Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Dont want to work at it?

[tlang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Langdon)]

Hello Robert!

10 Jun 01 13:45, you wrote to All:

 RO> 2.  Could the folks I know today who do the easy sats easily glue
 RO> together a
 RO> 2.4ghz station with no real test equipement etc.  The answer is that a
 RO>  smaller percentage of folks will try then if there was a reasonable
 RO> Mode B satellite.  Witness the traffic on this bulliten board and you

Maybe.  I've basically bypassed Mode B.  Why?  because the antenna requirements
are too extreme, but a 2' dish on 2.4 GHz is quite manageable, and mast head
converters will get rid of the cable problem.

I'm not a microwave engineer (far from it!), but the only way onto '40 is to
build, as commercially built solutions are too expensive.  I've already managed
to get 2 "starter" projects working on these frequencies (an ATV exciter and a
2.4 GHz frequency multiplier, which will make a useful signal source) without
any hassles.  I have a dish and some MMDS converters which I hope to cobble
into a useful AO-40 station.

As for experience, I had a lot of FM experience, but only a little linear
transponder experience (mostly RS-12/13), and less than 10 successful linear
QSOs (and all but one were prearranged - such is the level of linear
transponder activity in VK :( ).  The jump direct to microwaves is a calculated
one, given my constraints.

 RO> 3.  How many folks have glued together your under 500 dollar stations
 RO> have come straight from the FM sats (or no satellite experience at

Well, I will virtually be one, except for my little bit of testing on the
linear LEOs.

 RO> all)?  How many didnt have AO-10 or 13 or even other Mode B
 RO> experience. I bet its not a large number adn if we want large numbers

I don't, and am not likely to for several years (can you say "antenna size"?).

 RO> then the step is to hard.  I know of exactly 1 and this is the home
 RO> of
 RO> JSC NASA and most of the hams here "work" at NASA in a technical mode.

You've just convinced me to push on, just to prove it _can_ be done by a ham
with limited resources and knowledge, a soldering iron and a desire to work the
bird!  It won't happen overnight (even using my cheap approach, money is the
biggest limitation), but I will be on L/S (with U as a secondary uplink).

 RO> In the end Woody if one is going to go up the learning scale then one
 RO> has to do so in "leaps" that are doable by most of the student norm.
 RO> Now the numbers who go up the scale "thin" as you get higher, but they
 RO> drop off very very quickly the instant the step is so far that
 RO> discouragement becomes a constant.

I think you do have a point though.  However, I'm sure it will change as AO-40
becomes more popular.  There will be more reasonably priced kits out.

Tony, VK3JED

.. The DISABLED: The only minority you can join.
--
|Fidonet:  Tony Langdon 3:633/284.18
|Internet: tlang@freeway.apana.org.au
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.


----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org