This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
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we go! Welcome to Hamtok Live! Calling less talk,
Neil's your guy! Hamtok Live! Here we go on Hamtok
Radio! Good evening everyone! It's time for HamTalk
Live episode number 253, Hamset Satellite Engineering
Update, recorded live on Thursday, April 1st,
2021. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks
for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk Live.
Tonight we're joined by Jerry Buxton. in zero
j y and we'll take your calls live later on in
the show last week rob zarges uh k2mz was here
to talk about the long island cw club youth program
if you missed that show you can listen anytime
at hamtalklive .com or on your favorite podcast
app or on youtube or you can catch the rebroadcast
of ham talk live saturday afternoons on w t w
w that's uh... fifty eighty five a m again that
saturday afternoons about three thirty p m eastern
time and uh... thanks to everyone who participated
in the last man standing special event this past
week uh... made about eleven hundred q so's uh...
with uh... k six l m s slash nine and k six m
and uh... so far it looks like the totals are
up around eighty five thousand turned in so far
with more logs coming so uh... hang on for those
certificates it's going to be a while we got
a process Lou and Sally have to process I should
say all of that data That we turned in for as
operators and so it's gonna be a few weeks here
before the certificates are ready, but They will
be on their wrist assured. So Thanks to everybody
who gave me a call and at the other stations
and we had a had a really good time Although
boy those pileups were thick Alright, well get
your questions ready to go for Jerry. We're talking
satellites tonight If you're listening to us
live on Thursday night, you can give us a call
after the interview by Telephone and we'll give
out the number several times throughout the night
I'll go ahead and give it to you now so you can
have it ready. It's eight five nine nine eight
two seventy three seventy three again eight five
nine 9 8 2 73 73 or you can tweet this at ham
talk live and if you're on Spreaker you can type
in the comments and we'll see that and We want
to hear from you tonight. So I'll be back with
Jerry right after this word from our brand new
sponsor QRM labs right here on ham talk live
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it's April 1st. QRM Labs is back again. All right.
Well, seriously, this time I'll be back with
Jerry right after this word from Tower Electronics
right here on HamTalk Live. Jerry, what's up,
man? I haven't seen you at Sunbucks in a while.
I used to see you every morning getting coffee.
What's up? Well, I can't afford Sunbucks five
days a week anymore. I had to spend my money
on PL -259s. You know, those antenna projects
I've been meaning to do. I had to do them before
my HOA finds out I have antennas. That's too
bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and catching up
over coffee. You should get your PL -259s from
Tower Electronics. They have great stuff. Jerry,
you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne Frappuccino.
That's a good choice. How's it going? Did you
get all those antennas up before the HOA police
showed up? Yeah, I got them all done. Thanks
for telling me about Tower Electronics. Now I
can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch of money
on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973 and be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters and cables too. Sorry for the delay.
Your host, Neil Rapp, is reading a book on anti
-gravity. and he just can't put it down. Now,
here's more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk
Live. Thanks to Scott and Jill at Tower Electronics
for sponsoring the show every week. They will
be at Sandwich, Illinois at the HamFest there
May 2nd. And then coming up in summertime we
have Newberry, Michigan and Monroe, Michigan
but you can visit them anytime at PL -259 .com.
So welcome back to HamTalk Live. Tonight, Jerry
Buxton, N0JY joins us on the Orlando Amateur
Radio Club and Hamcation Zoom line. Jerry's been
a ham since 1972 and he enjoys giving to the
community by sharing his God -given talents to
help build ham satellites and help our communities
in disaster response. Jerry says there's more
things to do in amateur radio than he could ever.
get done, but he bounces around between satellites,
HF, CW, voice and digital modes. He operates
his HK5JY from Columbia when visiting his wife's
family, along with his XYL, KD5FCQ, and Jerry's
the vice president of AMSAT North America, in
charge of engineering and is the Texas District
4 radio officer for RACES and And Jerry, it's
great to have you back. It's been way too long.
