Since I last looked, there is not much change. This was European mid afternoon on a weekend, when activity is highest. Still plenty of space.
27 Mar 2022
Geosynchronous Oscar 100
Since I last looked, there is not much change. This was European mid afternoon on a weekend, when activity is highest. Still plenty of space.
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Hi Roger,
I suppose that once you've worked all the stations that are already on there and who have made the commitment to get a QO100 station together than maybe interest wanes. I agree that the lack of commercial rigs is off-putting for (most?) amateurs, there are a number of "ground station" transporters on the market, but they are quite expensive.
Living on a boat, QO100 does appeal to me when I'm moored up and I do have an Rx set up (well I did - I dropped the small dish overboard!) . One of the things that does put me off getting TX is the lack of available options to experiment. The satellite is highly controlled by AMSAT DE and of course that are at the mercy of the UAE based satellite operator in terms of available power budget and bandwidth.
For example, AMAST DE do not want NBFM for "power and bandwidth" reasons, yet are happy to accommodate contests. And the bandwidth taken up by those calling a rare DX station is wide! Like you observe, activity levels are low and there is plenty of space.
Same with AM. What a great project to build a DDS/PLL at 2.4GHz, buffer amp & modulated PA for a nice AM TX. Downconvert to 28MHz and you could enjoy AM on an old RX!
It would only need a couple of channels at the top end allocated to aM/FM. Also there are a lot of 2m/70cm duplex NBFM rigs other which would be ideal to add, say, a 2m down, 70cm up converter to put say S20, S21 onto the specified QO100 channels.
I'm in two minds to try and ask AMSAT DE to accommodate at least an AM frequency or two.
Thanks,
David G8JGO.
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