26 Aug 2016
Amateur Satellites
Next year, if all goes to plan, we may have an amateur satellite in a geosynchronous orbit permitting long distance propagation at almost any time day or night. As the solar activity declines, this could be a lifeline. I have little experience of amateur satellites and only had a single QSO via a low orbit satellite. Geosynchronous should mean lower Doppler and hours of operation whereas low orbit satellites go out of range within 20 minutes. Years ago I recall the excitement of hearing US and Canadians on Oscar 6 and 7 on 2m. Being on microwave bands should mean much greater transponder bandwidths. Also, dishes can be fixed as the satellite will always be in the same place in the sky like a TV satellite.
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4 comments:
Great news, where can I find more info?
73 Fred G4BWP
Fred, I read this some time ago and will try to find the link. It was part of the payload of a Middle East satellite (Qatar?) I think. It would be good if it was successful. Launch date is (I think) planned for next spring.
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geosynchronous/eshail-2/
Sorry, launch planned for Q3/2017.
After reading your post about the well made Bulgarian 23cm transverter, I did some googling and found out that LZ5HP also designed/sells 33 and 13cm transverters for the same price as the 23 or at least did at one point.
The 13 would make a great low cost uplink to eshail-2.
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