[amsat-bb] Re: Why do the amsats get more and more complex?

[David B. Toth]

At 11:29 PM 9/19/2006, sco at sco-inc.com wrote:
>Maybe someone can explain why Eagle could not use the L Band for its
>digital uplink instead of S Band? Then you would have a L/C mode and
>many users already have a L band uplink capability.

My understanding is that there is not enough room for an antenna of 
the size required for 1296, at least not one with much gain.
I'm sure that someone from the engineering team could speak further to this.

This was heavily discussed each night at the DCC in Tucson, and 
antennas and band availability were discussed ad nauseam.

No one is trying to ignore the users - heck, why build it if there 
would be no users, but they WERE trying to make sound engineering 
arguments so that there would actually be something worthwhile 
available. One AMSAT member present, someone who I recognized as an 
operator with some experience, made a number of suggestions that the 
engineers seemed to embrace, so you may see some additional info come 
forward by the time of the AMSAT meeting.

Dave VE3GYQ/W8
Spencerville, OH