[amsat-bb] Re: 144 Mhz contact made using ISS as passive reflector

[Anthony Monteiro]

At 11:49 PM 12/11/2007, Greg D. wrote:

>I thought of doing this back in October, when all the Sputnik-1 / 
>early satellite discussion was happening.  Echo-1, and all 
>that.  But, I would think that NASA (if not the crew) would frown on 
>a bunch of folks on the ground hurling a few megawatts EIRP at their 
>home in outer space.  If Bob had to have a bazillion levels of 
>safety in place for the little PCSAT-2 transmitter, I would think 
>this would be right up there in the safety category, no?
>
>I haven't done the math yet...  Are we far enough away that 1/x**2 saves us?
>
>Greg  KO6TH

Hi Greg,

The ISS flies through the 217 MHz AFSSS Radar Fence 6 times a day and
it has an ERP of over 6,000 megawatts. It is only for about a second
at the peak but even the sidelobes are much higher than anything
a ham station could possibly come up with - no problem.

73,
Tony AA2TX