YeswayNotes from the field
Radio, satellite backhaul, and mesh networking can create a resilient communications system anywhere on Earth — without a single piece of fixed infrastructure. Starlink — Satellite…
Designing and installing a wide area UHF repeater system: what the project actually looked like Most radio coverage problems look simple until you actually go and…
Every lone worker policy confronts the same uncomfortable truth: an emergency button only works if the worker is conscious and able to press it. Falls, medical episodes, gas exposure, and physical assault can incapacitate a person instantly. In those scenarios, a radio with a red button is no more useful than no radio at all.
The satellite payload, the communications electronics carried by a satellite in orbit, has historically been simple. It receives a signal from the ground, shifts its frequency, amplifies it, and retransmits it back to Earth. This approach, known as the bent-pipe or transparent payload, works well for point-to-point relay but has fundamental limitations for complex, dynamic network applications. What is changing now, with regenerative or processing payloads, has implications for professional radio network design that are significant and underappreciated.
The voice quality problems associated with traditional satellite communications were largely a consequence of GEO orbital geometry. A round-trip signal delay of 560 milliseconds or more is at the outer edge of what human conversation can accommodate. Beyond approximately 300 milliseconds of end-to-end delay, conversational flow degrades, users begin to talk over each other, and the cognitive effort of managing the delay reduces the effectiveness of the communication.
For RF engineers, system integrators, and spectrum managers designing hybrid satellite-radio networks. The rapid expansion of LEO satellite constellations is one of the most consequential developments…
For business owners, compliance managers, and system integrators, navigating the regulatory landscape for satellite radio deployments. Satellite-linked radio systems sit at the intersection of two regulatory…
Case Study — Offshore & Energy The Ship That Was On the Wrong Frequency — Illegally A cable-laying vessel working the Lincolnshire offshore wind farms had…
For risk managers, business continuity directors, and COOs in critical infrastructure and regulated industries. Business continuity planning has a communications problem. Most BCPs specify that communications…
Non-Terrestrial Networks is the 3GPP term for communications infrastructure that uses satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), or other airborne nodes as part of the network. In the context of 5G, NTN refers specifically to extending the 5G New Radio (NR) air interface to work across satellite links - both LEO and GEO - in a way that is standardised, interoperable, and integrated with terrestrial 5G infrastructure.
