[amsat-bb] going digital

[Ross Whenmouth]

Hi,

For a digital bird with a 10 GHz downlink, would it make sense to use 
DVB-S for the downlink?

If you did, I think that most specialised part of a ground station would 
be an appropriate LNB that will mix 10.0 to 10.5 GHz down to IF. 
Demodulation could then be performed with ordinary consumer grade DVB-S 
set top boxes and PC based DVB-S interfaces.

Out of the box, a consumer DVB-S STB (Set Top Box) can handle both audio 
channels and video channels. The DVB-S protocol can also multiplex data 
(PBBS message forwarding? APRS?) along with multiple audio and video 
channels on the one carrier.

The satellite could have multiple uplinks on multiple bands, eg FM voice 
uplink(s) on 2m, 9k6 data uplink on 70cm, and video/high speed data on 
shorter wavelengths. So, with say a 2m mobile rig, and a consumer DVB-S 
setup (with a 10 GHz LNB) you could QSO via the bird. If you want to get 
into data, video or digital voice, the bird would do that do.

73, ZL2WRW Ross Whenmouth