[amsat-bb] Fox, "Easy Sats"....et al....

[Paul Stoetzer]

Well, you are partially right. With OSCAR 6 and 7 and their strong ten
meter downlinks, it was just a matter of adding two meter transmit
capability to an HF station. Now it does take a little more work to
receive and transmit at VHF and UHF with SSB or CW and the prevalence
of man-made noise on VHF and UHF these days generally requires a beam.

I am quite certain that many of the people that worked OSCARs, 6, 7,
8, and the RS birds never graduated from Mode A. Just like many of the
FM satellite users never graduate from FM.

People tend to think it's more difficult than it is. I've made over
2,000 linear transponder contacts with nothing more than two Yaesu
FT-817s (for a few hundred of those I used an Icom IC-R10 receiver)
and an Arrow antenna handheld.

The radios for operating via a linear transponder are widely available
and inexpensive. A Yaesu FT-100, FT-817, FT-857, FT-897, FT-991 or an
Icom IC-706MkII(g), Icom IC-7000, or any of those plus a FUNcube
dongle and computer to receive the downlink are all the radio you need
and an Arrow or Elk antenna will get you going.

73,

Paul, N8HM


On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 1:19 PM, Joe <nss at mwt.net> wrote:
> Funny how a linear bird is a technical challenge, wow, as a novice in 1975 I
> listened to Oscar 6 & 7 all the time. and once up graded used them also all
> the time. Sad to think that 1970's technology is high tech to anyone.
> Joe WB9SBD
> Sig
> The Original Rolling Ball Clock
> Idle Tyme
> Idle-Tyme.com
> http://www.idle-tyme.com
>
> On 7/4/2015 12:10 PM, Paul Stoetzer wrote:
>>
>> Michael,
>>
>> The idea is to get people hooked on satellite operating and then have
>> them "graduate" to more challenging aspects of satellite operating.
>>
>> AMSAT is, of course, working on projects that be more of a technical
>> challenge than FM satellites, like Fox-1E with a linear transponder
>> and the geosynchronous P4B project.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Paul, N8HM
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 1:02 PM, Michael <Mat_62 at charter.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Once again I feel the need to say that we have gone in the wrong
>>> direction
>>> by trying to convince everyone how easy a  "sat"  is to work with a
>>> handheld
>>> antenna. I got into satellite communication because of the technical
>>> challenge involved, not by how "easy it was".
>>>   This whole half or full duplex issue is a symptom of  "dumbing down"
>>> There
>>> should never be any question on it.  Full duplex should ALWAYS be used.
>>> 73,
>>> Michael, W4HIJ
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>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
>> expressed
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>> AMSAT-NA.
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>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb