Satellite engineers have a very poor showing on the Internet. I started writing about satellite stuff because of how difficult it has been for me to find reliable information. I’ve had to do a lot of learning by doing. Perhaps other satellite engineers enjoy their business being a black art, but like locksmiths and security alarm salesmen, they’re just waiting for the light of responsible disclosure to toss their world upside down.
And that brings me to a trend I have noticed in the satellite Internet business. There are two camps: radio guys who somehow configure a router, and IP guys who somehow align an antenna. Usually the IP guys do better in business than the radio guys. Perhaps this is because radio guys tend to be former military and unused to competition. Perhaps this is because they think all you have to do is deliver a carrier and everyone is happy. But the customer doesn’t care about Hertz, he cares about bits. And really, the space link is still a Layer 1 problem, and the harder work is above that.
On with revealing a little black magic.