I don't recall exactly but there is geostationary and there geocentric orbits.

The orbit that is not zero inclination will trace a figure 8 in the sky but its not a large deviation in position. If 5GHz is being considered for the link, antenna gain may be fairly high but will they have a beamwidth narrower than the angular deviation that the figure 8 makes? How big a dish? 2-foot? 3-foot? Get out your sliderules and calculate the beamwidth (no I will not do it for you).

I think the inclination in geotationary is not very high (maybe a few degrees; i.e. <10). The apparent motion would be diurnal so nothing rapid. One could probably use a manual setting for a few hours.

Just a guesstimate.

73, Ed - KL7UW

From: Burns Fisher burns@fisher.cc To: Joe nss@mwt.net Cc: AMSAT BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Link Budget Message-ID: CABX7KxVtXXFHvm_3_BLd4SKyTDRSpOdYwsA+x+kXJrTNHG0Eew@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

While it appears that you are right about the link budget, one of you arguments holds only *some* water, and that is tracking. GeoSTATIONARY birds would require to tracking, but there are geosynchronous orbits (i.e. 24 hours, but not necessarily 0 inclination and 0 eccentricity) which would move north/south or east/west in the sky over the course of a day.

And regarding the moon: Another argument against it is that it is darned hard to land on the moon. Lots more deltaV required.

73,

Burns W2BFJ

73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com "Kits made by KL7UW" Dubus Mag business: dubususa@gmail.com