[amsat-bb] Re: OH2AUE P3E transponder demo video

[Ben Jackson]

On 10/15/2012 8:26 PM, Gus 8P6SM wrote:
> On 10/15/2012 05:55 PM, Clayton Coleman wrote:
>> I don't agree with these elitist arguments for intentionally making
>> things difficult.  This "anti-easy-sat" mentality doesn't buy us
>> anything. Let the dead horse decompose.
>
> I don't think anybody actually wants to make things deliberately harder.
>   But hams have always pushed the boundaries.  Going further with less
> power and less bandwidth.  Fooling around with useless frequencies above
> 1 MHz.  And so forth.  And the satellite operator is no different.
>
> It may be easy to reliably work a future generation of satellites with
> an HT and a rubber duckie.  But that won't be challenging.  And we (the
> operators) won't be learning anything new.

But instead folks are promoting an anachronism. They're discussing 
learning something new at the same time saying we should be using a 
technology that has been in use since the 1960s.

So then instead of focusing on linear transponders how about deploying 
HSMM nodes into space, TDMA, or DMR technology? (No idea how feasible 
any of of this is)

How about something that supports TCP/IP? People were discussing how a 
AMSAT could generate interest in a kickstarter for a HEO? Promise a 
bunch of hackers and geeks that with a small donation, sitting for a ham 
radio test, and buying some kind of kit, they can get a (slow) network 
connection in far flung locations I'm feel fairly confident that they 
would start hurling their wallets at you screaming "Shut up and take my 
money!"

However, the SSB mafia is firmly entrenched in their ways and will 
simultaneously bemoan the easy sats, yet pooh-pooh "hard sats" that 
won't support the divine mode.

-- 
Ben Jackson - N1WBV - New Bedford, MA
bbj <at> innismir.net - http://www.innismir.net/