Hello, Neil. It's good to be back. I, in looking
back at the last time I was here, I didn't realize
it was that long ago. It was back, uh, three,
three years ago, wasn't it? So yeah, I believe
it was. Well, there's been a lot happened since
three years ago and, uh, there's been a lot happening
recently. And so, um, for some of those people
who may not be aware of You know some of the
satellite happenings in the past year or so Let's
talk a little bit about Some of the recent launches
and and some of the things that you've learned
from launching these satellites Sure thing we
guess we could go right back to 2018 and and
catch up from there and Since then, we did have
AO -95 was launched in December of 2018. That
was Fox 1 Cliff. It was on a Falcon 9 rocket
on the SSOA mission that Spaceflight put together.
And then we had Fox 1E, RATF -XAT -2, AO -109
currently up, that was launched just in January
of this year. All right. And so, oh, go ahead.
Oh, that's all right. You mentioned what has
been learned from those and as anybody who's
familiar following with the satellites what we
do, AO95 experienced a problem right from the
get -go that it was basically, to put it the
easiest way, it's deaf. So we were unable to
get any commands through or to be able to do
anything to activate the satellite and unfortunately
that includes uh turning the beacon on for for
uh more different data more and different data
so through all that we tried several different
techniques and all sorts of power levels and
it appears that that's just going to be the way
that is until perhaps something shakes loose
from you know being old age in orbit who knows
what might happen the uh yeah you could have
another a07 on your hands and You know what,
that would be cool. The trick is these days that
none of the orbits, with the exception of AO
-85 actually, was up high enough that it could
last over a decade. But most of the satellites
these days, even the LEO rocket launches that
we get on, are only going to be up there maybe
five years or so. So it would take a pretty quick
turnaround to get them working, but you never
know what might happen. The thing with AO -95
is that it It does still provide us with a very
good set of data from the telemetry because it
is giving us good indications of what the environment
and what the satellite, the Fox One type satellite,
is like when it's not being used. The transponder,
of course, gets heavy use, which is what they're
for and what everybody likes them for. But with
the lack of that and just the transmitted beacon
every two minutes, especially the batteries,
which if you look back to the previous ones I'll
talk about in just a little bit, but that helps
us get some data on what the battery life is
like in the different conditions. The baseline
cause for that that we have best determined is
that there was a component probably in the receiver.
The receiver and transmitter are separate PC
boards in the satellite. Likely it appears that
perhaps something in the front end of the receiver
had a solder problem, solder connection problem,
so it came loose or became a bad connection and
that's what causes the deafness. There's really
not any other device that we can say that would
cause it to be that deaf any other path. So the
things go on undergo quite a bit of quite a bit
of shaking when they go into orbit and of course
we test them for that prior to it. It is it's
much beyond what your typical ham radio experiences
or is usually You know tested for even for that
matter So there are can't just run up there and
grab it and bring it back and fix it and put
it back You know, it's it's it's not like a trip
to the repeater site That's the truth. It is.
Yeah, even a remote repeater site. You can eventually
get there, right? So it is that's that's the
most Confounding part to deal with I guess is
that it's all done in the dark if you will and
We did have early on Bob Davis our Mechanical
engineer was the first one to step up and say
that if we ever did have a problem He wouldn't
mind volunteering to make the trip if we could
do it. So But that's a little bit out of our
budget I think Yeah, probably so. Probably so.
Well, you know, it was disappointing because
I use, you know, a lot of the FM satellites and
the LEO satellites and I have some equipment
now to start allowing me to get on linears and
I'll be starting to work on that soon, as soon
as the move takes place. But now that I've got
actually two rigs that'll do it. When two weeks
ago I had none so I'm looking forward to that,
but I was really hoping you know that These new
ones would the transponders would be working
because the the FM Leos are just overwhelmed
sometimes with the amount of traffic that's on
them, but You know what you're talking about
here is is That you can still get something out
of this even though yeah, we're all disappointed
That the transponder is not working. We can't
talk through it You're gonna be able to use this
data to improve on things In the future it's
not all a lost cause No, it's definitely not
I am I completely understand we completely understand
that The fact that the transponder isn't there
is a big loss, and that's something that is very
evident. It's part of the fun also to hear people
using it, especially the first contacts or something.
