[Ground-station] Ballon launch - lightweight inexpensive 10GHz transmit

[Phil Karn]

On 5/14/18 11:27, Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station wrote:
> For the balloon launch opportunity, and for groundsat in general, we
> have been asked to consider a lightweight inexpensive 10GHz transmitter
> for the balloon. And, obviously, receivers on the ground. 
> 
> Phil and the high school team doing the launches are interested in live
> video from the balloon. Launch schedule is flexible and it's an ongoing
> project.

This would be really, REALLY cool if we can do it. What do the link
budgets look like? The balloon would probably have to use an omni
antenna, which would be pretty inefficient at X band. So we'll need good
dishes on the ground, at least at long range (e.g., receiving the signal
in Rancho Penasquitos when the balloon is at apogee over the Imperial
Valley).

So what's the data rate, transmit power and required Eb/No? HDTV with
modern codecs requires about 6 Mb/s. I was going to say we wouldn't need
audio but that would actually be pretty interesting. We could show how
things get quieter as the air gets thinner (~1% of surface pressure at
burst altitude.)

I'm in Maryland at the moment and I don't know when I'll be back in
California but I'll be very interested in working on this project when I do.

Phil