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

[Phil Karn]

On 8/22/19 08:17, KC9SGV via Ground-Station 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.
>>
This would not be in the amateur satellite service, so we'd need to use
commercial type-approved ground equipment, or gain type approval for our
own designs. That could get very expensive. Check out, e.g., Qualcomm's
filings for its Omitracs service for what was required to get something
novel past the FCC. The chief concern with commercial geostationary
satellites is spraying adjacent satellites with uplink QRM. They're
packed quite closely in longitude these days, close enough that the
usual ground antenna patterns can't be assumed to roll off fast enough.
So you have to analyze the system and show it's not objectionable. Also,
assuming the satellite in question is also carrying other traffic, you
have to show that your uplink transmitters are clean enough to not
interfere with those signals.

On the other hand we would not be subject to limitations on 3rd party
traffic or encryption.

I seem to recall that ground stations for retail Internet access have to
be installed by professional installers, which could also get expensive.
I don't know if that's a FCC requirement, or just a vendor policy.

This is not an easy or cheap option. $2000/mo for the transponder would
just be the beginning. It's not like QO-100, where the satellite
transponder itself operates in the amateur satellite service (2.4 GHz
up, 10 GHz down).

Phil