I am afraid you're right, Tom, and it pains me to admit it. I am not
sure why activity has dropped off.. but I can say in my own case I lost
interest in satellite operating after AO-40 died and have gone on to
other things ( EME ) to use the existing equipment I had.
From northern Vermont I can work pretty much all the active satellite
ops on the FM birds ( within my potential mutual footprint at least ) in
a weekend's worth of passes, so there was little incentive for me to
continue. I _have_ gotten back into sat operating recently, if only to
work the cobwebs out of my station.
I wonder how many satellite operators still have AO-10 or AO-13-class
stations any more. I get the impression that many aspire to have a Yaesu
FT-847, Icom 910, or TS-2000 and an Arrow antenna. If that much. I hope
I am wrong.
We as a community need to revitalize things.. the future does NOT lie
with more Cubesats.. or if it does, then I want no part of it. We need
to restore the legacy and primacy of AMSAT in space. I think if we could
get another LEO bird in the air we would see activity increase dramatically.
I've been an AMSAT member since 1980, albeit on and off, and been on the
birds since 1987 give or take. Some of my most fun moments were working
the Russian RS birds, believe it or not. I was also an AMSAT Area
Coordinator for some years. I would love to participate in a dialogue of
how to get folks interested in satellite operating again, and/or
representing AMSAT at the local hamfests. But it might just echo the
general lack of interest in ham radio in general that I have observed.
Guess I need to make a point of getting back on FO-29 and VO-52 more
often...
73 de W1ICW
On 8/27/2012 7:09 PM, Thomas Doyle wrote:
Clayton,
The activity level on the linear sats is very low and does not seem to
be getting any better. Not sure why. Perhaps it is cost or complexity
or problems putting up outside antennas. It is rather sad working
linear sat passes with no one else on them. At least I can hear my own
downlink signal and the beacon :-)
Unfortunately this sums it up.
AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
"Satellite Operations Report by Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
" ... The other FM satellites, AO-27 and SO-50, continue to be heavily
used. FO-29 when operative, and VO-52 work well, but have very little
use."
Hope to see you on FO-29.
73 W9KE Tom Doyle
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