IDK what speed you should expect, but Amazon's ground station solution should at least increase availability: https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/
For the radio & antenna you'll probably have on a small CubeSat, expect slow and unreliable, but it depends on if you're running your own ground station, in which case you may only be able to communicate for minutes a day or less, or are using a large ground station network or satellite constellation like Iridium, which will still be slow, but will offer much more frequent communication opportunities.
Re:So, you want to build a CubeSat?
by ThePirateofOz on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @04:06PM
(#20568582)
Here is a slow scan TV signal I picked up from the ISS one day when I was farting around with nothing better else to do.
That is so cool!
Re:So, you want to build a CubeSat?
by Rebelgecko on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @03:32PM
(#20568311)
It's relatively easy (emphasis on relatively) to use a RF module similar to what you'd get for $20 on Sparkfun or Adafruit and get dial-up levels of performance without needing to invest in a crazy ground station. You'd be limited on when you can downlink. I would imagine that for higher bandwidth communications (like enough for realtime video) you'd need to worry about radio licensing.
I'm curious, I've read about radio comm and this article mentions using the GlobalSat or Iridium network is possible, but would that (or any other option) be a "broadband bandwith" available to whatever software is running on the CubeSat?