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What is a 40 GHz , 20 W amplifier used for in amateur radio circles?

by realo 1mo ago

simondanerd 1mo ago
Reducing the effects of loss over long distance coax runs.
- wolvoleo 1mo ago
  20W is a lot to pump into a piece of coax if it's not going to an antenna. Besides usually the practice is to simply put the signal handling equipment at the antenna, or down convert to a lower frequency like an LNB does. I would imagine it's more for a local microwave link. Microwave antennas have huge gain due to their directionality so 20W can do a lot. And you are limited to the horizon anyway.
wolvoleo 1mo ago
There's a HAM band at 47 GHz in the US : https://hamradiohub.com/ham-radio-frequencies-bands-in-the-usa/#HAM_radio_other_Higher_frequency_bands_Above_UHF https://hamradiohub.com/ham-radio-frequencies-bands-in-the-u... It provides 200Mhz of bandwidth so it would make a nice point to point high speed microwave link
- stackghost 1mo ago
  Isn't encryption forbidden on the amateur bands? Pretty useless if you can't run TLS.
  - fedpost 1mo ago
    The secret is nobody can tell. There are probably like 5 people playing with that band who have the equipment to receive it and as long as you don't do anything too obvious within literal line of sight of those 5 (very old) dudes the world is your oyster.
  - wolvoleo 1mo ago
    Yes it is. But there are many things it can still be used for. In Holland for example they use microwave connections to create a backbone network to do things like repeater linking and to distribute amateur TV without using the internet like most current repeaters do. See some of their applications here: https://hamnet.nl/toepassingen/ https://hamnet.nl/toepassingen/ (Sorry, it's in Dutch but you can use a translator :)
  - aeonik 1mo ago
    Only if it's used to obscure the meaning of a message. You can encrypt passcodes and remote control commands for sattelites and other radio control codes for various craft or devices. You can also still use message authentication codes for integrity of plaintext messages. Telemetry is fair game for encryption IIRC as well.

What is a 40 GHz , 20 W amplifier used for in amateur radio circles?

by realo 1mo ago

What is a 40 GHz , 20 W amplifier used for in amateur radio circles?

simondanerd 1mo ago

Reducing the effects of loss over long distance coax runs.

wolvoleo 1mo ago
20W is a lot to pump into a piece of coax if it's not going to an antenna. Besides usually the practice is to simply put the signal handling equipment at the antenna, or down convert to a lower frequency like an LNB does. I would imagine it's more for a local microwave link. Microwave antennas have huge gain due to their directionality so 20W can do a lot. And you are limited to the horizon anyway.

wolvoleo 1mo ago

There's a HAM band at 47 GHz in the US : https://hamradiohub.com/ham-radio-frequencies-bands-in-the-usa/#HAM_radio_other_Higher_frequency_bands_Above_UHF https://hamradiohub.com/ham-radio-frequencies-bands-in-the-u... It provides 200Mhz of bandwidth so it would make a nice point to point high speed microwave link

stackghost 1mo ago
Isn't encryption forbidden on the amateur bands? Pretty useless if you can't run TLS.
- fedpost 1mo ago
  The secret is nobody can tell. There are probably like 5 people playing with that band who have the equipment to receive it and as long as you don't do anything too obvious within literal line of sight of those 5 (very old) dudes the world is your oyster.
- wolvoleo 1mo ago
  Yes it is. But there are many things it can still be used for. In Holland for example they use microwave connections to create a backbone network to do things like repeater linking and to distribute amateur TV without using the internet like most current repeaters do. See some of their applications here: https://hamnet.nl/toepassingen/ https://hamnet.nl/toepassingen/ (Sorry, it's in Dutch but you can use a translator :)
- aeonik 1mo ago
  Only if it's used to obscure the meaning of a message. You can encrypt passcodes and remote control commands for sattelites and other radio control codes for various craft or devices. You can also still use message authentication codes for integrity of plaintext messages. Telemetry is fair game for encryption IIRC as well.