[Laser] Laser comm and ARRL?

[Andrew T. Flowers, K0SM]

Robert,

The idea that you can just point a laser pen up in the sky and carry on 
a CW qso is pretty ridiculous.  The discussion about NLOS communication 
has mostly involved long-term signal averaging to recover an extrememely 
weak signal.  I don't know of anyone yet who has a mad a QSO over any 
significant distance this way, but it should definately be possible with 
the right equipment and patience.  

Cloudbounce echoes can be plenty strong enough to hear.  Still, you have 
aiming issues to deal with since clouds move :-)  I'm playing around 
with the idea of using FSK441 to "ping" the other station rather than 
having the need to stabilize the optics before the QSO.  It works really 
well in the apartment, but I haven't tried it in the field.

Andy K0SM/2 FN13ed

>
>I'm curious about how the various descriptions of non-line-of-sight laser
>communications fit into this...  It seems that some folks are saying that
>you need precise alignment, laser to receiver, etc., whilst others suggest
>that they just point the laser and receiver into the same general area of
>the sky and *voila* - they make a contact.
>