Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Multi channel FM birds

[Bruce Bostwick <lihan161051@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday, July 24, 2002, at 09:29 AM, Bob Bruninga wrote:

> For long cable runs, you just put the HT on the roof with its whip 
> antenna
> and all you run to your office is the 3 wire serial port of ANY length..
> No preamps, no COAX...  You operate the HT from the laptop...

Only two problems I can think of, and you may have some creative 
solution to both:

1) Heat -- most roofs are pretty hot places around here (Central Texas), 
hot enough to make the life of just about any HT pretty short even if it 
*doesn't* transmit and generate heat from the finals.

2) Rain -- do you have a way to get the HT down from the roof quickly if 
it starts to rain?  I don't know how kindly the D7A takes to being 
rained on.

Lightning could be a problem in some places too -- picturing a smoking 
HT-shaped crater in the roof -- but probability wise it's not as much a 
threat as the first two.

It occurs to me that this might be a niche for a specialized FM 
transceiver that's a ruggedized, "blind" version designed to work in 
more hostile environments, with no keypad or LCD to have to protect and 
maybe a sealed antenna port on the top.  If it could be made into a 
flatpack, it could even be roof mounted on your car with magnet mounts 
like those smart HF tuners.  I've thought of doing something similar for 
a 1.2 or 2.4 GHz FM transverter with an IF on 440, but putting all the 
RF gear on the roof would have some advantages signal-wise.  Food for 
thought ..

Heard from a flight instructor:
"The only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask, resulting in my 
going out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of 
torn and twisted metal."

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