[amsat-bb] Field Day (whew)

[David Bartholomew]

A club member from W6SD asked me if I could come to their FD site in
Granada Hills CA to do the satellite contact for them. I said I would do it.
I had planned ahead, figured out a list of the better passes of the FM sats
and FO-29.
Got set up and tried SO-50.  We were fortunate. It was coming in from the
south and the footprint didn't reach a lot of land yet.
I heard WD9EWK on there and figured, "If anyone can work us through all of
this, he can!"
And he did. Well done.

I had a small group around me as I did this. N7JY was holding the Elk and
his Android tablet, watching the sat path and doing the aiming.  I posted a
picture on Twitter @ad7db.

Few of the group actually heard the live exchange come back, but I did.
I always record the pass, so, after we got the contact, I turned off the
radio and played it back for them.  It took a couple of plays to convince
them, yes, we got the contact. "There he is coming back to us, right...
there!"

The next day I visited another group's FD site. I was dismayed to find
they'd made lots of satellite contacts, even doing a couple on a final pass
before the QRT call. What happened with the "one and done" rule?   "7.3.7.1
- Stations are limited to one (1) completed QSO on any single channel FM
satellite."

Dave AD7DB