[amsat-bb] Re: -={Echo Madness}=-

[Bruce]

Personally, if anyone wants to control who uses a satellite, then make 
the satellite digital and give each participant a digital code (which 
can be filtered later).  Include a list of acceptable usage with it. If 
that person violates the acceptable usage then revoke his digital code 
and he is gone forever. Hmmmmm.... satellite moderation, just like what 
was tried here on the -bb a few years back when flames and flame 
throwers got a little out of hand. We received rules of use and if you 
violate them, you were banned from the -bb.

I can also remember many years ago in so-35, uo-14 days, there was a ham 
that used to have conversations with his xyl on many of the passes. 
Turned out.... he was in South America working as a missionary and he 
thought he was talking on a really quiet simplex frequency (the 
satellite uplink). After days and days of listening, we finally caught a 
call sign. I wrote him a letter and explained that we were all listening 
to the two of them and if he could QSY. Not a problem, within a week he 
was gone and in about another week, he had written me saying he did not 
know he was interfering with the satellite.

There really is no solution to a satellite that uses a particular uplink 
frequency to keep those that use the simplex frequency or are actually 
trying to make a satellite contact and use poor operating practices. 
After all, when P5/4L4FN was operating from North Korea, there were many 
that made dozens of HF SSB contacts with him when one was enough to give 
them the rarest of all DX. There were also many pirates jamming the 
frequencies and a real mess. I know this first hand as I am the QSL manager.

Satellites are no different from rare DX, everyone wants a piece of it 
and they want it now. As we are trying to get more and more hams 
interested in the satellites, we are going to simply have more trying to 
use the same space. One solution is for the experienced satellite 
operators to move from the single channel FM satellites over to the SSB 
birds.

73...bruce
-- 

Bruce Paige, KK5DO

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