The Eagle has died, my original point.
As I started this thread perhaps I should finish it. My original point was the ratio of Satellite operators to experimenters must be about 50:1, so it makes far more sense to put up a bird that people will and more importantly " can " use than continually developing more and more sophisticated modes etc. The biggest thrill I've had in 25 years as a Ham is to work 67 countries and all continents in the 18 months or so that I discovered AO-40. I'd played with AO 7 etc back in 80-81 but this was " FUN " and thats the point I tried to make with my earlier post. I will donate to P3E as it will give me many options to use the gear I already have. There are no other options for me, living in Western Australia, Leo's are a complete waste of time and money, I can talk to myself on every pass on any satellite going over, no one else will be there to reply !! Well maybe the same 2 or 3 people. If Amsat NA must persue the Eagle option then please be prepared to revert back to AO-13 / AO-40 type birds when it fails. Can we finish this hread of mine now please? 73 Keith
There seems to be some misunderstanding of the purpose of Eagle as some people who responded are fixated on the digtal transponder and shortchange the analog transponder.
Eagle provides AO-10-like service, with analog (i.e SSB, CW, etc.) mode B (called UV in AO-40) available 100% of the time. Since 99% (if not more) of the satellite operators have this, it seems to me that satellite operators can use the satellite. The Eagle design also makes mode B available more of the year, unlike AO-10, AO-13, AO-40 and P3E where the transponder use must be limited and even eliminated entirely during certain seasons. The separate digital transponder would operate in parallel and not affect analog operation. Its purpose is to attact new users to help pay for these satellites.
The only issue that I can see is whether an AO-13-like S-band downlink is critical. Neither P3E or Eagle can do what AO-40 did on S-band as the membership asked for smaller, AO-10/AO-13 size, satellites. I was able to use AO-13 mode-S for U.S. contacts on AO-13 but all my DX contacts were in mode B. I was talking to stations in Australia on mode B during the last orbit as atmospheric friction caused the transponder to fail.
The idea of putting Eagle in an equatorial orbit should also be of particular interest to VK users as it makes the satellite equally available to those in the southern and northern hemispheres.
73,
John KD6OZH
----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Bainbridge" vk6xh@arach.net.au To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 23:51 UTC Subject: [amsat-bb] The Eagle has died, my original point.
As I started this thread perhaps I should finish it. My original point was the ratio of Satellite operators to experimenters must be about 50:1, so it makes far more sense to put up a bird that people will and more importantly " can " use than continually developing more and more sophisticated modes etc. The biggest thrill I've had in 25 years as a Ham is to work 67 countries and all continents in the 18 months or so that I discovered AO-40. I'd played with AO 7 etc back in 80-81 but this was " FUN " and thats the point I tried to make with my earlier post. I will donate to P3E as it will give me many options to use the gear I already have. There are no other options for me, living in Western Australia, Leo's are a complete waste of time and money, I can talk to myself on every pass on any satellite going over, no one else will be there to reply !! Well maybe the same 2 or 3 people. If Amsat NA must persue the Eagle option then please be prepared to revert back to AO-13 / AO-40 type birds when it fails. Can we finish this hread of mine now please? 73 Keith
-- Keith Bainbridge VK6XH & VK6DXR
Vice-President Northern Corridor Radio Group ( VK6ANC ) Amsat NA 35338 TenTec Omni VI, FlexRadio SDR 1000 , 5 Band Spiderbeam. Wireless Institute of Australia Previous calls include VK6DXC, VK6BRK,G6HHV, G0HEI & G1GHZ
You're just jealous 'cos the voices only speak to me.........
http:/www.qrz.com/vk6xh
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
At 10:53 AM 9/15/2006, John B. Stephensen wrote:
The idea of putting Eagle in an equatorial orbit should also be of particular interest to VK users as it makes the satellite equally available to those in the southern and northern hemispheres.
This will certainly be of benefit to us. Inclination should exceed 45 degrees at apogee, if Eagle is over our part of the world at the time. Maybe it's time to sort out a suitable 70cm uplink and then put up some antennas. I'll go for manual rotation, HEO shouldn't require too frequent adjustment, once I have the bird. :)
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com
participants (3)
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John B. Stephensen -
Keith Bainbridge -
Tony Langdon