As many of you know I operated as ZF2AE from EK99 back in late March and early April during my vacation from Grand Cayman and Little Cayman. I received numerous direct requests to have a sked as EK99 was needed for their VUCC awards. I made a big effort to meet all these requests received prior or during that trip and in most instances I was successful. As a portable, I worked AO-51 and SO-50 with just an Arrow Antenna with an ARR preamp and 5W with my VX7R. I also worked other stations on AO-7, FO-29 and VU52 using the same setup but with my FT857D with 10 Watts instead. Let me tell you setting up as a portable station to work the linear birds is time consuming and required a big effort everytime. I was on vacation and Hamradio was a secondary activity.
After my return, I went through my recordings it was clear that there were many missed opportunities to work certain stations for their requested skeds . Why was this? In most cases, it came down to stations both domestic and international that are NOT LISTENING or not leaving enough space between calls. Also it was clear these same stations were calling the same stations day in and day out. What is the sport in this, working the same stations and the same grids over and over again; especially when a DXpedition is ongoing and others need to work that grid. I had numerous passes where I could not get once into an FM satellite during a planned sked. In some cases, I only managed one or two contacts. It was frustrating to say the least. Out of the 45+ passes I completed during my trip there was only one satellite pass that was disciplined, operators listened, called in order and over 15 contacts were worked in sequence with zero interference and many happy operators. I encourage operators with deluxe satellite stations running power with full computer and rotation tracking to let more modest stations have their fair share of opportunities to get into the satellites. You may disagree with this concept, but I would like to remind the readers the FCC mandates that minimum power should be used to make at all times in to establish a contact. During my trip and upon my return, I received countless emails and QSL cards thanking me for activating a new country and a new grid. In the end, that was the biggest satisfaction of the whole DXpedition giving out a new one! 73, Adrian AA5UK ZF2AE & ZF2AE/ZF8 ________________________________ From: Thomas McGrane <n2...@aceweb.com> To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 8:04:40 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] equal time To the regular repetitive users of Echo Please refrain from hogging the satellite every pass for multiple contacts. I cant get into the satellite anymore and I am not going to use the amplifier to fight everyone. Sorry if you are offended but you need to be told. My support of amsat is directly proportional to my ability to use the satellite. pat _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
