[Ground-station] [amsat-bb] Update: Rent GEO bandwidth for US

[KENT BRITAIN]

 John, all we need is the ride!!!!!!!
Kent G8EMY/WA5VJB




    On Thursday, August 22, 2019, 11:25:37 AM CDT, John Brier via Ground-Station <ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:  
 
 I personally don't like using amateur radio infrastructure that
partially depends on the internet, but there are a lot of hams that
don't care and think it's quite cool. Look at Echolink and IRLP, which
have been around for a long time. I believe the newer DMR and D-Star
protocols have internet capability too, and they seem to be even more
popular than Echolink ever was.

I don't know about the cost, but if this was made available to hams
I'm sure there would be a lot of people interested because a lot of
people find it exciting to hear their voice relayed from space. Maybe
people that find manual LEO tracking too difficult would try this
instead. Also, I know when QO-100 came online I heard that a lot of
former HEO sat ops who were no longer active started cropping up on
its passband.

I do see the argument that it could be good practice for a future all
ham band GEO sat. Actually, there are a lot of people on QO-100 who
uplink directly but use WebSDR to receive the downlink. I imagine they
eventually want to do it all RF, I sure would, but that proves that it
is good practice. This proposal may not have a downlink in ham bands
but that personally wouldn't bother me, as long as I get to hear my
signal come down over RF. Lots of hams are into SWL outside of ham
bands for the same reason they are interested in RF on ham bands.

Just having a GEO sat we could use, even if it doesn't use much ham
infrastructure, could drive interest for a full ham GEO sat.

Also, absolutist arguments, whether hyperbole or not, are usually
wrong and often unhelpful.

On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 11:28 AM KC9SGV via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> Echostar 9
> Here she is:
> 32 FSS transponders in the Ku band.
> 120 Watt...
>
> https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/echostar-9.htm
>
> KC9SGV
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Aug 21, 2019, at 8:34 PM, Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> >
> > An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of
> > USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
> >
> > I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay for
> > at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I
> > think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to
> > provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to
> > happen to secure a grant for rental.
> >
> > The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field deployment
> > of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio
> > Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog
> > gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a
> > satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of
> > interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in
> > order to support legacy radios.
> >
> > You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The
> > aggregator equipment does that part for you.
> >
> > This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A
> > communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated
> > ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is
> > sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
> >
> > The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by
> > individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the
> > internet.
> >
> > What does this get us?
> >
> > An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some experience
> > with uplinks.
> >
> > What do we not have?
> >
> > A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or
> > you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
> >
> > That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
> >
> > I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test,
> > and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms and
> > figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
> >
> > Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
> >
> > More soon!
> > -Michelle W5NYV
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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

  
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