RE: [amsat-bb] Oscar 0

[Tony Langdon <tlangdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> It would be interesting to do the calculations on this.  The 
> path loss for
> EME is somewhere on the order of -250 dB.  Much of this loss 
> is related to
> the fact that the moon is a very poor reflector and only 6.5% 
> of the signal
> that hits the moon is returned to us.  A transponder should 
> would return
> more than that so the path loss would be significantly less.  
> I had worked a
> couple of very large stations with my satellite antenna and 
> 300 watts.  With
> an extra 11dB of gain in a new amplifier and antenna system I 
> can hear my
> own echos fairly often.  If you assume that the transponder 
> had the ability
> to return 100% of the signal that it hears (i.e. "reflects 
> 100% rather that
> 6.5%) The loss would decrease by that same 11 dB.  A ham 
> using a single long
> boom yagi and a small amplifier, should be able to hear a CW signal
> returning from the moon fairly often.  A huge antenna array 
> like those used
> in EME would not be needed.

This would seem to match with the guesstimate I put in a previous message.
I'd estimate 100W and a long Yagi would do the trick.
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