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Re:Commercial Interests Petition FCC for High Power Allocati... by MandieD on Thursday July 13, 2023 @04:43PM (#36715705)
I'd encourage them to focus on the digital modes as a way to test the things they build and learn about propagation. The communities around digital modes also seem to be nicer and more diverse.

There are still lots of old guys in these parts of the hobby, but ones open-minded enough at least to learn new things, and I've not had any issues with them despite having a distinctly female first name.

WSPR is the best place to start, in my opinion - lots of results for really low capital investment (5W is high power), really lending itself to DIY.

Re:Commercial Interests Petition FCC for High Power Allocati... by mlyle on Thursday July 13, 2023 @05:02PM (#36715939)
The one place I've gotten some slight traction is that we have a group of students building a satellite for eventual launch and operations. So they have deployed a satellite ground station, and have been taking line-scan photos of our region via NOAA satellites.

Licensing is ultimately going to be important to transmit, etc.

WSPR is amazing, but there's a certain "so what"-- I can send a packet over there, too, via the public internet. Radio doesn't make sense to kids anymore: like they really don't get it.