[amsat-bb] Community Survey Request -- crosslinks, multi-hop packet, and satellite DX

[John Brier]

Would it/could it/should it use the standard APRS mode on 145.825 MHz
with ARISS path to take advantage of the ISS and PSAT digipeaters?
That could allow for longer/more robust sat DX opportunities. If it
were like the existing digipeaters that use APRS it would be easy for
me to use with my Kenwood TH-D72 but if it required specially
configured computer software that would be harder for me to use as I
only have a portable sat setup now.

73, John Brier KG4AKV

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 4:31 PM, Zach Leffke <zleffke at vt.edu> wrote:
> one clarification point.. all opinions are good, and I'm interested in them.
>
> I meant all opinions, whether positive ('Hey that's cool, I'd play') or
> negative ('stupid idea, will never work') related to the concept of
> operations, are welcome.
>
>
> -Zach, KJ4QLP
>
> Research Associate
> Aerospace Systems Lab
> Ted & Karyn Hume Center for National Security & Technology
> Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
> Work Phone: 540-231-4174
> Cell Phone: 540-808-6305
>
> On 4/2/2017 4:26 PM, Zach Leffke wrote:
>>
>> Hello fellow satellite nuts!
>>
>> This email is to humbly request the opinions of those in the Amateur
>> Satellite Community about the idea of setting new satellite DX records.
>> Nothing formal, you can email on list or off list as you think appropriate.
>>
>> So here is the idea:  What if there were a constellation of three
>> satellites (3 1Us), built by students (undergrads) at three different
>> universities, but launched together and deployed from the same deployer that
>> had crosslink packet communications built into the design.  Then, what if
>> those birds were licensed via the Amateur Radio route (instead of
>> Experimental as is the norm for most University birds, with some notable
>> exceptions of course) allowing the entire global amateur satellite community
>> to use the crosslink capability in an attempt to set new satellite DX
>> records?
>>
>> Now, there is a primary science mission (pseudo-range determination as the
>> constellation separates, different mass and drag profiles for each bird) so
>> during the work week, science happens, but on the weekends, the
>> constellation is made available to the community for crosslink packet comms.
>> Additionally, if your setup has enough G/T to monitor the lower power
>> crosslink comms, and with a little bit of technical tweaking to your ground
>> station (you would need GPS based PPS to measure propagation time, maybe
>> ~$100 invested), you could participate in Space to Earth pseudo-range
>> measurements that would contribute to a secondary orbit determination goal.
>> To be clear, the up and down linking for the satellite DX attempts would be
>> standard FSK9600, AX.25, so as long as your station can do that, you can use
>> the crosslink path for multi-hop comms.  Its only the S-to-E pseudo range
>> measurement that would require a bit of additional HW.
>>
>>
>> Does this sound interesting?  Would you as an operator be interested in
>> multi-hop satellite packet comms?  Do you think this type of operating
>> schedule is acceptable (weekends) to justify Amateur Radio licensing instead
>> of Experimental?  Would you be interested in contributing to the science
>> mission (S-to-E pseudo-range measurement)?  Would you track the telemetry
>> downlinks and forward that data on to the mission data warehouse?
>>
>>
>> Any and all opinions, good or bad, are welcome.  Again, on or off list as
>> you see appropriate is fine with me.  My goal with this is to get a sense of
>> what the community's opinion on this topic is and if the constellation were
>> available for use, how much interest there would be in this type of
>> operation.
>>
>>
>> Thanks in Advance!
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Zach, KJ4QLP
>>
>>
>
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