That's what I always say. That's my paycheck
when somebody, especially a kid, says, hey, I
just talked to somebody through a satellite.
For our point of view, yeah, we're not sitting
idle going, well, that didn't work. Let's do
something else. We're taking all that stuff with
us. It is hard to quantify in a mass way because
it is a lot of data and a lot of discussion that
is ongoing, actually, as we engage it in different
types of projects. So that one is, well, at least
we've got something going with that. Like I said,
we'll go. help back with the battery situation.
And AO109 then, the most recent one, of course,
double disappointment for transponder fans, or
repeater fans, transponder fans in this case.
The transponder is working. It's very weak. And
we've been, obviously, been a couple months just
working all sorts of angles to understand what's
going on and to try to command it or be able
to put it in a state where we could either get
some telemetry to understand more or get it in
a state where we can say okay this is this is
what we've got go for it and that weak transponder
may likely be what that's going to be but until
as far as i can hold out so to speak against
the operations guys until we have tried a lot
of things so that we can help understand what
is wrong with it and we're about run out of ideas
It appears that the most likely cause is that
the IHU, which is the computer, the MCU that
runs the whole system, it is not operating or
it is degraded quite a bit. The IHU, when the
spacecraft is first deployed from the launcher,
it turns on and it starts a timer that is required
by the launch vehicle's providers. to make sure
that you're far enough away from the launch vehicle
before you start deploying antennas and such
like that and transmitting. So the IHU it appears
did not survive or did not operate for the entire
50 minute countdown and that the antennas did
not deploy. Now we can't prove that but that
would be a good reason for the weak signal on
the transponder and the fact that the transponder
is there is And also an indication, the way the
operation appears to be, that the IHU is not
operating because the failover, in case of the
IHU failure, and this was true on all the Foxes,
and will end the Golf too, is that if the IHU
can't control things and do the different modes
and the telemetry and such like that, the transponder
will just operate on its own. So that's what
it appears to be doing. we would like to be able
to recover the IHU to the extent we can if we
can manage to get it to release the antennas.
If it has gone through the full 50 -minute cycle,
then it should be able to cut the antennas loose.
And it does seem to be that it might have made
it that far because the transponder is working.
But I guess you get the picture maybe that it's
kind of just speculating even as I think it out
here. The telemetry is a key factor because this
is one of our partnerships with Vanderbilt University
and actually they wrote and submitted the CSLI
for this launch so they have a mission of their
radiation detection with experiments on board
and different components that flew on the earlier
Fox ones as they as they look at different components
in the radiation levels in in Leo. So it would
be nice if we could get at least some of the
telemetry and some of the science for them. So
that is also a reason that we're working hard
to try to keep it going rather than just saying,
okay, we'll just go with the, you know, the weak
transponder and everybody will be happy because
not quite everybody would be happy with that.
But we learned we're taking a lot away with this.
We've already had discussions about how, you
know, what we're going to do with that in golf
because we are in course in the course of constructing
golf tee. So we want to take those opportunities
to make those changes and take things into account
as soon as we can rather than thinking about
them later. Well let's talk about some of the
lessons that could be helpful in the future by
looking back at little bit in the past so you
know it was kind of a perfect storm these new
satellites aren't repeating and operating you
know as far as our radio transmissions are concerned
and the way we'd like and then all of a sudden
91 and 92 are both having battery issues and
and and 85 and so talk a little bit about AO
85 and 91 and 92 and and what's happened and
how maybe this this telemetry from 95 and 109
can actually help with that problem in the future
yeah the especially AO 95 because 109 doesn't
actually even have any telemetry, although it
does work on the very same bus that the previous
ones did, so with the same batteries. AO -85,
first of all, all the Fox satellites, when they
were initially designed, the initial design was
made back in around 2009 -2010. The batteries
that were chosen for them were NiCad, and the
NiCad were chosen because at that time they were
the most space proven of battery cells that are
easily available, consumer available if you will,
and small enough to fit into a CubeSat. So the
cells that were chosen though by the time everything
was developed, they were actually out of production
either at that time or very shortly after as
the industry was switching consumer -wise to
different battery chemistries and so that stock
was the capacity of those batteries was degrading
as they sat on the shelf. Even though they have
a fairly long shelf life, you know, the capacity,
the ability to hold that charge and the current,
the output for as long as they can diminishes.
