[amsat-bb] Re: QSL Cards?

[Jim Walls]

Tom Williams wrote:
> I'm just starting to work sats - are QSL cards commonly exchanged? How is the exchange initiated? Also, what is the voice protocol on a busy bird? 
>   

As far as QSL cards, yes many people send them.  When I was active, I 
would QSL to any station that I had not talked to before, or any time 
upon request.  I normally just sent the postcard, and I did have special 
QSL cards printed for satellite use with a custom set of fields that 
made more sense for satellite work.  See 
http://home.earthlink.net/~k6ccc/QSL.html for my cards.  If the other 
station was on an expedition (for example a rare grid), I would send an 
SASE as I knew they had gone to special expense to activate a grid for 
the community so I would pay for the postage both ways.

For the voice protocol on the busy birds, the best way is to listen for 
a couple passes and you'll pick it up pretty quickly.  The short answer 
is keep it VERY SHORT and FAST.  When the birds are not busy, you can 
actually chat.  Back a few years ago when I was active, there were 
northbound passes on UO-14 in the late evening that were well off the 
Pacific coast of the USA and the footprint just skirted the west coast.  
As I am in the Los Angeles area I often got on and there was only one or 
two other stations for the first one to three minutes of my pass.  We 
would often chat  for fun that way.  As the bird went farther north, 
there were more people and it was back to the SHORT and FAST operating mode.

-- 
73
-------------------------------------
Jim Walls - K6CCC
jim at k6ccc.org
Ofc:  818-548-4804
http://home.earthlink.net/~k6ccc
AMSAT Member 32537 - WSWSS Member 395