Oscar 100 activity

My regular peek at the narrow-band transponder was late Saturday morning in Europe. It was quiet! I really was expecting this to be far busier by now. It would appear this sort of operation is not liked by many. 

As I have said many times before, if one of the big manufacturers was offering a "black box" solution, I expect activity would be far greater. As it is, getting on the satellite is too hard for most who are cheque-book amateurs rather than true experimenters. 

What would a total solution cost? I suspect much less than £2k with everything needed including, rig, dish, feed, LNA, etc.. Remember, no towers, no beams, neighbour friendly, DX at any time, no QSB. In fact once set up, just chat!! I can see this appealing to many "black box" operators.

What seems to happen is the true experimenters like the challenge of getting going: building the kit, aiming the dish(es), sorting out the feed etc. Once this is done, many lose interest.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .