John B. Stephensen wrote:
Consideration of X-band was dropped early in the meeting, but should be part of the re-evaluation as a downlink band. I suspect that S2 is not viable as an uplink or downlink because of regulatory issues outside our region. If S1 is unavailable and L remains a potential problem, C/X is a possible solution. The proposal in the U.K. to sell 10.125-10.225 and 10.475-10.575 GHz still leaves 10.450-10.475 GHz available for amateur satellites.
I do not believe X-band is viable.
As we said at the meeting, links with both sides gain-limited will get worse at 6dB per octave. Links with both sides aperture-limited get better at 6dB per octave. Links with one side gain and one side aperture limited stay constant.
Remember, the satellite side of the link is gain-limited, so that means that for everything to stay the same, we'd have to keep the same apertures on the ground. A 60cm and 1.8m dish at 10 GHz are very tough to aim with simple setups. What is the pointing accuracy required for a 1.8m 10 GHz dish?
Matt