es’hail2 Qatari satellite Amateur transponders) and with a footprint from Brazil to Asia, it is quite popular, 3B8FA has already worked out around 60 countries.
In week ends the 250 Khz narrowband transponder (SSB, CW, SSTV etc.) is very often as busy as 20M in the good days of good sun cycle (not much space left). On the DATV (WB) transponder it is also a lot of fun and very often fully occupied.
QO-100 has changed drastically our satellite operation in Region 1, enabled many experimentations which was not possible before and Hams are now back to early days ,building or repurposing equipment for same. Just a lot of fun this side of the world (unfortunately US is out of footprint).
Myself QRV on both the NB and WB (DATV) transponders I have much fun on this bird and enjoying many experiments.
I just can dream 3 such of GEO’s with interconnection between themselves providing worldwide coverage to the the HAMs 24/7. A vision that can only be achieved if one and all contribute a few $ and therefore wish to sell the idea to the community, AMSAT may coordinate. My humble proposal.
73
Jean Marc (3B8DU)
On Aug 22, 2019, at 8:57 PM, KC9SGV via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Here is the narrow band WebSDR for QO-100 over Africa. Very active with all the latest sound card digital modes. From the Goonhilly ground station in England.
We will hopefully have the same type of WebSDR for our 1 MHz bandwidth on Echostar 9.
https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/
Bernard, KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 22, 2019, at 10:44 AM, Joe via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
There is that Geo bird over Africa.
I had the URL for a site that lets you listen to the whole bird passband.
When it first went up I listened to it a LOT and was amazed at all the different modes and coverage.
But I can't find the URL anymore. I was gonna go and listen to see what the activity level is now like since it is much older and the newness has worn off.
Joe WB9SBD Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 8/22/2019 10:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB wrote: Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
I’ve noticed that SAT phones, are typically even worse then regular phones (cellular/pots) etc…. they have even less capacity, and all above usually are at best overloaded, or are not functional due to ’the emergency’… not all (but some are) sat providers have good up/downlink stations
just food for thought, that said I wouldn’t tell a police office not to buy a sat phone, but i wouldn’t rely on it too much for the really big diasters.
myles Landstein myles.landstein@gmail.com
On Aug 22, 2019, at 11:04 AM, Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Hi Michelle,
Excellent that they came back with the price and while the project sounds potentially interesting it's of course, not an amateur radio satellite, has anyone considered any risks for example, does this have the potential to raise questions when AMSAT approaches gov/orgs for discount launches for satellites we build that they might say that we could just go rent some transponder space.
I know in the states disaster comms is a huge point (weirdly not something that's pushed in Europe), but agencies could already access this kind of technology just by purchasing sat phones, for example, I have an iridium unit that lets me make calls and access the internet although slowly but handy in highlands of Scotland with poor mobile coverage.
By the sounds of this, it will be access points that then aggregate into a central point via probably internet backhaul then its dumped up to the satellite, to me that doesn't really feel within the ham spirit, although I'm sure tons would argue :)
I know there's a big desire for GEO over North America, but do ops really think this is the ultimate solution? we're talking 96000 USD over 4 years.
Think it really requires some heavy thought before just jumping on the idea.
Just my thoughts, and I know I'm on the other side of the pond in the QO-100 footprint.
Peter, 2M0SQL
On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 02:36, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Echostar 9 Here she is: 32 FSS transponders in the Ku band. 120 Watt...
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/echostar-9.htm
KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 21, 2019, at 8:34 PM, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
I personally don't like using amateur radio infrastructure that partially depends on the internet, but there are a lot of hams that don't care and think it's quite cool. Look at Echolink and IRLP, which have been around for a long time. I believe the newer DMR and D-Star protocols have internet capability too, and they seem to be even more popular than Echolink ever was.
I don't know about the cost, but if this was made available to hams I'm sure there would be a lot of people interested because a lot of people find it exciting to hear their voice relayed from space. Maybe people that find manual LEO tracking too difficult would try this instead. Also, I know when QO-100 came online I heard that a lot of former HEO sat ops who were no longer active started cropping up on its passband.
I do see the argument that it could be good practice for a future all ham band GEO sat. Actually, there are a lot of people on QO-100 who uplink directly but use WebSDR to receive the downlink. I imagine they eventually want to do it all RF, I sure would, but that proves that it is good practice. This proposal may not have a downlink in ham bands but that personally wouldn't bother me, as long as I get to hear my signal come down over RF. Lots of hams are into SWL outside of ham bands for the same reason they are interested in RF on ham bands.
Just having a GEO sat we could use, even if it doesn't use much ham infrastructure, could drive interest for a full ham GEO sat.
Also, absolutist arguments, whether hyperbole or not, are usually wrong and often unhelpful.
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 11:28 AM KC9SGV via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Echostar 9 Here she is: 32 FSS transponders in the Ku band. 120 Watt...
https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/echostar-9.htm
KC9SGV
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 21, 2019, at 8:34 PM, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to happen to secure a grant for rental.
The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in order to support legacy radios.
You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The aggregator equipment does that part for you.
This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the internet.
What does this get us?
An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience with uplinks.
What do we not have?
A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test, and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
More soon! -Michelle W5NYV _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (12)
-
Bill Gaylord -
Ev Tupis -
Jean Marc Momple -
JoAnne K9JKM -
Joe -
John Brier -
John Kludt -
KC9SGV -
Michelle Thompson -
myles Landstein -
Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) -
Robert MacHale