I have a QPSK & BPSK packet radio link to several other stations via the QO-100 satellite narrowband transponder, using a couple of Pluto SDRs and in some cases a mix/match of RTL SDR dongles and 70cm radios with transverters.
Only a small group (4 so far) doing it, but we can be heard on the WEBSDR hosted at Goonhilly Earth station[1]
Due to small dish sizes on RX (10GHz) we are keeping it simple and open at 1200 BPSK and QPSK 2400 with IL2P[2][3] for FEC+RS robustness, and not even close to the 2.7Khz max permitted bandwidth.
I’ve felt this way for a considerable time too. In retrospect, it has now been ten years and yet still nothing has really changed, which I am kinda glad.
Fortunately, the 10m band these days has a reach of up to 11000km due to the solar activity. You are quite right that during LOS conditions it’s limited to the elevation of the antenna.
Its relatively small antenna needed (5m dipole) and can be used to access some distances, just not ones that might be in the same country as origin because of the skip dead zone from the ionospheric refraction angle. Which depending how it might be used, could be useful.
The general rule of thumb is to check the MUF Rating at the time of day collected from ionosondes such as that on https://prop.kc2g.com/
The chip scene has indeed grown in scale since the 2000s began, I shared a few beers with the guy who did the Commodordion and he’s one of many reaching youth with what I think many have come to consider modern folk.
Battle of the Bits is a unique and wonderful community plugged to the core by chiptune. I do recall their logo nicely visible on the reddit r/place thing recently which says a lot about the number of participants chipping away!
Give a few days until the tsunami of hackerhearts abates and give signing up/in a shot and upload them.
The folks are always open looking for new crew too to help in the upkeep such as screening the upload queue etc. Drop a line to Saga_Musix, open to pretty much anyone. There’s a huge backlog still. Who doesn’t love listening to up and coming modscene stars. Especially their very first ones! ლ(ಠ_ಠლ)
Only a small group (4 so far) doing it, but we can be heard on the WEBSDR hosted at Goonhilly Earth station[1]
Due to small dish sizes on RX (10GHz) we are keeping it simple and open at 1200 BPSK and QPSK 2400 with IL2P[2][3] for FEC+RS robustness, and not even close to the 2.7Khz max permitted bandwidth.
[1] https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ - 10489630 USB
[2] https://tarpn.net/t/il2p/il2p.html
[3] https://eindhoven.space/il2p