[amsat-bb] Re: Turn off AGC when receiving BPSK-1000

[Gregg Wonderly]

On 8/18/2011 10:38 PM, Phil Karn wrote:
> On 8/18/11 11:03 AM, JoAnne Maenpaa wrote:
>
>> Yeah, we still have dreams! At various times it had been called AMSAT-Eagle,
>> Phase IV Lite, C-C Rider, and other things. You'll notice from the dates on
>> these papers how long we've had this dream of a millions dollar rideshare
>> with a millions dollar satellite ...
>
> Yes, and the fact that none of these piggyback payloads have ever come
> to fruition, while we do continue to get the occasional ad-hoc small
> satellite deployment opportunity, suggests that we need our own attitude
> determination and control system if at all possible.
>
> The most likely opportunity to piggyback a payload on a controlled
> platform with its own power supply would be the ISS itself. Although
> they've already got plenty of comm systems, one might pitch this as yet
> another backup comm system. It wouldn't be terribly hard to network the
> ground stations so that a conversation could be maintained as the ISS
> moves from one to the next. To simplify the implementation, provide good
> voice quality and a backup data capability, the system would have to be
> completely digital.

What kind of digital are you suggesting?  Voice and data both?  A digital path 
from anywhere on the planet to the appropriate ground station is easily doable 
with some "documentation" of the ground stations.

Gregg Wonderly