[amsat-bb] Re: A0-51 "easy sat" not so easy for QRPers

[Tony Langdon]

At 10:26 AM 2/26/2008, Mark VandeWettering wrote:

>I mostly agree with this, there are some calls which
>are rather difficult to pull apart sometimes, and often
>just the fact that you are slowing down to say them
>phonetically helps.

Very much so. :)


>But perhaps this is a good time to introduce a little personal
>rant of mine.   First of all, I work satellites exclusively
>QRP with a TH-D7A and an arrow antenna (no preamp).
>This is a fun way for me to work, and I enjoy it a great
>deal, and quite frankly, with some ear buds I can hear
>the satellite very well, and always get good strong signal
>reports above 10 degrees or so, which is pretty much

I normally work the birds with a similar setup, and have no 
difficulty receiving it.  In the past, I used around 1W to access the 
uplink with little difficulty.

>That's what makes the following particularly frustrating:
>someone with a LOT more power than me simply comes
>on and blasts over my QSO.  Well, that's just the half of

That's common, and the cause (at least down here) is invariably a 
newbie trying to work the bird using a high gain vertical and no 
preamp (For the newcomers out there, this DOESN'T WORK!!!  Best to 
try working it with a HT, seriously).

>Yes, I understand there can be fading and the like, but
>once the satellite is above even ten degrees, I pretty
>much always get full quieting from AO-51.   I keep wondering

I do too.

>why people with presumably much larger stations have
>so much more difficulty hearing the bird.   I'm left with
>equally puzzling alternatives: that people running much
>more power than I simply don't have sufficient receive
>gain to hear the satellite, or that they simply don't care
>whether they interrupt existing communications and just
>key up over people.

One of the things I hate about V/U is there is a 20 ish dB disparity 
in the uplink/downlink power budgets, and that is in favour of the 
uplink.  U/V is roughly balanced.  The former creates all sorts of 
opportunities for alligators...

>of your station before clogging the satellite.  The maxim
>"you got to hear 'em to work 'em" should be the motto
>of every satellite operator.

True, ESPECIALLY for satellites.  If you can't hear it, fix your station! :)

73 de VK3JED
http://vkradio.com