Hello ALL;    I was sent a link this morning from a local amateur about a story from the BBC News.   The ESA last Friday awarded a $179M to theUK subsidary of Airbus Defense for a contract to constructthe "Biomass" spacecraft which will be launched by a Vega rocket in 2021.   Attached is one of the many papers I found that detailthe scientific aspects of the P-Band Polarmetric SAR (SyntheticAperture Radar) which will be used to measure biomass densityover several years as part of the ESA's Earth Explorer Programme.         This is a very important mission for the benefit of science,and although I do not have any of the current technical details describing the current revision of the Biomass Spacecraft technicaldesign I am sure everyone will find this statement from this earlierpaper interesting;         "......The opportunity to use P-band arose only when the International Telecommunications             Union (ITU) designated the frequency range 432 - 438 MHz as a secondary allocation to remote sensing at the World Radio Communications Conference in 2003(ITU, 2004).. The BIOMASS SAR will therefore operate at a centre frequency of 435 MHz (i.e., a wavelength of around 69 cm) and with a bandwidth of 6 MHz.     ....  "          I have attached a copy of the source paper,I hope it make it throughthe odv-reflector.  This is a reminder of the "value" of our spectrum.  I wonderhow an orbiting radar transmitter might affect Pave_Paws; and it does bringup the point as to whether some sharing spectrum partners do help retain ouraccess to the bands.                                       73, Kermit W9XA ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: WB9QZB <wb9qzb@aol.com> To: sford@arrl.org Cc: w9xa@yahoo.com; dick@pobox.com Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 11:20 AM Subject: Fwd: BBC News: UK wins satellite contract to 'weigh' Earth's forests using 70cm UK wins satellite contract to 'weigh' Earth's forests using 70cm - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36195562