Hi,
I've been following the thread about Eagle, and like many others I am sad to hear that S-band will not fly. I do look forward to working S-band on P3E, and hope the Eagle team will reconsider, and fly an S transmitter, even if it is considered a backup or emergency transmitter.
I understand why the team wants to drop it, but I have a feeling that if we DON'T fly it, we'll wish that we had. Sort of putting all the eggs in one basket to depend on U/v to work for the life of the bird, isn't it? Remember AO-40 - I never heard the S1 TX, but aren't we all glad there were two S transmitters aboard?
I DO look forward to working U/v on Eagle, but I doubt that my budget will allow experimenting with new modes such as C-band anytime soon. With this in mind, as far as I'm concerned, Eagle will be a U/v bird only.
While I won't argue that the 2.4 GHz spectrum is a 'sewer' in some areas, I've only had serious QRM on one occasion. The radar pulses or spread spectrum noise was cured by my radio's Noise Blanker.
One evening while copying AO-40, the bird's signal dropped completely off the S-meter. It was like my dish had fallen off the roof or something! Seems a neighbor down the street got a new 2.4 GHz analog cordless telephone, and (you guessed it) she was the dreaded full duty-cycle type - a high-school age girl!
Her phone must have broken or was returned to the store soon after (WHEW!) I never got a chance to DF it, as I only heard it the one time, but was in absolute horror at the possibility of losing my S-band RX. For those of you that doubt a non-licensed device can swamp your new downconverter, believe me, my AIDC 3731 could hear nothing else.
On a related subject, seems like I read somewhere that some C-band experimenters were considering using s-band units for the final conversion from 5 GHz? In other words, the C-band converter would only need to convert from 5 GHz to 2 GHz, and let the surplus s-band units do the rest? Anyone know any more about this subject?
Another use for S-band converters might be for RF linking purposes? A small transmitter and helix or dish at each end should work well for control links or linking repeater sites maybe?
73,
Kyle Yoksh KØKN Olathe, Kansas Amsat # 35249 VUCC Satellite # 150
Kyle, Digital CC Rider transponder requires more bandwidth that a linear transponder passing a single SSB or CW signal. Measurments made using SSB receivers, and recolections of AO-40 reception on S Band are NOT valid comparisons.
The 902 MHz to 928 MHz Band in Escondido, Ca. has a solid noise floor of -70 dBm accross the Band, several years after 900 cordless phones were offered for sale. Put that fact in the S Band predictions 5 years from now.
Amateurs should not run away from ISM/License Free intrusion into our bands, WE JUST NEED TO MAKE THEM OUTPUTS, and receive on other bands!
Art, KC6UQH ----- Original Message ----- From: yokshs@sbcglobal.net To: "amsat-bb" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 12:00 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] S-band on Eagle
Hi,
I've been following the thread about Eagle, and like many others I am sad to hear that S-band will not fly. I do look forward to working S-band on P3E, and hope the Eagle team will reconsider, and fly an S transmitter, even if it is considered a backup or emergency transmitter.
I understand why the team wants to drop it, but I have a feeling that if we DON'T fly it, we'll wish that we had. Sort of putting all the eggs in one basket to depend on U/v to work for the life of the bird, isn't it? Remember AO-40 - I never heard the S1 TX, but aren't we all glad there were two S transmitters aboard?
I DO look forward to working U/v on Eagle, but I doubt that my budget will allow experimenting with new modes such as C-band anytime soon. With this in mind, as far as I'm concerned, Eagle will be a U/v bird only.
While I won't argue that the 2.4 GHz spectrum is a 'sewer' in some areas, I've only had serious QRM on one occasion. The radar pulses or spread spectrum noise was cured by my radio's Noise Blanker.
One evening while copying AO-40, the bird's signal dropped completely off the S-meter. It was like my dish had fallen off the roof or something! Seems a neighbor down the street got a new 2.4 GHz analog cordless telephone, and (you guessed it) she was the dreaded full duty-cycle type - a high-school age girl!
Her phone must have broken or was returned to the store soon after (WHEW!) I never got a chance to DF it, as I only heard it the one time, but was in absolute horror at the possibility of losing my S-band RX. For those of you that doubt a non-licensed device can swamp your new downconverter, believe me, my AIDC 3731 could hear nothing else.
On a related subject, seems like I read somewhere that some C-band experimenters were considering using s-band units for the final conversion from 5 GHz? In other words, the C-band converter would only need to convert from 5 GHz to 2 GHz, and let the surplus s-band units do the rest? Anyone know any more about this subject?
Another use for S-band converters might be for RF linking purposes? A small transmitter and helix or dish at each end should work well for control links or linking repeater sites maybe?
73,
Kyle Yoksh KØKN Olathe, Kansas Amsat # 35249 VUCC Satellite # 150
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