WhyIsThereAir, you said:
One can determine the VS was in place during the time the messages were sent by a far simpler test: the messages were received. Talking to a satellite requires a moderately stable platform. There are slew limits on how fast the antenna can track, even if it is a patch antenna or electrically steered antenna. The antenna has both pitch and roll limits and pitch and roll rate limits. It may also have limits on altitude change rate.
I am in the RF world...and for some reason I thought the Satcom antenna was a phased array antenna....therefore requiring no steering or any 'lock on time'...it simply needs to stay within a certain degree of vertical. That being said, if it is a phased array antenna and the aircraft become inverted or went in to an especially deep dive then no messages would transmit during such period.
I could be wrong about the antenna type...but after this thread and the other...reading several thousand posts...the antenna could be made of paper mache in my head by now.
