Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.modems:2281 comp.edu:1301 comp.mail.misc:1176 comp.sys.ibm.pc:18140
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,comp.edu,comp.mail.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: PC to Satellite Communication
Message-ID: <1988Aug18.160953.24934@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <8185@cup.portal.com> <11708@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <3669@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 88 16:09:53 GMT

In article <3669@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
>Actually, many people don't realize that ham radio operators have
>been doing communications via satellite for years.  There used
>to be a ham satellite in orbit (may still be, I'm not current)
>and it contained a transponder that basically relayed everything
>it received back down.  I see no reason why one couldn't transmit
>data this way.

Could be done.  Of course, you can't use the ham satellites (there are
several, actually) unless you're a ham, since only hams are allowed to
transmit in those bands.  And you can't use the ham bands for anything
even vaguely commercial; that is an utter and total no-no.

Transponders that simply echo back everything they hear are the normal
equipment for communications satellites.  There are now the bare beginnings
of proposals for smarter satellites (well, the hams are already doing things
like that, but the commercial satellites aren't, yet).
-- 
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu