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Something I have wondered about is how can a layman like me could communicate with a satellite? I would need an antenna of some sort I believe but then what's t

• lxgr 3y ago
  Depends entirely on what you want to do! There are amateur radio satellites that you can legally communicate with using a technician’s license and equipment for around $100 (essentially a UHF/VHF FM walkie-talkie and an external antenna, i.e. just analog voice). If you have a fairly modern iPhone, you can already share your location to a satellite out of the box. And if unidirectional communication counts, you already do it every time you use GPS :)
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• katbyte 3y ago
  But a garmin inreach mini, pair your phone, and then start texting people via it’s app :)
• numpad0 3y ago
  IIRC there are some open packet data protocol intended as cost saving measures, but nothing mandatory or ubiquitous as Ethernet or RS-232C in PCs. A primer/tutorial level for hobbyist satellite communication is weather satellite reception using RTL-SDR. 1: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weather-satellite-images/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weat...
• ianburrell 3y ago
  There are amateur radio satellites. You would need to get your amateur radio license, although you can listen without it. Then you need handheld radio. Two, or more expensive dual band, if want to transmit. It is possible to use the builtin antenna. But lots of people use directional Yagi antennas, you can build cheap one. Most of satellites you don’t talk to, the satellite repeats signals. People talk to each other, mainly to make contacts, using the satellite. It is also possible to talk to ISS.