Lyle Johnson wrote:
If we don't "promise" a performance level, then we must face the problem that Franklin pointed out with AO-40 -- a set of realistic user requirements was never presented, so everyone was just flying blind.
I think we need to promise a field strength (flux density, whatever the politically correct term is these days :-) on the ground for a given uplink power by the user, or its equivalent. We can't control the user's noise environment, but we sure better be able to predict our downlink and publish it and meet it. And don't forget to add 6 to 8 dB of loss just because, since I seem to recall we've nearly always been 6 to 8 dB shy of our expectatins in the past...
73,
Lyle KK7P
This is misunderstood. No promised performance level means "We are not promising this will work over 70+% of the orbit and with a few watt station to a 0.6m dish". Not as in "we ain't even gonna measure it". All performances are to be measured. The L performance goal is "best achievable within the constraints".
Bob