[amsat-bb] Re: IRB's and Satellites.

[Michael Tondee]

I'm having to sell off my gear because of very little time to operate 
and some pressing debts. Are IRB's a possible way for me to make an 
occasional sat contact?
Just Curious,
Michael , W4HIJ
Tony Langdon wrote:
> At 03:29 AM 4/27/2007, you wrote:
>
>
>   
>> Perhaps this is all about goals then ... if your goal is to simply
>> communicate via a satellite, then the remote base concept is perfectly valid
>> and it has been demonstrated that it works.
>>
>> If the goal is to learn how to build a groundstation and then optimize it
>> for use with satellites, then I'm not sure this will do that (unless of
>> course you are the one building the station).
>>     
>
> I think you're right.  Goals are where it's at, and being in the 
> other VoIP games in town (IRLP, Echolink and friends), I regularly 
> encounter the same debate.  If my goal is to simply communicate via 
> some (at least partly) amateur controlled medium, these modes and 
> IRBs are fine, whether I have RF or a PC on my end.  OTOH, if my goal 
> is to play with RF, investigate propagation and setup a working 
> satellite ground station, then it's time to pull out some radio gear, 
> antennas and rotators and put them on the air (though for long and 
> complicated reasons, I'm also likely to interface that to IRLP or my 
> own IRB, because where I have the best space to erect antennas is 
> 24km from where I mostly operate).
>
>
>   
>> I see it like a calculator and a slide rule ... the calculator works great,
>> you just punch in some numbers and the correct result pops out. But the
>> slide rule allows one to see the underlying mathematics taking shape as it
>> is moved to the same answer.
>>
>> Which way is "better" must be self-determined.
>>     
>
> Exactly, horses for courses. :)
>
>
> 73 de VK3JED
> http://vkradio.com
>
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