[amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now

[Les Rayburn]

Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. 
Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put 
them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites 
with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got 
involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I 
kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without 
anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.

A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded 
SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my 
way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found 
some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on 
satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on 
the mic.

82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!

I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have 
now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 
and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.

My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more 
linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may 
not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one 
has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!

AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great 
work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.

The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I 
need your grid! (ha, ha)


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73,

Les Rayburn, N1LF
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
EM63nf

6M VUCC #1712
AMSAT #38965
Grid Bandits #222
Southeastern VHF Society
Central States VHF Society Life Member
Six Club #2484

Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light