[amsat-bb] Re: Satellite Satire

[Trevor .]

--- On Wed, 30/11/11, Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
> You know, from 50km up you can see a fair chunk of the
> earth.  While it might not be as cool as flying a
> satellite, a balloon-lofted repeater could be quite good
> fun.  What next, though?  Well, maybe a UAV-lofted
> repeater.  I wonder how well a combination of a balloon
> for the heavy lifting with a UAV-based payload for
> station-keeping would work?

I believe there are problems with maintaining a High Altitude Platform in position above 25 km. 

Current research is based on platforms between 17 and 22 km high. At that height they could provide coverage over a radius of up to 500 km. 

In the UK we have the drawback that aeronautical amateur radio systems are not permitted by our regulator. 

http://www.elec.york.ac.uk/research/comms/haps.html 

http://www.port.ac.uk/research/telecoms/researchareas/satellitecommunications/highaltitudeplatformnetworks/ 

73 Trevor M5AKA