[amsat-bb] Re: ISS Not A Satellite WAS: Satellites and the LoTW

[Danny Messano]

Things like this only help to minimize the enjoyment of the hobby.

I enjoy the heck out of packet.  I never had more fun than trying to bang
packets through Mir near the end of her life.  I also used to enjoy
monitoring a few of the other sats (UO-11, DOVE, AO-16) years ago.   The
rare couple times I heard Shuttle voice contacts made we want to improve my
station a bit, but I became inactive and that never happened.

The thought of getting on ISS for either the repeater or packet is exciting.
I've got enough hardware now to run APRS and have a second radio/TNC for
ISS, and all that's missing from my 1995 setup is the Commodore 64!  I'm
enjoying assembling what's needed, much like anyone else has assembled a
station (dish, modems, SSB rigs, etc) for whatever bird(s) they were wanting
to work, albeit a bit more plug and play.

So in the middle of this excitement, I flip around the web a bit, and see
where some "higher powers" want to tell that my voice contacts are really
not worthy of counting as satellite contacts, because the station on that
end is up there, and I am down here.. more like simplex from ground to
tower.  Ok, well, that's fine.. I can see that.. And sorta agree.

These same "high powers" want to tell me that although my packet/repeater
contacts will be with other stations on the ground, much like any other
satellite, because we've already decided ISS contacts are not satellite
contacts, what we are doing is not worthy of being counted as a satellite
contact.  

Wow, that sure makes me feel like I've done nothing more than talk to a
station 100 feet away on an FRS radio.  Why bother?  What we're doing really
doesn't count, does it?  

Ok, I am not really that naive or uninformed, but certainly those same
thoughts are present.  If you're going to imply what I am doing is no harder
than chatting with my sister on IM or my girlfriend on the cell phone, I
think I'll go do that and buy a new laptop with my ham radio money.

Just my $.02

Danny Messano
KE4RAP



-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
Behalf Of Eric Christensen
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:34 PM
To: Roger Kolakowski
Cc: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] ISS Not A Satellite WAS: Satellites and the LoTW

Roger,
I believe there is a misconception here.  Whatever your opinion about the
ISS, I believe the AMSAT Board has felt made a distinction.

When talking to the astronauts on the ISS you aren't making a satellite
contact.  It is a LOS (line of sight) contact.  When you make a contact with
someone else on the ground VIA the ISS then it is a satellite contact.

I am trying to get the ARRL to recognize the ISS as a satellite when
contacts are made VIA their gear not when you make a contact with the ISS.

Eric KF4OTN


Roger Kolakowski wrote:
> Eric discovered...
> 
> "...and apparently the ISS is not a satellite."
> 
> Hi Eric...
> 
> AMSAT has never considered ISS as a satellite and has always 
> maintained the SAREX Board and discouraged crossposting so that no-one 
> gets confused and thinks that it has satellite "status."
> 
> This has made for some interesting situations' including the release 
> of
> Suitsat-1 which was SAREX news until it was released and then it 
> became AMSAT-BB news. Another example is PCSAT-2, which never left 
> ISS, and was not considered a satellite.
> 
> Perhaps ARRL is just taking the lead of AMSAT in LoTW.
> 
> In reality, packet should have nothing to do with it and should be 
> accepted as a mode, perhaps titled "Digital" to cover many of the 
> alternative modes now available through software.
> 
> Seems silly and sounds like a turf war, but there it is...
> 
> Roger
> WA1KAT
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric Christensen" <kf4otn at ericsatcom.net>
> To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 7:08 PM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Satellites and the LoTW
> 
> 
>> If you read my posts a few weeks ago about the ACLog and LoTW not 
>> being satellite friendly and you wanted to know more, read on.
>>
>> I've been working with Kathy Allison, KA1RWY, who is the ARRL Contest 
>> Assistant & LoTW Specialist.  My biggest concern was that LoTW didn't 
>> support all the satellites.  One of my contacts can't be put into the 
>> system because my conversation with AJ, AJ3U, was via the ISS using 
>> packet and apparently the ISS is not a satellite.
>>
>> The response I received from the ARRL on this was "At this time LoTW 
>> won't accept ISS as satellite. From what I was told, you have to put 
>> phone or CW and it will accept it." which I got from Kathy.  That 
>> doesn't fly with me.  I have asked her to contact the sysadmin for 
>> LoTW and that if the admin needs any help with squaring away the 
>> satellite portion of the system to please contact me and I'll be 
>> happy to help get all the satellites straight in the system.  I'm 
>> still waiting to hear back from them.
>>
>> After LoTW is straight, I hope to work with the creators of ACLog to 
>> make that log more satellite friendly.
>>
>> Now, does anyone want to help me take an ACLog and turn it into a SQL 
>> file???
>>
>> 73s,
>> Eric KF4OTN
>> AMSAT Member 35360
>> AMSAT Area Coordinator
>>
>> Please donate to the Eagle project!
>> http://www.amsat-na.com/donation.php?donate=eagle
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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