[amsat-bb] Behavior on FM Satellites

[Stefan Wagener]

Thank you Bernie,

I very much appreciated your post and "cooling" things down.

Well done,

Stefan, VE4NSA

On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 3:27 PM, Bernie and Cheryl <hamdan at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> Dear Folks:
>
> I certainly don't want to argue with the central premise, i.e., that when
> there's a rare grid square, it is good operating practice to back off of
> the bird and let everyone have a crack at working the "DX".  Neither do I
> have a problem with good operating practice dictating that people not hog
> the bird (as has been described by Paul and other posters).  I do have a
> problem with public shaming, especially if not preceded with a congenial
> email suggesting that the operator in question give people a chance. Most
> folks have their email addresses on QRZ.com.
>
> The important thing to remember is that AMSAT hasn't published (to my
> knowledge) a rule stating that /only/ certain types of QSO's can occur on
> the FM satellites.  I just looked at the website and there is a section
> called "Working Your First Satellite" and I don't see anything on there
> like that.  The section on "Communications Satellites" has nothing like
> that either.  Unless the control operators of the satellite (e.g., AO-91)
> made a decision in that vein, then the bird is open to all comers.
>
> Paul's post mentioned that the FM birds open up the hobby to a lot of
> people.  That means the FM birds are going to have new people on them, and
> I think good operating practice indicates that people are welcomed on
> satellites, and if they make a mistake, the "suggestion" to improve their
> operating practice occurs in such a way that they aren't shamed, i.e., a
> tasteful email or perhaps even a snail mail.
>
> His post also mentioned that he monitored Twitter and took some other
> steps while preparing for the pass.  I have to be honest and say I'm not a
> big social media person.  I only opened up a Facebook page last year, and
> don't really know or care to know how to get on Twitter.  Other than
> checking when AOS occurs, I typically don't do that much preparation for a
> pass.  I don't think that disqualifies me from being able to operate on the
> birds.  Like I said above, I will back off if I'm aware that there's a rare
> grid square on there, but I don't always know that's the case.  All of us
> are coming within the footprint of the bird at different times, and so the
> newest person in the footprint won't always know what's happening at that
> moment.
>
> I guess the reason why this thread affected me to the point that I felt
> the need to reply is that I could see the situation degenerating very
> quickly into a war between two classes of operators.  And then, given the
> nature of FM birds, it will be impossible for anyone to use them (it would
> be relatively easy for one angry operator to jam the bird during a pass),
> short of handing out CTSS tone codes to a select group.  Until something
> like that happens, the satellites are a shared resource, and we're always
> going to be faced with folks who screw up unintentionally. I'd just hate to
> see a flame war on the birds like we sometimes see on the internet.
>
> I'm not suggesting that satellite operating is "The Wild Wild West".  I
> think it's just a matter of education, and courtesy.
>
> Admittedly, I'm on the FM birds rarely (I've operated AO-91 exactly
> once).  I prefer the linear transponder satellites with their opportunity
> to have a real conversation as opposed to shouting out grid squares, but
> recognize (as Adrian points out in his post) that the setup for those birds
> requires more infrastructure that may be beyond a lot of people.  However,
> I've been around a while (my first satellite QSO was on RS-10 back in 1994)
> and I remember how excited I was when I made my first QSO's, and know how
> devastated I would have been if someone called me out in a public forum
> because I did something wrong that I didn't know was wrong.
>
> All I'm asking for is that all operators in good faith be granted a
> modicum of courtesy, and we should be careful before deciding that someone
> is acting in bad faith.  I love this hobby and my heart aches at some of
> the stuff I've heard on 75 meters, and on the local 2 meter repeaters.
> I'd hate to see that transfer over to the satellite community, which by and
> large, seems to be pretty professional.
>
> See you all on the birds.  73 de Bernie, KF0QS
>
>
>
> On 12/10/2017 11:35 AM, JoAnne Maenpaa wrote:
>
>> There's no need to work a hundred stations on every pass of AO-91,
>>> especially when two guys in rare grids with low power equipment are
>>> attempting to hand them out. It's all about situational awareness.
>>>
>> I remember situations like this arising during AO-51 operation. Of
>> particular note beside working 100 stations on a 10 minute pass were those
>> fellows on AO-51 with enough aluminum and RF wattage to capture the AO-51
>> receiver then greet each other every morning like they hadn't spoken for
>> 20
>> years. They would then give each other a weather report. This was followed
>> with a status of breakfast report. We often found out someone's dog needed
>> to step outside! Then the same 3 or 4 fellows would repeat this again on
>> the
>> next pass. They would begin with the missing-person from 20 years ago
>> greetings ... even though they had already greeted each other 90 minutes
>> ago.
>>
>> Other operators began note these boorish manners and after a while much of
>> that behavior was gradually moderated and mostly went away.
>>
>> --
>> 73 de JoAnne K9JKM
>> k9jkm at amsat.org
>>
>>
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>>
> _______________________________________________
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> expressed
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> AMSAT-NA.
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