[amsat-bb] Update: Rent GEO bandwidth for US

[Michelle Thompson]

Yes, it works without Internet access.

What goes up does come down over the entire footprint. No internet
required.

Streaming from a receiver somewhere over the Internet is just a nice
additional way to monitor it if you don't want to build your own Ku
receiver.

-Michelle W5NYV




On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 6:51 PM John Kludt <johnnykludt at gmail.com> wrote:

> MIchelle,
>
> Every disaster drill I have ever done makes the assumption that the
> Internet is *not* available.  Will this system work without Internet
> access?  It could still be fun to play with and do proof of concept work
> but absent the Internet might not be too useful in an emergency setting.
>
> Please clarify.
>
> John
>
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 9:38 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> An arrangement on Echostar9 for 1MHz of bandwidth for up to 4 years of
>> USA+Mexico+Canada coverage is on offer for $2000 a month.
>>
>> I'm putting together a grant proposal for ARRL, FEMA, and others to pay
>> for
>> at least year of access. I've gotten some positive feedback already. I
>> think we can make this happen with some fundraising effort. I'm willing to
>> provide the human resources and whatever incidental financing needs to
>> happen to secure a grant for rental.
>>
>> The main purpose of this type of system would be to enable field
>> deployment
>> of "legacy mode" aggregators, like the Phase 4 Ground ARAP (Amateur Radio
>> Access Point). This is where traffic on any ham band, using FM or analog
>> gear, is digitized by a local "collecting" repeater, and is then sent to a
>> satellite from that repeater. FEMA and ARRL have expressed a lot of
>> interest and support for this in the past. Phase 4 Ground needs an ARAP in
>> order to support legacy radios.
>>
>> You don't have to personally have a microwave digital uplink. The
>> aggregator equipment does that part for you.
>>
>> This is most useful for public service and emergency communications. A
>> communications emergency is declared, someone (FEMA, Red Cross, motivated
>> ham volunteer) drops in the aggregator, and all ham traffic it hears is
>> sent to the satellite and then transmitted to the entire footprint.
>>
>> The downlink is 12-14GHz. This is not 10GHz, but is receivable by
>> individuals using very inexpensive gear. Traffic can be repeated over the
>> internet.
>>
>> What does this get us?
>>
>> An opportunity to do all the R&D for the aggregator and get some
>> experience
>> with uplinks.
>>
>> What do we not have?
>>
>> A true ham band downlink. You can still receive the downlink yourself, or
>> you can get it over the internet from an earth station distributor.
>>
>> That's where we're at with *this* proposal.
>>
>> I think it's worth it to provide a US-based way to design, deploy, test,
>> and use real world aggregator equipment. We learn a lot about GEO comms
>> and
>> figure out a lot of the ins and outs.
>>
>> Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.
>>
>> More soon!
>> -Michelle W5NYV
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>