So it really came about to when we were ready
to get the batteries for the Fox satellites,
which was after I had become BPE. Batteries America,
Everett Yost put them together for us, the match
sets. He found that the KR1400, which is versus
the 1700, which we had originally planned, had
more capacity left in them because they were
a little bit newer and that's what we went with.
Nonetheless, they were all, as I said, outdated
and then you wind up also sitting around for
some years waiting for the launch. Now that can
be mitigated or dealt with to an extent if with
proper care and conditioning of the batteries.
Unfortunately the Fox One design and you have
to bear in mind that with Fox One A as soon as
that was in the works or completed the rest of
the Foxes started having to be built. There was
no time in between like we had hoped to have
to where we could learn from the first one because
the demand was so high. The ability to carry
the experiments, the EZSAT FM transponder or
repeater and all, that was just something that
had the opportunity both to get launches and
such like that, to get them to space. Launch
delays aside, we can't really speak to those,
but we didn't have a way to condition the batteries.
We didn't have the type of connection to be able
to do anything through that other than to keep
them charged. And it was never intended, as I
said, to be doing that for years, essentially.
So they were somewhat degraded when they made
it to orbit. The other thing that is a major
player is the depth of discharge, the amount
of power that you take out of them during a given
orbit in this case and that exceeded the 20 percent
which is preferred for those batteries because
we had engineered into it as much as we could
as far as running experiments and doing the transponder
and data mode pictures and such like that so
the power budget was really a lot higher than
would have been Proper to try to keep it at the
20 % the 20 % though might have led to things
such as a Scheduled operation kind of like a
027. I'm not that that brief I guess you'd say
but so that might have Been something that would
have been yeah, not not agreed to by some people
as well But they went with what they had we had
the experiments to go with them and that Excessive
use of the power if you will just wore them out
faster essentially. AO -85 also had the added
fun of being launched in an orbit that wound
up with it being in full sun a lot of time. And
that brought the internal temperatures up to
50, 60 degrees Celsius or so, even maybe a little
bit more. And that was way more than was originally
determined to be what the case would be for the
thermal environment. when they were being built.
So it was built to try to keep itself warm and
it wound up being warmer and therefore kept itself
even warmer, if you will, on that. When you charge
and discharge, especially charge the NICAD up
around 60C, then you're damaging them as you
do it. So there's no way to turn that off in
orbit, of course. When it's in the sun, it's
going to charge. So there were several factors
that just led up to the reason that they expired
early. How you determine what's early? Well,
they expire before the orbit decay, which would
obviously be what we would ultimately shoot for.
And the requirements did say designed for five
years on orbit, and they didn't last five years.
So in that view, then yes, they failed to meet
the mission. But being the first CubeSat ever
built and being the conditions that those ran
through to get there, yes, they didn't meet the
expectations, but they also, as I said, brought
lots of opportunity to learn about that. And
that's another major thing going into golf. Like
I said, the Foxes couldn't change because it
was too late. The design was set. They were already
being submitted for CSLIs and such like that.
