Hi Paul
For a $20.00 donation to AMSAT, I'll send you a downconverter.
Reply off line to PTROWE (at) yahoo.com
Pete
WA6WOA
--- On Sat, 2/26/11, Greg D. wrote:
From: Greg D.
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-51 S-band // WIFI USB dongle as receiver?
To: a...@arrl.net, amsat-bb@amsat.org
Date: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 12:08 AM
Hi Paul,
Well, interesting thought. While the 2.4 gHz Wi-Fi and 13cm Ham bands do
overlap, the modulation used by Wi-Fi signals and AO-51 are very very
different. AO-51's narrow band FM downlink is going to be totally ignored by
the frequency-hopping spread spectrum receive demodulator in the Wi-Fi dongle.
I say that with some question, however, in that some Wi-Fi equipment is capable
of some interesting RF detection and interference analysis, and might be hacked
into some sort of digital receiver. The trick would be getting the right
dongle and software, and then customizing the detection algorithm and decoder.
Could be an interesting project for someone with the right skills and access to
what is probably a very proprietary interface.
But straight out of the box, sorry, no.
Your best bet is to hunt around for an MMDS downconverter (I have a Drake
2880). Most are quite inexpensive, and are easily converted for Ham use.
Saddle that up to your antenna and rig, and you'll have a setup that's probably
overkill for AO-51.
Greg KO6TH
> Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:15:05 -0800
> From: a...@arrl.net
> To: amsat-bb@amsat.org; a...@arrl.net
> Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 S-band // WIFI USB dongle as receiver?
>
> Hello to the AMSAT brain trust. I am new to satellites and have a new
> person question:
>
> > Is there any way to utilize a WIFI (2.4 GHZ, 13cm) USB dongle (with
> SMA ant. port) into a gain antenna, and successfully receive the S-band
> downlink from AO-51? This is a 13cm transceiver, but I suspect the
> answer is no. I already have a 24db gain dish, so I thought I would
> ask. Outside of WIFI, is there anything useful I can do with this
> dongle? The more conventional units (transverters, receivers, etc.) are
> a bit spendy for me right now. thanks. paul ac0z
> ___
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