by MisterQED » Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:59 pm
As has been mentioned before, legalities are the issue. Falcon 1 probably used a space based data relay which transfers all the legal headaches to the relay holder.
As I assume those options are not available to you, and Ham bands are not available for what we all hope is a profit making venture, you are left with few options.
The unlicensed bands are the easiest and of those the one with the most tested equipment on it is 2.5GHz, the WiFi frequencies.
I'd suggest using two radios, something like 900MHz for a telemetry feed and then getting a BIG dish created or converted for use on 2.5Ghz that tracks based on the telemetry stream and you should be able to get HD video.
The link on the page goes to a site discussing the world record 125 mile WiFi link.
Since the antenna on the rocket will be small, I'd suggest you use on of the 12' jobs on the ground with circular polarization.
Or if you have the cash:
The big problems are tracking with the dish and making a decent antenna on the rocket.
The tracking is just a problem of stepper motors, linear actuators, accurate GPS data for sender and receiver and programming.
The rocket antenna issue was just discussed on arocket within the last month and the consensus seemed to be "patch" antennas.
MisterQED
Team Daedalus