So you have to go with what you have. and learn
from that and take it to the future stuff. And
of course we're going to go to lithium ion in
the golf because that now has been proven to
be something that is also worthy of being able
to provide several years of use on orbit. Battery
technology in the advent of the cell phone has
changed exponentially. lithium ion, I teach about
this in chemistry, lithium is all the way up
there on the end of the electromotive series
and it's like... that's got some serious safety
concerns and the engineering that went into making
these lithium -ion batteries safe to use except
for a few laptops here and there that catch on
fire you know it's it's worked pretty well the
changes have just been so rapid in that It's
true, and that's something that I hadn't even
thought of, but you look at the decade or so
that it's been since Fox has started, and in
terms of technology, that can be a lot of change.
So the fact that things became outdated that
quickly, we saw it with components. Secured the
components for the Fox's that they became defunct
and that's one of the reasons we didn't build
the Fox ones anymore because we would have had
to redesign a lot of the systems inside you couldn't
get those components anymore as well as the battery
so it's it's an interesting combination in that
and one other thing to Add to that even with
your lithium in the golf you still Have a narrow
range of discharge depth of discharge that you
want to keep within and in order to make sure
that you get the longest life out of the battery
so that's always something that you have to be
careful with and that that makes a uh can make
a tricky dividing line for ham satellites because
we like to get every bit of performance out of
them that we can but it's uh walking a fine line
if you're trying to push it too much yeah all
right well we're going to take a break here uh
we're going to come back we may talk a little
uh golf tee here and uh Kind of look into the
future a little bit and we'll take your phone
calls and your tweets and everything right after
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Nominations are now open for the Amateur Radio
Newsline Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Young Ham of the
Year Award. I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW. Since 1986,
we've had the honor of celebrating the accomplishments
of Youth and Ham Radio when we want to know about
your exceptional Young Ham. You'll find the rules
and a nominating form by clicking the Y -H -O
-T -Y tab on ARNewsline .org. Fill it out, send
it in, and we'll see you and an amazing young
ham at the Huntsville Alabama Ham Fest in August.
Thanks and 73 from Amateur Radio Newsline. Join
the conversation. Give us a call at 859 -982
-7373. Again, the number to call is 859 -982
-7373. Or, if you'd rather type than talk, tweet
us at HamTalk Live. Now, here's Neil Rapp with
more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live,
thanks to Icom America for sponsoring the show.
Make sure you check out all their cool rigs at
icomamerica .com slash amateur. HamTalk Live
is on the air every Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern
Time, right here at hamtalklive .com. Be sure
to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And if you enjoyed the ham sanitizer, if you
check Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you'll
see a picture of the ham sanitizer. So there
you go. Well, yes, it's time once again, before
we get back to Jerry, for the Ham Radio Joke
of the Week with N9 GSU. Now it's time for the
HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the Week, the
part of the show where Rick tells us a ham radio
joke. The HamTalk Live Ham Radio Joke of the
Week is brought to you by QRM Labs. Now, here's
Rick Garrett in 9GSU with today's HamTalk Live
Joke of the Week. In honor of tonight's AMSAT
edition of HamTalk Live, here's a little poem
I wrote. Star light, star bright. First star
I've seen tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might,
make contact through that satellite. This has
been the HamTalk Live, ham radio joke of the
week with Rick Garrett in 9GSU. Tune in again
next week for another joke from Rick. Well, there
you go Jerry if you had any AMSAT poems before
Yeah, I've had some that maybe I shouldn't repeat
here though Yeah, it's Yeah, there's there's
some discussion that goes on when something doesn't
work quite right the first time that's just Yeah,
good thing that it's not recorded but you're
not recorded it I like that pollen though, because
it makes me think of two things. One, the kids
that get involved with it, and two, also the
guys, and when I say guys, I mean guys, gals,
everybody, who like to try to work, especially
A07, to work Europe or such like that, where
it's just kind of a skim in the horizon or something.
