(Sarcasm alert......) John,
> The FM sat's in my option is near useless with all the > "using them famous words of the late W2OY" > Just way to many "kids, lids and space cadets " Near useless? The FM satellites worked very well for many to make QSOs on the passes I worked on Saturday. Yes, rapid-fire QSOs are the order of the day, but you'll hear the same sort of rapid-fire QSOs next weekend in the CQ WW SSB contest. And..... wait for it... that contest doesn't use the satellites. It's on HF! Many thousands spend that weekend making lots of QSOs, and giving out the same information for each and every QSO. Hams will travel to many different parts of the world, just to be able to say "59 (CQ zone number)" for up to 48 hours on the radio. As for the W2OY reference... let's see... At 43, I'm not a kid. Some in a local radio club will call me a "kid", since I am a bit younger than the median age of the club members. I'm not a lid, so I guess I must be a space cadet. Do I get a certificate for that? Thanks for clearing that up for me, John. I needed that dose of name-calling on a Monday morning. :-\ > Standing in their back yard on a FM HT. Oh, no! Someone is using an FM HT in their back yard to work a satellite? Heavens, no! Report them to.... ??? I've been doing satellite demonstrations and presentations out here for almost 5 years. Even after being at some of the same hamfests for each of those years, there are still people who do not understand that satellite operating does not require a huge station and lots of $$$ to get started. Yes, you can end up spending a lot of money. It's the same for those on HF, who want to go from a 100W transceiver/dipole station to something with Yagis, a tower, a transceiver with more bells and whistles, maybe an amplifier... > Pass after pass it seems to always to be the same people. I wasn't on the satellites in the HEO days. It seems like that you would have also heard many of the same people on AO-40, day in and day out. Other than possibly having longer conversations on HEO satellites than you would on LEO satellites, it may have been similar to what you heard on the FM birds. This is a bad thing because..... ??? > Sure do (still) miss AO-40.... I miss that, and the other HEO satellites. But it's 2011, not 2001, and AO-40 isn't here. It might come back like AO-7 did, but it might be like most ham satellites - once it goes quiet, it stays quiet. Rather than listening to the silence from AO-40, I'll keep on using the satellites that are operational. I'll also continue to make friends as I log more QSOs, keep learning more about this corner of our hobby, and - you've seen this in many of my -BB posts over the past few years - having fun! I'm looking forward to the presentations about the Fox project at the upcoming AMSAT Symposium. I'll keep going out to hamfests with an AMSAT table, because it is fun to meet people and talk about this corner of our hobby. I'll look forward to other projects like FUNcube and KiwiSat, hoping to have more satellites in whatever orbit to work. Maybe that new Polish satellite I just read about with the FM/SSB transponder will be just as much fun as AO-16 was a couple of years ago. And, yes, I would love to see P3E launched and operational. I would be happy to adapt my portable all-mode station to work that, along with the other satellites. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ _______________________________________________ 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
