[amsat-bb] Propagation?

[Dave Johnson]

Hello List,

Being relatively new to the satellites (I started successfully only a few
weeks ago), I have a question.  During last night's (Tue, 12/20/06) evening
passes of both AO-51 and SO-50, I was pretty much unable to establish
contacts.  On AO-51 I did get a reply from VA7VW, whom I worked a day or two
earlier with no problems, and this was toward the end of the pass at my QTH.

Both passes were well-placed (in fact, SO-50 was at 85 degrees elevation at
my QTH), yet I had very poor results.  Hearing the satellites was not a
problem, only contacting them was.  Having been successful on all of my
earlier tries, I am wondering how often you've noticed being unable to get
into the satellites?  I'm running 5W on an HT, so that would obviously be a
factor (higher power being able to make it easier), but since I haven't
experienced all possible conditions yet with Sat ops, I'm still building up
the familiarity with how certain conditions arise.

This morning, I have noticed that some of the FM stations had more static
than usual (for the fringe ones), and on 2 meters, one of the remote
repeaters that I usually get well from about 40 miles out was hit or miss as
well at times, so perhaps there are some propagation issues currently.

Anyway, thoughts and comments would be welcomed.

Thanks and 73.

Dave, KC9GHA.