[aprssig] Some APRS and other ideas...

[Robert Bruninga]

While I was at the amsat conference, these ideas came to mind.
Just some challenges for fun...  Here are a few that got me
thinking: 

See the WEB page:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/amsat-ideas.html

1) APRS $15 Student Receiver Kit.  How about a simple up
converter 
to upconvert 144.39 up to 462.5625 MHz for the FRS radios that
the
kids already have.  I'm sure we could do this for really cheap
since the kids already have the radio...  A little device that
wraps around the FRS antenna and has its own 19" antenna.  See
pictures on the WEB page above.

2) Golf Ball Satellite Idea:  A few years ago, there was a golf
ball
company willing to pay 100's of thousands to get a golf ball
into space as an AD campaign.  We all know the similar SWATCH
project was soundly killed by the amateur community because it
was in direct violation of the rules.  But, such use of someone
else's money to BUILD a satellite *can* be done if it is done
within the rules.   So here is my design challenge to the
amateur commuunity for a golf ball 10m to 2m linear satellite
transponder for MULTI-USER PSK-31.  See: 

3) The big-ear "S"band dish for local operations.  I posted this
before and it is simply using a 1/4th quadrant of an old "C"
band TV dish as a nice gain antenna.  In fact, save this for all
future AMSAT EAGLE microwave links.  These dishes are good to Ku
band and using only 1/4th of them is much more manageable and
easier to mount.  And you only lose 12 dB from the 38 dB gain of
a full sized one.  Thats a nice 26 dB gain antenna that people
are throwing away.  Oh, and if you find a big dish that is
intact, then you get four of these Quardrant antennas for one.
And disassembling it into quadrants makes it easier to drag home
anyway... 

Anyway, just some fun thoughts...

de Wb4APR, Bob