Zach is correct. The primary barrier is money. It's difficult to understate the value of the service that the Qataris are providing to the amateur community. It's easily worth millions of dollars.

There are many political and economic factors that made the partnership with AMSAT-DL possible. For background, QO-100 is a commercial communications satellite owned by a Qatari state-owned firm, Es'HailSat. One of the spare transponders on board is used for amateur communications. Additionally, the Qatar Amateur Radio Society's president is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya. al-Attiya was also the head of the Emir's court and the Minister of Industry and Technology. As you can guess, a state-owned company helps with the economic aspects and there is obviously a very significant pro-amateur radio political influence. Compare that to the political influence amateur radio has in the United States - the most senior political official we've had who was active in amateur radio was Sen. Barry Goldwater. Currently, Rep. Greg Walden is the only amateur radio operator I'm aware of in high levels of government and he's retiring when his term ends in January.

AMSAT has made multiple attempts at a geostationary satellite, but they have all failed to materialize, primarily due to a lack of funding. We continue to have conversations with various people about possible opportunities in geostationary and other high orbits. However, getting to geostationary orbit means finding a willing host to carry us there, and all of them want lots and lots of money to do so.

While a replica of QO-100 over North America is unlikely, we do have active projects to provide long-range amateur communications. Our primary satellite project is GOLF, and the first satellite in the series, GOLF-TEE, destined for LEO, but carrying technologies that we need to test for high orbits such as an SDR-based microwave transponder and active attitude control is under development for a planned launch as soon as next year. More information about GOLF can be found at https://www.amsat.org/greater-orbit-larger-footprint-an-introduction-to-the-...

Our other active project to support long-range communications is our work on AREx, or Amateur Radio Exploration. We are working with our ARISS partners worldwide on developing an amateur communications system aboard Gateway in Lunar orbit. This includes two-way amateur communications as well as the traditional ARISS educational opportunities.

So while we might not see a replica of QO-100, lots of work is ongoing to return long-distance satellite communications to amateur radio. In fact, the opportunities we're working on go beyond what a GEO over North America can do and would enable worldwide communications. But as has been said, it all depends on raising the necessary money to make it happen. Please consider a donation today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/. If everyone subscribed to this list chipped in just $5-$10 a month, it'd make a huge difference!

73,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Executive Vice President AMSAT

On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 4:04 PM Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:

On 06/17/20 11:59, Joe Leikhim via AMSAT-BB wrote:

...

Great to tune in the downlink via web server. 10 GHz and No Doppler!

https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Why don't we have a Geo-stationary satellite like this?

Donate early, donate often.

--- Zach N0ZGO _______________________________________________ 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