Re: [apnic-talk] Best of the APNIC Blog digest - April 2021
In message <CAN-Dau1gA1GRgV1r9QCMv7gjMQZxdQ0J_d78rxcEtVMk-goPgA@mail.gmail.com>
David Farmer <farmer@umn.edu> wrote:
{... lots of great info about Starlink snipped...}
Sorry for the late reply. I've been a bit unwell (non-Covid).
I just wanted to thank David Farmer for the nice explanation of the
operation of the Starlink ground stations. It all makes a lot more
sense now.
I am and was certainly already at least passingly familiar with phased
array military radar, and also with WiFi beam forming... which I think
even my modest and not even terribly recent 802.11ac SoHo router does.
It's certaining interesting to see these same sorts of directional
technologies being applied now even to LEO satellite communications.
Obviously, this is going to be a great boon to a lot of people in a
lot of places... assuming that the whole system isn't over-sold to
the point were it becomes massively over-subscribed. I guess we will
see about that, in the fullness of time.
To the extent that this system helps people & companies throughout the
world get online and do useful things, obviously that's all great. It
is just sad to know that the price we may all pay for this is that
henceforth, wide field night sky photography may become a thing of the
past, and something we'll only be able to tell our grandchildren about.
Regards,
rfg