Satellite scatter

[brandon7861]

Project West Ford was a partial failure, but now we have a bunch of much larger space junk of known dimensions up there. Has anyone ever worked backscatter off a starlink solar panel or similar? With this huge concern over emergency comms, it seems like a reasonable thing to try.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

A few things to think about. First, the average height of the ionosphere extends to below the normal height of the Starlink sats thus HF cannot penetrate it to reach them. Secondly, If you happened to hit a region where the ionosphere was high enough to allow HF to hit a Starlink bird, how would you even know that was the mode of propagation? Third, a minor point, backscatter is not the correct term for that. Backscatter is when propagation hits a distant target area and a small portion of your signal reflects back towards you, often overshooting your location. I have worked Prince Edward Island Which is north of me, while also working Venezuela which is south of me. When I turned the beam to the north I lost both stations.

 

[brandon7861]

I wasn't thinking it had to be HF, figured on it being a UHF or higher thing.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

OK but again, you would have an extremely hard time knowing if that was indeed the mode of propagation. Ever hear of the Brenden Awards ? A group of amateurs, one of who I know, set up a 100 element wire rope suspended yagi on 2m from the east coast of Newfoundland in an attempt to cross the Atlantic on 2m. They were successful..........almost. After a LOT of studying the timing, path etc it was determined that they had actually unknowingly used an artificial reflector during the contact.They bounced their signal off the International Space Station. They were using near a kilowatt and a 100 element yagi and used one of the digital modes like FT8 or possibly FSK441. The signal was readable via computer but not good enough to support voice. Bottom line is yes, it IS possible but very far from practical. Now that was a long-haul path with associated losses. A more local path would have less losses but antenna elevation angles would have to be taken into account and timing would be critical and chances are very much minimal. It is very much different than simply working an orbiting repeater in the sky.

 

[brandon7861]

I have not heard of that award, but it sounds interesting!