[amsat-bb] Re: New Satellite Downlink?

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Mon, 2010-08-30 at 09:32 -0400, Robert Bruninga wrote:
> > And isn't the idea that we are authorised to 
> > experiment with these satellites, now that 
> > the US Navy is no longer using them?
> 
> Let me correct the record.  We have no such authority.

Okay, then that *might* be different.  I suspect you'd have to try
*really* hard to find anyone that would get upset at people listening to
your satellite without authority.  It's impossible to get Ofcom
interested in stopping people transmitting without a licence or outside
the terms of their licence, and that's when they're jamming the local 2m
repeater that the Ofcom guys with amateur licenses frequent!

> We are simply looking at how one might use such a limited 500
> byte broadcast message capability IF-and-only-IF such access
> were somehow possible.  That's why I like the idea of finding a
> use in disaster communications, where a proposal might have some
> value...
> 
> Bob, Wb4APR

How hard would it be to develop a mobile/portable command station for
it?  I know you said it used some very specific stuff to program, but
just how specific and difficult-to-reproduce would it be?

Gordon MM0YEQ