to dove-tail on John's post...this is not a "plug and play" hobby. We must remember, "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it". Satellite op's are a very small percentage of a small hobby. I recall when AO-40 finally became available, we became S band experts almost overnight. Short of HEO we can "tweek" our efforts by maybe having a Suitsat type sat thrown out the door every time there's a EVA, maybe one with L/S transponder, how about a MEO like RS-15. Then there's on board experimental propulsion for these little birds. We can go on and on you know the drill...Yes we can and do make it "easy" to get started with satellites, however once the bug bites, at least for this old curmudgeon I believe, "the difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer". It is essential we support all efforts of AMSAT not just that little niche we "approve" of. Still rebuilding antenna systems....... WAS VUCC WAC 73 Bob W7LRD
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Papay" <j...@papays.com> To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 10:10:49 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Satellite Usage - 2012 The Funcube Dongle postings veered off into a discussion of the current state of affairs with the satellites that are still working. After reading about how the activity on the linear birds was down, I had to wonder a bit. It has not been my experience. I really expected the activity on the FM birds to diminish when AO-51 died. We only get 7 minutes of AO-27 and that doesn't make up for the much longer passes on AO-51. SO-50 has never been off the air since I started in 2006 but it is the most difficult to hear throughout the pass. For that reason, activity on SO-50 was fairly low. If you can't hear it, you can't work it. But to my surprise, SO-50 activity dramatically increased when AO-51 went silent. Those who work the FM birds became determined to work through this satellite despite the difficulties in hearing it. Of course, if you are not full duplex, you don't know when you are hearing the bird and that sometimes results in those who call but cannot hear the responses. They might assume that there is no activity on the bird when in fact there are many stations trying to make qso's. I started using the ssb birds in late November 2007. There wasn't much activity on AO-7, FO-29 and VO-52 at that time. But over the last two years, activity on the linear birds has steadily increased. Much of the increase can be attributed to the newer people who started on the FM birds and quickly decided to get involved with the linear birds. I think the availability of satellite capable radios has really helped. If you have a TS2000 you can be on a linear bird without much effort. They are easier to hear than an FM bird. Some are using a pair of radios to achieve full duplex with great success. And I highly recommend SatPC32 which I have used now since 2006. It runs 24x7 on a Vista Quad machine and doesn't crash. The recordings on my website were made possible using the auto multi-satellite tracking feature of this program. Recordings are made without any outside intervention. One of the things that powers DX on the HF bands are dxpeditions. Groups spend large amounts of money to travel to destinations all over the world so that others can put that country in the worked/confirmed column. With satellites today it's the VUCC award that drives the activity. When someone shows up from a rare grid, the birds are sometimes overwhelmed. ND9M has worked from hundreds of USA grids and has also worked from his ship on the linear birds. UT1FG/mm has been very active over the past three years and has created pileups on the ssb birds not unlike those on HF. To say the activity is down on the linear birds in recent years is simply incorrect. And more hams are operating satellites away from home than ever before. You work with what you have and make the best of it, fm or linear. The future of AMSAT and the satellite phase of our hobby is all about the new people. When you hear someone new on the bird and it's a noisy signal with an incomplete callsign, maybe without phonetics, call that station. Giving out that first contact with a newbie far outweighs 100 contacts with those that you have worked many times before. Sometimes the effort doesn't result in a qso, but maybe there is a possibility to follow up with an email or postcard with an offer of help. Just remember we all started out at some point with no experience. Most everyone can remember their first contact and how important it was in terms of encouraging future operating. So if you're reading the AMSAT-bb and are discouraged by the fact that there are no High Earth Orbit Satellites, don't be. Times change, technology changes but we continue by using what we have to the max and working towards improving our situation where we can. AMSAT works very hard to explore every possibility for building and launching new satellites. It's a tremendous effort that most of us don't realize is happening day after day. We all need to support this effort. FOX I and II will be here before we know it. These birds should give us some room for more qso's and new operators. In the meantime, AO-7 continues to work at an altitude of 1450KM. FO-29 is at 1200 or 1300 KM some of the time. These birds provide an opportunity to work DX if you can see down to the horizon. If you can't, you can always go to a location that is better and use your FT817 with an Arrow antenna and work down to the horizon. There is nothing wrong with using an Arrow or ELK antenna to work DX. WD9EWK has proven that point time after time. A good ham radio operator is one that looks at a problem as a challenge rather than a show stopper. Ham radio ingenuity over the years has been amazing. So if you are having trouble and are frustrated, develop an action plan to move forward. The resources available to us today are unprecedented. And there are mentors out there that are willing to help. Above all, stay positive and have some fun! 73, John K8YSE _______________________________________________ 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
