Amateur Radio Satellite Echo In Orbit

Rob Carr writes "According to a bulletin posted on the ARRL web site, the amateur satellite currently called AO-Echo has reached orbit. Ground controllers have already made contact once with the satellite, although it will be some time before the satellite is ready for general amateur radio operator use. Multiple communication modes will be available on this microsat, including FM, PSK31, and SSB. More information can be found on the AmSat web site."

Comments

Amateur radio == free radio?

[rickbrodie]

If this is amateur then does that mean it's open to the public? Isn't this a bit of an unacceptable security risk for the american authorities? What's to stop them just jamming/flooding it to prevent it's use?

Re:Amateur radio == free radio?

[ThinkingGuy]

It's open to any member of the public who has a amateur radio license. Flooding or jamming it would be "willful or malicious interference," which is prohibited by the FCC (and by its counterparts in all countries where amateur radio exists), and would result in one's license being revoked.

Re:Amateur radio == free radio?

[rickbrodie]

Call me cynical, but i'm not sure the American government is going to be too worried about having their license revoked. Besides, who would know if it was them that was interfering?

Re:Amateur radio == free radio?

[wronskyMan]

Umm... the fact that FEMA/DHS/etc. will probably be using amateurs communicating through this satellite as a comm resource in case of emergency?

Re:Amateur radio == free radio?

[mschiller]

Well Hams (Amateur Radio Operators) often have quite a few people that are skilled in Radio Direction Finding. If you do nasty things to a Ham Satellite, I assure you the local ham club will be out in force looking for you. They WILL find you, and when they do I assure you that there will be plenty of notes to the local Official Observer and the FCC. Once the local observer is aware of the situation and can prove that it's you his/her note to the FCC will hold considerable weight and will result in action. Plus enough folks will probably decide to take things into their own hands, then you're life will be unpleasant anyway..

It's one thing when Hams or non hams illegally transmitting on Ham bands interfere with local repeaters or HF frequencies. Here we can work around it. But the satellites are a very expensive limited resource, there are enough folks who care deeply about it that you won't be able to get away with interfering, in a illegal way, for long...

Remember, you can't do anything wirelessly without being trackable! Trust me on this one. You may encrypt things or obscure things, but a diligent Radio Direction Finding team will hunt you down and find your physical transmitting location.

Now if you meant the US Government themselves would cause interference on Ham Satelites, I think that's pretty unlikely. But if it did happen, Ham's might find out the Government was doing it, but there isn't much they could do about it. If it was a foreign national government, the U.S. would probably be willing to intercede since Ham radio is protected by International Treaty, of which 99+% of the world is party to. Although in the end it would just be a nice diplomatic letter from, at best, the Secretary of State. So I guess a government could ignore it, but I don't see why any sane government would risk an international incident over something as silly as Ham Radio.

Matthew Schiller, KD6BWE

Awesome!

[tod_miller]

This is a fantastic oppourtunity - how is the uses of it managed?

"Donors of $25 or more receive this attractive 4x6 sticker"

We should support open source space junk now? I wish them all the best in thier project, launching a satellite, amazing stuff!

"AO-Echo's sun-synchronous orbit is some 800 km (nearly 500 miles) above Earth. Among other capabilities, the 10-inch-square microsat--equipped with a transmitter capable of up to 7 W output--will allow voice communication using handheld FM transceivers. Echo will feature V/U, L/S and HF/U operational configurations, with V/S, L/U and HF/S also possible. FM voice and various digital modes--including PSK31 on a 10-meter SSB uplink--also will be available."

Kinda odd, we can run a shoutcast server, and reach the internet with radio, but there is something about this good old communication that makes that irrelevant.

Shame they didn't think of some imaging rig! That would be awesome! Although I think the average 5mp wouldn't give us 1meter resolution, it would give s some pretty pictures.

Re:islam is the death of civilization

[madeye]

I wondered where all the weirdos hang out on Slashdot - seems it must be the Amateur Radio section - I guess it's true that low frequency radiation fries the brain

hoooraaay!

[M1FCJ]

Time to warm up the good old FT-847...

What, no 200 mile 802.11g link?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Neat idea- but I would have included some sort of packet-switched rather than frequency-switched bounce network as well. Of course, I'm more software than hardware- for all I know one of these frequencies is in the 2.4Ghz band....

Re:islam is the death of civilization

[M1FCJ]

But we're working on high frequencies and I always wear my tin-foil hat while operating. :-)