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A comment on Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources. Parent comment

Re:Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch wi... by gaius on Thursday November 01, 2018 @04:37AM (#18352159)
being able to operate a 1.2 to 1.8m size small VSAT in Xinjiang province

Right; I think people are visualising this like a sort of Thuraya iPhone, which it very much will not be, because physics.

I mean Thuraya is amazing if you in the middle of the ocean, but no one under 40 has ever used a modem at that speed before...

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Re:Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch wi... by walrus01 on Thursday November 01, 2018 @04:49AM (#18352198)
If they are successful with some sort of most-flat-panel phased array that can talk to two or three satellites simultaneously, I don't think it will be quite as obvious on a roof as a 1.2m cheap small VSAT... But it will still need to be big enough to have sufficient gain for a real link budget, and CNR ratios for complex modulations.

And its EIRP to Tx to a satellite >300km away at bitrates of 0.5 Mbps or better will be easy to find with portable spectrum analyzers hooked up to directional horn antennas.

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