[amsat-bb] My First Satellite Contacts

[Ben Napper]

Wow!

I've been grinning ear-to-ear for a little while now that I have my first
satellite contacts completed.  I find it astonishing that a hobby as mundane
sounding as Amateur Radio can have any aspect of it that is
as exhilarating as this experience has been.  From the day I got my Tech
ticket, I've wanted to work the birds, but, being a younger ham, life takes
its turns.  Thank you to my #1 - K8YSE, #2 - AC0RA, #3 - W7JPI, #4 - WA4NV,
and #5 - K8TL.

That said, I've learned a few things while lurking on here and the
satellites.
 - Be patient. There's a lot of hams and only a few FM birds. (I'd love to
get into the linear birds too, but I'd need congressional approval from the
wife for the budgetary consideration required to make that a reality.)
 - Don't try to transmit on the bird's downlink frequency.  No matter how
hard you try, you will be doing a lot of talking to yourself.
 - Clean up the dog poo in the backyard.

Now, some questions: I want to use Ham Radio Deluxe as my log (unless I hear
of something that is much better) and I'm setup for LotW.  How often should
I upload to LotW?  Are there any gotchas with logging satellite contacts?
 Best practices?

Also, I want to (eventually) do paper QSL cards.  If you do them, how do you
usually handle them?  Who do you recommend to use to get them made?

Thanks,

Ben Napper - KC0PCQ