[amsat-bb] Band designators, Modes

[Paul Stoetzer]

There's a lot to be said for doing things they way they've always been
done if it's not broken. The reason lots of us use A/B/J is because
those letters have 40+ years of history behind them and most of the
people we talk to understand them.

Of course, it's important to explain that to newcomers, and several
AMSAT presentations I have seen do include a slide on mode
designations.

Using letters to represent bands in satellite communications is
actually consistent with industry, which generally does use the letter
designations especially in terms of satellites. No one outside of hams
refer to frequency bands by their wavelength, though. I know lots of
professionals laugh at hams over the wavelength habit.

73,

Paul, N8HM



On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 3:14 PM,  <skristof at etczone.com> wrote:
> Asking a question is not arguing.
>
> Your two paragraphs below contain no rational arguments for keeping the
> letter based system.
>
> Your argument is "We've always done it that way", so learn them and move
> on. Sorry, that doesn't cut it.
>
> If you're going to use letters, can't there at least be a rational
> organizational scheme to the lettering system?
>
> The current system looks like somebody just drew letters of a hat, then
> threw darts at a board of frequencies to see what the letter should
> represent.
>
> The number based system would not be that hard. You decide on wavelength
> or frequency and go from there.
>
> If I'm going to operate on SO-50, I'm going 2 m up/70 cm down. Most
> hams, whether they operate satellites are not, are likely to know what
> that means. I don't have to memorize or look up mode F or whatever the
> heck it is.
>
> Steve AI9IN
>
> On 2016-07-06 15:02, Paul Stoetzer wrote:
>
>> It's a lot more characters to type  - and especially to speak.
>>
>> I'm not even sure why we are arguing about this. It takes
>> approximately 20 seconds to memorize a table of both the old and new
>> designations and the frequencies they represent. Just learn them and
>> move on.
>>
>> There are a lot more complicated things that people have to learn to
>> be knowledgeable amateur radio and amateur satellite operators. A few
>> letters to represent frequencies isn't a big deal.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Paul, N8HM
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 2:52 PM,  <skristof at etczone.com> wrote: What is the problem with just using the numbers? Why is using letters
>> better?
>>
>> (Not being snippy here, maybe there is a good reason. If so, please
>> explain.)
>>
>> Steve AI9IN
>>
>> p.s. "We've always done it that way" is not really a good reason in and
>> of itself.
>>
>> On 2016-07-06 14:31, Peter Laws wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 12:52 PM, Paul Stoetzer <n8hm at arrl.net> wrote:
>>
>> Several parts of the website (such as the frequency guide) also use a
>> less known custom with the second letter in lower case (to indicate
>> that the second letter is 'down').
>>
>> Eventually I would hope we would move away from "five and dime" or
>> "nickel and dime" to using C/X in reference to 5 GHz uplinks and 10
>> GHz downlinks.
>> Then let's start.
>>
>> The actual designation has to be agreed upon first, though.  Slash/no
>> slash?  Case/no case?  Pick one, stick with it.  What was the original
>> decision anyway?
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