I wish I may, I wish I might, and then nobody's
there that night. Well, thank you Rick for that
and On last -minute notice here with the AMSAT
theme so So thanks for that. All right. Well,
it's time for your calls now So if you want to
give us a call now's the time to do it. It's
eight five nine nine eight two 73 73 I'll give
that number again here in just a second. You
can also tweet us. It's at ham talk live Over
on Twitter and if you're listening to us on WTWW
or on the podcast edition of the show You're
not going to get anybody names for the phone
because we're not here. It's Thursday night right
now. So Again, give us a call at eight five nine
9827373. And we'll check the messages here and
see what we have. And let's talk a little bit
about about Golf T. So you've got, you know,
the next generation of satellites coming in.
And so let's talk a little bit about the future
launches. Okay, Golf T is The whole golf series
is a 3U satellite. So in terms of CubeSats, 1U,
that's the first ones that we built with the
Fox 1, and those are the smallest, basically.
1U being about 10 centimeters cubed. And the
Golf T goes into 3, which is basically 3 1U stacked
up. Knowledge that we got with the first one
the Fox ones and the fact that there was more
than one Even though we could not make changes
to them as we went along we were able to make
Considerations for for the next and and a lot
of that can be incorporated into going to the
3u because the 3u allows us more volume to be
able to put more experiments more radios and
such like that as well as some bigger solar panels
and provide more power More room for batteries
and such although it's really not a big Leap
as far as how big as you might you might think
it is it's you know, it's about the size of a
shoebox maybe or something, you know, and So
we take that and what we've gone with is the
golf series is the intention to continue this
learning and to be able to Build on what we know
and to build newer technology with it that will
help us to learn and be able to master as well
as build in -house to the extent we can to save
money because that's the way they always do that.
The type of technology is going to be needed
to return to HEO and HEO of course is the highly
elliptical orbit that AO10, AO13, AO40 if you're
familiar with them. where your apogee is up around
40 ,000 kilometers or so perhaps and a perigee
of somewhere around 600 maybe kilometers. So
it's up high in the sky for several hours per
day and provides a hemisphere of communications
that way. It's in a much harsher environment
and things are just a lot more, they're hotter,
they're colder, they're a lot more radiation
and all sorts of things that there's nothing
near what's in the in the low -earth orbit so
the golf program and golf tee is the initial
kickoff to be able to develop things that will
need like attitude control systems as well as
the solar panels deployable in order to get more
more power into it and SDR radio radios that
are interested in being flown. They're very power
hungry, but they can provide a lot of modes that
can be switched through programming and such.
So those have a benefit. As well as taking us
to microwave. Microwave, the benefit there is
wider bandwidth as well as smaller antennas.
And smaller antennas, as you can imagine with
a CubeSat, are important because if you tried
to put an aero antenna on a 3U CubeSat, you could...
put about three 3U CubeSats together and just
barely make the length of the arrow. So the microwave
antennas then can be pointed and have a lot more
gain back to Earth. And so Golf T is the first
of those to do that and to break the ground with
the attitude, determination and control, the
solar panels, SDR, higher speed telemetry and
such through the 10 gigahertz downlinked SDR.
and Golf I then and successive Golfs intended
to go to higher orbits to be able to learn to
deal with radiation. One, oh yeah, one I forgot
was the RT -IHU radiation -tolerant IHU that
will be flying on Golf T that was developed by
a group in our Ascent Skunk Works and that's
intended to be able to be a commercial off -the
-shelf type of IHU that will deal with radiation
upsets better than what we have on the Fox 1
series satellites. With the Fox 1, if we had
an upset, we essentially just rebooted and started
over. It was fairly simple programming. There
was not a lot of critical programming going on
there, and hence the ability to also, if the
IHU is not functioning, to still have a radio.
But the RTIHU can offer, up to some higher altitudes,
the ability to withstand the radiation better,
we hope, and we want to test that. We have hit
a problem with going higher, though, because
as orbital debris concerns and regulations have
grown quite quickly, really, over the last three
or four years, it is right now, in order to go
higher than an orbit where we would free fall
back and re -enter, basically within 25 years,
we have to have approved devices for propulsion
for attitude control for reentry and such in
order to get a license in order to get launched
and that just puts a big you know puts a big
stop a doorstop in the ability to build our own
for that so we we're looking at the possibilities
of finding commercial alternatives for that.
