Two For The Sky: Satellites For HAM And You

MaggieL -- KB3DXS writes: "The amateur radio satellite Phase 3D (now officially AMSAT-Oscar 40 ) was launched [Wednesday] night on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is now safely in its intended original orbit. AO-40 is the culmination of a ten-year long project to orbit a sophisticated, highly programmable communications platform for amateur radio use. Over the next 270 days engines on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit. I received some of the initial transmissions from the satellite this morning at my station ... this is *way* cool. Amateur radio is still thriving, despite fears among the old-school hams who think that the Internet has killed ham radio." Added to which, as btbuzzard advises, you can now get your very own personal communications satellite carried by a device which would have been a lot scarier launching 10 or so years ago.

Comments

Personal Satelitte

[onion2k]

Cool.. Can I mount my laser pointer on it and scare the hell out of people? (Fear the little red dot from space!!)

Re:Can we have our spectrum back please?

[N2UX]

I guess I could ask the same question - could we have our spectrum back? Radio technology was invented by Amateurs, not commercial interests. For almost a century now amateur radio has been losing bandwidth at an ever increasing rate. I can name the 11 meter band and portions of the 1.25 meter band to start with. Also, Austrailian Amateurs will probably soon lose the very portion of the 70cm band that the Oscar satellites use. All due to the greed of big business, who would rather use existing (amateur developed) technology than develop their own stuff that would use the existing non-used portions of the radio spectrum. Amateur radio is not just for allowing "a hobbiest the chance to chat to a person they don't know in Australia", it also serves a vital purpose during emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. As a general rule, the public infrastructure such as telephones and cellphones, do not do well during natural disasters. In these cases, ham radio operators have been, and will continue to be, called on to provide vital communications with the rest of the country and the world. In addition, Amateur Radio is the ONLY form of communications available to many people in the world who are in areas considered 'too remote' by the local telcos.

Hello?

[Anonymous Coward]

Got your email loud and clear. Where are you?

The states.

Really? Cool. I`m in france.

Really cool. What equipment are you using?

Dell 600, 64meg ram, 10gig hd but i`m looking to get a 20gig anyday now.

Far out. Ok got to go.

Hi, got your email, kind of corrupted though.

Yeah, i`m using an old ibm thinkpad, think the software is kinda rough though.

Yeah, i`m getting %20 instead of spaces here...

I see, ok, will check a few options. Nice set up though, its all black. Really cool.

Cool.

Cool.

Cool.

Re:finally, now i can ask my question w/o being OT

[Mononoke]

Find the local Amateur Radio Club and tell them what is happening. They will gladly help you with the problem. No Ham would knowing cause the problems you are having, and they know all the tricks to solve it. The Club will help you find the culprit, or they will solve things for you directly. The Amateur Radio community wants to stay in the good graces of the general public and will do whatever they can to keep you happy. They don't want to lose any more RF spectrum than they already have, and keeping a good image is part of that.

Of course, if they get there and find you running a PC with the cover removed (splashing noise all across the RF spectrum), then you deserve what you get. ^_^

--

How peculiar

[tewwetruggur]

Personally, I don't have much of a need for a satellite. And I know that my ham has absolutely no need for one - just a little honey-glaze, maybe, and bake it with a few pineapple rings... now that's good ham.