[amsat-bb] A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on AO-91

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Hi!

Now that AO-91 has been going strong for about 3 weeks, maybe it is
time to come up with something for it on Experimenter's Wednesdays,
like we have seen with SSTV on AO-85. Although I think the SSTV has
run its course and maybe something else should be tried, I'm not
suggesting any particular change to AO-85 on Wednesdays. This is
only intended as a suggestion for AO-91.

After Sean KX9X published his recent document with a list of good
operating practices for FM satellites:

https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellites-good-operating-practices-for-beginning-and-experienced-operators/

my suggestion would be a way to encourage this, especially focusing
on one item. I tweeted a little earlier this afternoon the following:

"An AO-91 Experimenter's Wednesday suggestion: 5W or less, ideally
using HTs or portable setups & handheld directional antennas or
whips/duckies. Let's take full advantage of how well this satellite
hears & can be heard on the ground."

One comment I received on Twitter questioned having something for
Experimenter's Wednesdays on both AO-85 and AO-91, suggesting that
another day of the week should be used for AO-91. I disagreed with
that, given that it is "Experimenter's Wednesday". Unlike with AO-85
where the focus has been SSTV, my suggestion would still allow for
FM voice QSOs on AO-91 - but with a focus on using less power and
smaller stations. This would also go directly to the recommendations
that were recently published.

For those who may be concerned about doing something like this on
2 of the 3 FM satellites, there has been Experimenter's Wednesday
SSTV activity for a while now. Most of the time, this has been done
when we only had two working FM satellites (AO-85, SO-50). Maybe we
could see some coast-to-coast QSOs on AO-91 where both stations are
using power levels at 50mW or 100mW, for example.

Thanks, and 73!






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