[amsat-bb] Topic Change -- Now FM Rule -- was -- RE: N8HM Field Day Report - 1B MDC -- Topic Change FM Rule

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Paul,

You are right about the "net control" approach that has been
proposed in the past for Field Day FM satellite passes. Even if
you have Field Day stations complying with a rule change that
mandates contacts only with the "net control" station(s), there
are many times where other stations are on just trying to work
stations for the grids or simply to make contacts. I heard that
on a LilacSat-2 pass Saturday evening. Not a problem for me; I
gave the Field Day exchange and grid to anyone I heard on there,
covering my bases. :-)

Speaking of LilacSat-2... the pass I worked Saturday evening
around 0112 UTC (6.12pm PDT) was surprisingly easy. In all of the
Field Days I have worked via satellite since 2006, I have never
seen an easier FM satellite pass than that one. Maybe the thought
that LilacSat-2 wouldn't be on for the weekend kept many away, but
it did allow me an easy FM satellite demonstration for a ham who
was very interested in satellite operation. Using only a Wouxun
KG-UV9D and my Elk log periodic, I made 6 QSOs on that pass. One
of the 6 will go toward my Field Day score, another one was with
a station not participating in Field Day (he gladly took my grid,
DM45), and the other 4 will go in the log and be listed on my Field
Day submission as non-scoring - something I have done with the extra
FM satellite QSOs on my submissions for past Field Days.

As I mentioned in the e-mail I posted in that other thread last
night, I worked LilacSat-2 half-duplex. The KG-UV9D, like many
dual-band HTs advertised as capable of cross-band full-duplex
operation, doesn't work full-duplex with V/U FM satellites like
LilacSat-2 or SO-50. The half-duplex demonstration was one of several
satellite demonstrations I did at my Field Day site. I also worked
two SO-50 passes using an Icom IC-2730A 2m/70cm FM mobile, which is
capable of cross-band full-duplex operation for V/U and U/V FM
satellites, along with full-duplex operation on XW-2F using an
FT-817ND as the transmitter and an SDRplay SDR receiver with an
8-inch Windows 10 tablet running HDSDR as my receiver. I was able
to show the differences between half-duplex and full-duplex
satellite operation, and explain the clear advantages of full-duplex
satellite operation. I will post more about my Field Day operating
in a separate e-mail, hopefully later this evening, including
my successes with digital QSOs via NO-84 and the ISS.

73!




Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK






On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 9:58 PM, Paul Stoetzer <n8hm at arrl.net> wrote:

> Gary,
>
> That has been suggested in the past, but I'm not sure it would work. I
> heard several stations ignoring the one QSO rule on the one pass of
> SO-50 that I listened to. That rule is longstanding and well known, so
> I don't know how you'd actually implement some sort of net control
> system.
>
> The best solution is having many options available to try. Hopefully
> next year will be better with the addition of Fox-1Cliff, Fox-1D, and
> RadFxSat / Fox-1B to the FM satellite fleet.
>
> By the way, LilacSat-2 passes during Field Day were quite
> underutilized. I called for several minutes on the first East Coast
> pass before working one station. I then heard another station call
> with no reply, so I worked them as well. Many more stations could have
> gotten the satellite bonus by checking the AMSAT status page and
> seeing that it was on. This brings me back to my original point, if
> people can't be bothered to check which satellites are active, how are
> you going to coordinate a net control system as suggested? A couple of
> us were joking that people were probably still trying to work AO-27
> and AO-51 during Field Day.
>
> 73,
>
> Paul, N8HM
>
>