[amsat-bb] Going Digital Someday

[JoAnne Maenpaa]

During the Symposium in Baltimore last week there was a discussion that I
found quite interesting. Billed as a proposal for fairly long-term, future
AMSAT HEO possibilities, this blue-sky proposal offers projects that will be
fun for myself (and maybe yourself) to learn what's next ... or could be
next ...

It seems the cubesat form factor is here to stay for practical launch
opportunities available to us ... (please don't ask for getting a phase
III-B form factor in this thread!) Wiser people than myself have assured me
of this.

Analog SSB and CW modulation in a 3U to 6U cubesat may not be practical at
HEO apogee due to antenna size limits on a cubesat and power generation
capability of the cubesat limited number of solar cells. Digital techniques
were described as a way to make this work. 

FreeDV HF Digital Voice for Radio Amateurs was one of the types of
technologies mentioned just as an example. I found a demonstration at:
http://nicktoday.com/freedv-hf-digital-voice-radio-amateurs/

Interesting, eh? A soundcard interface to your existing radio, sound card in
the PC, we're teaching ourselves the first steps into digital radio ...
getting ready for the future.

I've only had to interface my soundcard interface to my Yaesu 857D just
once. The interface remains stable from a hardware point of view. My PC runs
the appropriate software for FUNcube telemetry, SSTV from ISS and prior
ARISSat-1, PSK31, JT65, RTTY ... and when I get some time in between
preparing the next issue of the Journal I'll add the software for the FreeDV
codec.

Perhaps we'll hear more interesting ideas or a fresh approach! At least we
could have a thread with some fun discussion ... 

--
73 de JoAnne K9JKM
k9jkm at amsat.org
AMSAT VP User Services