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

[Pavel Milanes Costa]

Amen, I second that motion...

Third word hams who do not have 70cm rigs can work the sats more easily 
(70cm FM gear is very rare here, not to mention SSB)

The 2m uplink is workable with transverters and HF multimode CAT capable 
rigs are almost ubiquitous for the 10m downlink

73

El 18/09/13 17:48, Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE escribió:
> I've been working sats off and on for many years.  I must admit that I
> haven't done much since RS-12/13 and RS-15 went silent.  I believe that if
> we had more "easy sats" with Mode VHF up and HF down they might be more
> popular.  Tuning and alignment weren't as critical.
>
> Just my two cents or so.
>
>
> Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE
> Grid EL09uf
> Eagle Creek Observatory
> http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org
> I've stopped asking "How stupid can you be?"  Some people are taking it as a
> challenge.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
> Behalf Of Les Rayburn
> Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:32 PM
> To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
> Subject: [amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now
>
> 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)
>
>