[amsat-bb] Re: Newbie question about AO-07

[Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ]

Dave Guimont wrote:

> discussions and education, not by some "go to the store and buy a 
> push button radio" to make it easy!!  AO51 FM voice!!  Waste of money...

What a good job we don't all have the same opinions!  The world would be
such a dull place...

I think the AO-51 QRP FM modes are great.  As a relative newcomer to the
hobby (I've been working with commercial radio equipment and electronics
for years, and my Dad was an amateur, so I'm more than familiar with the
concepts - it's just I've only had my licence a few months) I'm
currently restricted by my licence to commercially-produced radios.  So,
for a lot of people "go to the store and buy a push button radio" is the
only way in.

With the QRP FM modes on AO-51 I can work contacts all over Europe and
(at least in theory) Africa, Iceland and the Nordic countries.  All I
need to do this is a little dual-band HT and a homebrew crossed yagi.
The aerial and diplexer cost about £5 and took an hour to make, and has
rewarded me with about a dozen contacts on AO-51, SO-50 and even one on
AO-27 which normally seems to be switched off when it passes over here.
  So there I have a setup that I can bungee to the back of my bike, or
throw on the back seat of the car, or even just carry about with me if
there aren't too many people about to get poked by the elements.

Unfortunately the "non-QRP" modes seem to be dominated by the
1kW-into-four-stacked-18-element brigade, who just drown everyone else
out.  I don't see the point in that, where's the fun in spending all
that money putting up a tower and buying a rotator and a set of huge
antennas, just to make it easy?

Gordonjcp MM3YEQ