We're also working with and following some of
the enterprises that are creating things. Not
much has been created for CubeSats so far, because
most CubeSats are happy with being in a low Earth
orbit. Nobody is, other than perhaps government
and such, are things that are otherwise funded.
Nobody else is interested in going that much
higher So we're we're stuck trying to look for
a cheap way to get higher or to be able to Raise
the money to get what is necessary to go higher
So until we overcome that golf one will probably
wind up in Leo as well Originally we were looking
at going up to 1200 kilometers or so to be able
to be up there with a07 and fo29 as Just you
know to complement what is up there and perhaps
Last a lot longer up to the 25 years at least
that the orbit is allowed at this point in time
There's a lot of work so much stuff up there
in the skies these days that it's you know, it
becomes an issue when you've got stuff, you know
flying through there and You know, you've got
starships coming through and everything else
and it's a lot to keep track of and there's not
a real good way to clean it up. It's true. It
is something that was, well, I think it kind
of goes along with the sudden availability of
cheap ways to get to orbit, if you will. You
know, we started out as being ballast on, on
test rockets and such like that to find cheap
launches. And we got some great satellites up
there that way. And as that became more commercial.
Whereas now, the launch companies, they can basically
say, and this is just kind of an MSRP, but they
can basically say, well, you know, if you want
to fly to a low Earth orbit, fly a kilogram up
there, then that'll be 100 ,000 bucks. So when
there's money to be made by it, it's a little
bit different. That means they also provide more
launch opportunities and more opportunities for
small satellites, if you will, to be able to
get to orbit. It created a lot more stuff in
orbit that wasn't perhaps considered that it
would last there a lot longer than the actual
mission for the satellite. And now they're trying
to dial that back down with lower orbits to start
with, which suits a lot of it because they're
wanting to do a mission of some months or maybe
a year. so if they reenter in year and a half
two years that that's Fine with them and it's
good for getting rid of the orbital debris if
you will but But we of course are bucking the
trend on that. We want to go the other way in
that and that's That raises a few eyebrows in
the first place like why the heck would you want
to do that? Anyway, right, right? This is totally
off script and totally, uh, totally out there,
but, uh, is, is there any chance of getting some
kind of an arrangement like QO 100 where you're
on a big, you know, telecom satellite kind of
ride along. Well, that you can't say there's
no chance. And that's something that has been
pursued for years. uh... by my predecessors if
you will and even even recently after i had become
dvd with the virginia tech who had a lead to
an opportunity for that so it was not a bit a
commercial telecom that was actually something
that was a government satellite but nonetheless
it was an opportunity the commercial ones i see
as being uh... somewhat difficult because In
the case of Qo -100, there were hams that were
in high places that were able to help facilitate
that. In our part of the world, for one thing,
they've got a lot of money invested in their
satellite. Even back with Fox 1A, when it was
first launched, with that mission, I remember
how painful it was or painstaking it was to be
able to convince the... primary payload, which
was an NRO satellite, that we were not going
to do harm. Everybody had to be so in line with
that that otherwise, you know, that could be
a pretty bad thing for the whole CubeSat program.
So there's a lot of concern about what us amateurs
or a university or such builds and puts on a
rocket not being anywhere near, of course, as
safe and capable as that multi -million dollar
satellite. And if If something doesn't go right,
well, they're going to be a little upset if they
lose that satellite. They certainly have opportunities
to be able to provide power and such, and that's
the great thing about it. There's at least two
things. One is you got a lot of power. Second
is you don't have to do station keeping because
you're riding with them. So those are great opportunities.
It's just not quite as easy as it may seem from
what QO100 did. But we're still talking and looking,
you know. Sure, sure. I'd love to work QO100
at some point because I keep hearing these people
in the Youngsters on the Air programs, oh yeah,
I'll just meet you on QO100 like it's their local
repeater. Whenever they want, they just get on
there and it's like... That is just so foreign
to me that I think it'd be a cool experience.
