Re: [amsat-bb] AO40 user population

[John Wright <g4dmf@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:57 02/12/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> > 2. Most hams live in areas where buildings and/or trees obstruct a
> > large portion of the horizon.  A major problem when the only downlink
> > is 2400 MHz.
>
>Actually, this is not really a problem on AO-40 compared to other LEO
>satellites.  Even if you can only see a small piece of sky generally south
>and generally above 30 to 40 degrees, you can see AO-40 for hours at a
>time. Combine this with 2 other factors:
>


<SNIP>

The angle of elevation is dependant upon your latitude, you may be at a 
sufficiently low latitude to get 40 deg passes, but at 52 deg North, it 
only gets to 30-ish  degrees at its highest, so horizon obstruction comes 
into the equation very much more at higher latitudes. I did a plot of AZ/EL 
and the satellite does indeed follow the same arc across the sky within a 
few degrees on every orbit, so a polar type mount with a 5 deg offset will 
do all the tracking without elevation control.


____________________________

      G4DMF  QTHR   IO93ha
      Amsat-UK Member 5372
          g4dmf@amsat.org
        g4dmf@g4dmf.co.uk
      http://www.g4dmf.co.uk
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