That's actually a very good discussion. I too got back into ham radio after about 20 years of absence and of course bought a sat ready rig (FT-736R), built an antenna and off I went. I had my first QSO on AO-07 and was stoked because apparently the antenna I built out of PVC pipe and copper tubing (IOio) worked and I made a successful contact. After that I put up a basic rotor with two beams and was hoping to have more fun. Well .. I'm not sure if that stressful exchanging of grids on the FM sats can be classified as fun and I also found myself pretty lonely on the SSB sats which made me question if I really want to go the next step to get a AZ/EL rotor, pre-amps etc. and spend all that money just to have maybe a handful QSOs a month. So I'll be monitoring here for a bit more to see what the situation is like. In the meantime I sold the FT-736R to fund a newer HF radio and postponed more extensive station building.
So what is the state of affairs really with SSB sats in the US? It seems that they're more active in Europe. 73 Mike K5TRI On Jun 22, 2011, at 9:00 AM, Thomas Doyle wrote: > The following quote from John W9EN hit home with me. > > "FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on > during the pass " > > I am an AMSAT old timer (Amsat LM-0875) who had been inactive in ham radio > for a decade or two. Recently > I got back on the air. The easiest way to get back on the air was 2M/70cm > repeaters. The activity level > on the repeaters here in Madison is at an very low level. In the old days > you could always find someone > on the repeaters. I was a bit surprised to say the least. > > Back in the day I worked WAS on Oscar using scratch built transverters. I > thought I might give the current > satellites a try. I thought my gear was not working but I guess it is the > low level of activity on the sats. The same > situation occurred about 65 million years ago when the few remaining > dinosaurs stood around and asked > themselves - where is everybody. Today "everybody" is playing Angry Birds on > their iWhatever or tweeting > the fact that they are up and going to have breakfast soon. > > One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the > internet for discussions. I searched > for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded > discussion system with actual search > capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current > 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately > the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current > system works great - "for them". That is > always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks > like things just fine the way they are. > > 73 tom W9KE > > P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as > misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" > as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur. > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@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-BB@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
