[sarex] 1200 Baud AX.25 digipeaters in space!

[Bob Bruninga <bruninga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 8 Jun 1999, KF4FDJ (Mike in Ft. Myers, FL) wrote:

> Speaking of LUSats,  Richard, G3RWL, tells me that LU-19 is in digipeat
> mode.  It seems this bird, with it's wide coverage might be a good
> candidate for some APRS experiments.  Have you ever experimented with
> this bird and UI packets?

Absolutely.  There are 3 perfectly good 1200 baud AX.25 digipeaters in
space right now.  AO-16, LU-19 and IO-26  ANyone can digipeat through
them, they are practically unused over the USA on every pass.  ANY TNC
can be used to transmit to them on 2m FM with a simple $3 modification to
make the output MANCHESTER....  AND THEY CAN ALL LISTEN ON 145.90!

I have been preaching this for 3 years, but just cannot get anyone
interested.  Problem is that the downlink needs a full blown PSK TNC and
UHF ALl mode and doppler correction and antenna tracking.  With APRS, this
is OK, tho, because we only need 3 DOWNLINKS feeding the worldwide APRS
Internet system so that everyone can see the dwonlink.  But it is a
chicken-egg problem.

No one is transmitting so I cannot convince anyone to set up the
automaticed DOWNLINK.  And I cannot convince anyone to transmit because no
one is listening!  What a waste of 3 on-orbit digipeatrers!!!

See my WEB page, and past papers in AMSAT proceedings:

http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/traknet.html

de Wb4APR, Bob


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