[amsat-bb] Eagle Satellite Design

[Rick Hambly (W2GPS)]

All,

You have received carefully considered responses from three of the people
who were in the fateful San Diego meeting where the revised band plan for
Eagle was chosen. You also now have access to the meeting minutes and spread
sheets on EaglePedia and three articles on the subject in the latest
Journal. I too was at the meeting so let me say a few words.

For those of you who still disagree with the decisions we made I am sorry.
Your elected volunteer Board members and the volunteer executives and
volunteer Eagle team members have done their very best to design Eagle to
satisfy the needs of the existing members while providing services that we
hope will attract many thousands of Hams to the Amateur Satellite Service
who today find us impossible or irrelevant. I congratulate all of AMSAT's
dedicated volunteers on a job well done.

The band plan is simple. 

a) We will provide an enhanced linear transponder for mode U/V (B) that will
support traditional linear transponder modes with a performance and signal
quality never before seen on a satellite. In addition, other modes may be
supported, especially a new high performance SMS service for text messaging
using hand held or transportable equipment even when Eagle is at apogee.

b) We will provide a modified version of C-C Rider, with the uplink on
S-band, so I guess you would call it S-C Rider. It will support a full suite
of services from voice and video to CW and data using a wide bandwidth
digital carrier on the downlink and digitized uplink channels to maximize
the link performance using the latest in coding techniques. As a side
benefit, we will be transmitting on S-band so you can continue to use much
of your existing S-band equipment if you like. We will be developing an open
design reference ground station that will be available to buy or copy.

c) There are at least two TSFR (This-Space-For-Rent) packages that could
possibly contain other RF or other payloads, conditioned on the availability
of power, antenna space and compatibility with the primary payloads.

If, after considering all the information that is now available, you still
feel strongly that we are doing a bad job then ask yourself not what AMSAT
can do for you, but what you can do for AMSAT.  If you want to have more
direct influence on decisions then volunteer your time and money; run for
office, join the Eagle team, join Field Operations, or one of the executive
teams. At the very least have the courtesy of sending your comments directly
to those who are involved so you can get informed responses. The Board
meeting in San Diego is open to all members so you could express your
feeling there.

Rick
W2GPS
AMSAT President