{"id":487,"date":"2019-03-25T08:02:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T07:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/?p=487"},"modified":"2019-03-25T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T07:02:28","slug":"eshail-2-hams-get-their-first-geosynchronous-repeater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/2019\/03\/25\/eshail-2-hams-get-their-first-geosynchronous-repeater\/","title":{"rendered":"Es\u2019hail-2: Hams Get Their First Geosynchronous Repeater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the radio business, getting the high ground is key to \ncovering as much territory from as few installations as possible. \nAnything that has a high profile, from a big municipal water tank to a \nroadside billboard to a remote hilltop, will likely be bristling with \nantennas, and different services compete for the best spots to locate \ntheir antennas. Amateur radio clubs will be there too, looking for space\n to locate their repeaters, which allow hams to use low-power mobile and\n handheld radios to make contact over a vastly greater range than they \ncould otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now some hams have claimed the highest of high ground for their \nrepeater: space. For the first time, an amateur radio repeater has gone \nto space aboard a geosynchronous satellite, giving hams the ability to \nlink up over a third of the globe. It\u2019s a huge development, and while it\n takes some effort to use this new space-based radio, it\u2019s a game \nchanger in the amateur radio community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends in High Places<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The new satellite, Es\u2019hail-2<\/em><\/a>,\n was built for Es\u2019hailSat, a Qatari telecommunications concern. As \nsatellites go, it\u2019s a pretty standard machine, built primarily to \nprovide direct digital TV service to the Middle East and Africa. But \ninterestingly, it was designed from the start to carry an amateur radio \npayload. The request for proposals<\/a>\n (RFP) that Es\u2019hailSat sent to potential vendors in early 2014 \nspecifically called for the inclusion of an amateur repeater, to be \ndeveloped jointly by AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The other kind of networking. His Excellency Al-Attiyah (A71AU). Source: Al-Attiyah International Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The repeater aboard Es\u2019hail-2 was developed as a joint effort between the Qatar Amateur Radio Society (QARS), Es\u2019HailSat, and AMSAT-DL<\/a>,\n the AMSAT group in Germany. The willingness of Es\u2019HailSat to include an\n amateur radio payload on a commercial bird might be partially explained\n by the fact that the QARS chairman is His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad\n Al Attiyah (A71AU), former Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The repeater was engineered with two main services in mind. The first\n is a narrowband transponder intended for phone (voice) contacts, \ncontinuous wave (CW) for Morse contacts, and some of the narrow \nbandwidth digital modes, like PSK-31. The other transponder is for \nwideband use, intended to test Digital Amateur Television (DATV). The \nwideband transponder can carry two simultaneous HD signals and a beacon \nbroadcasting video content from QARS. Both transponders uplink on the \nportion of the 2.4-GHz reserved for hams, while downlinking on the \n10.4-GHz band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Es\u2019hail-2<\/em> was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape \nCanaveral on November 15, 2018. The satellite was boosted to a \ngeosynchronous orbit in the crowded slot located at 26.5\u00b0 East \nlongitude, parking it directly above the Democratic Republic of Congo. \nAfter tests were completed, a ceremony inaugurating the satellite as \n\u201cQatar OSCAR-100\u201d, or QO-100, was held on February 14, 2019, making it \nthe 100th OSCAR satellite<\/a> launched by amateurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening In<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sadly for hams in the Americas and most of eastern Asia, QO-100 is \nout of range. But for hams anywhere from coastal Brazil to Thailand, the\n satellite is visible 24 hours a day. The equipment to use it can be a \nbit daunting, if the experience of this amateur radio club in Norway<\/a>\n is any indication. They used a 3-meter dish for the 2.4-GHz uplink, \nalong with a string of homebrew hardware and a lot of determination to \npull off their one contact so far, and this from a team used to bouncing\n signals off the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Receiving signals from QO-100 is considerably easier. A dish in the \n60-cm to 1-meter range will suffice, depending on location, with a \ndecent LNB downconverter. Pretty much any SDR will do for a receiver. An\n alternative to assembling the hardware yourself \u2014 and the only way to \nget in on the fun for the two-thirds of the planet not covered by the \nsatellite \u2014 would be to tune into one of the WebSDR ground stations that\n have been set up. The British Amateur Television Club and AMSAT-UK, \nlocated at the Goonhilly Earth Station, have set up an SDR for the narrowband transponder<\/a> that you can control over the web. I used it to listen in on a number of contacts between hams the other night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n