COMSTAR Experiment: Notes on the COMSTAR Beacon Experiment

Notes on the COMSTAR Beacon Experiment By E. E. MULLER (Manuscript received December 5, 1977) Definitive empirical characterization of the transmission properties of the atmosphere has long been limited by the lack of appropriate sources radiating from beyond the atmosphere. The COMSTAR beacons provide appropriate radiation to interested experimentors throughout the continental United States. Government, commercial, and scientific interest in transmission through the atmosphere at frequencies above 10 GHz derives from the potential for employing this portion of the spectrum for satellite communications and is basic to the attention being paid the COMSTAR beacon experiment, both within the U.S. and abroad. This opportunity for improving future generation communication satellites underlies A.T.&T.'s provision for carefully designed millimeter wave beacon sources in several earlier corporate proposals to the FCC. Soon after the FCC granted permission to proceed with COMSTAR, specifications describing the beacon characteristics were published in technical journals along with an invitation to build and operate equipment for their reception. This announcement was received enthusiastically, and on October 1, 1975, a group of 40 interested experimenters gathered at a first "COMSTAR Experimenter's" meeting at Holmdel, New Jersey. Spacecraft development progress was discussed, along with early characterization results from prototype beacon equipments. Attendees signified their interest in participating in the experiment and outlined tentative plans.