But yeah, they had a special set of circumstances
and it worked. It's an interesting outcome as
well because in looking at, as I mentioned, microwave
bands and such and HEAL, they have and are using
2 .5 GHz and 10 GHz equipment. and making progress
with kits and there is ways to do that that will
complement what we do when we put something up
that is using those bands because they're ready
for it and that just helps also to attract other
people and make the equipment available cheaper
generally as well as learning even more as you
go along. So it all fits together nicely and
I don't think that Qo100 is going to impact having
a HEO satellite because one thing that the HEO
did nicely was because the orbit was not fixed,
it would, you know, every few days it would be
at apogee over a different part of the Earth.
So over a week or two, you know, every country
got the opportunity to have hemisphere -wide
communications for essentially, you know, to...
two -thirds of the hemisphere, well that's not
right, but two -thirds of the way around the
globe, depending on whether it was low to your
east or low to your west. So that's a lot of
interesting coverage from a single satellite.
Yeah, sure is. Well Jerry, we're already over
time, so I'm not going to keep you any longer.
And we're actually going to end the show. We're
going to let the April Fool compilation run here
from previous years. So for those of you who
are listening, there's still more coming your
way if you want to listen. But we're going to
wrap up the discussion here tonight. And I want
to thank you so much for coming on and explaining.
Uh, what's happening with these satellites and
you know, so many of them just, just kind of
disappeared and went away all at once. It's from
a, from an operator standpoint. Uh, but you know,
thank you for helping us understand, um, you
know, what is still going on and a lot of the
activity and learning and preparing for those
future ones like golf and, uh, We appreciate
everything you do. But you know, I had a lot
of fun too. I appreciate it. And I would, the
three years since I was here last, it goes fast.
And that's something that's a different perspective
from where I sit, where we sit. And that is that
the three years to get to a launch is too fast
a lot of times. And the three or four years or
five years since the, you know, Fox 1A was launched
is a long time. So. There's a lot of interesting
perspectives there, but if you want to keep talking,
that's fine. Cause if I leave here, I got to
go back to work and I don't want to go to work.
Yeah. I got to keep working on these things.
You know, I can't spell. Well, I guess you could,
you can hang around and listen to the April fools
ad. So there you go. Thank you much. No, I'd
like to come back and I appreciate it and everybody
who listened and thank you. Yeah, oh, yeah, well
we'll have you back and we were not gonna we're
not gonna make that three years We're gonna do
that sooner. So we appreciate you being here
and talking about it's fascinating to hear about
all those space technologies and Am sats Working
away at it. So thank you so much and we'll talk
to you soon Good evening. Thanks. All right.
Well, that's a wrap for this week's HamTalk Live.
Thanks to my guest, Jerry Buxton in Zero JY and
everybody out there in cyberspace for listening
tonight and invite you back next Thursday night,
9 p .m. Eastern time. And for a list of our upcoming
guests, visit hamtalklive .com. And if you like
the show, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts
or wherever you listen. That helps other people
find us faster. And like I said, we're going
to run all the old April Fool's Day ads just
because that's what we've been doing on April
Fool's Day for a few years now. So I'll let this
run. And so I will say good evening to you now.
And if you want to hang around and listen to
the and you're more than welcome to. So for now,
this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 73, 75, and
may the good DX be yours. Hi folks, Billy Hayes
back again here to help all of you hams out who
just can't get rid of that annoying guy who keeps
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Willie Mays back again to help you make your
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Download your copy today. Hello, Willie Mays
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North Korea. Hello, Willie Mays from QRM Labs,
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Call now! 760 -706 -7425. Well you came right
back to my security call Your readability five
and strength nine You never once mentioned your
weather at all And I didn't mention mine We talked
and talked for hours and hours I completely forgot
you're a ham I don't know your power or the height
of your tower Frankly I don't give a damn So
73, to you and your family, I'll be seeing you
further down the line. 73, to you and your family,
I'll be seeing you further down the line.