[amsat-bb] Field Day (whew)

Mon Jun 25 16:37:06 UTC 2018

Hi Dave!

Thanks again for the SO-50 QSO on Saturday morning early in
Field Day. Even with a pass starting to the south, with most
of the footprint over Mexico and the Pacific at that point,
it wasn't an easy QSO to make. Like you, I played my MP3
recording back a couple of times to make sure I copied your
information. It was there, and the QSO went in the log.

After I worked you, I worked two other stations that called -
Ron W5RKN in Texas, followed by W6KA operated by Tom WA0POD.
As I prepare my log for both ARRL and AMSAT, these two QSOs
won't go in my score. I will also have some non-scoring QSOs
on the western AO-91 pass just over an hour later - I worked
KB6LTY very early in that pass, then K6FW and K5RWK (this was
the QSO for their 100-point bonus) before that pass simply
became unworkable due to the number of high-power signals
slamming the satellite. I had exactly one QSO on the AO-85
pass just after 0100 UTC Saturday evening, so I don't have
to worry about the 1-QSO rule there.

I have logged multiple QSOs on FM satellites during Field Days
in the past, and I don't count them in my score. I list them
on the submissions I make to ARRL and AMSAT. In the several
years I have done this, I have never seen any objections to
this come from either entity. I am choosing to make non-scoring
QSOs, instead of - for example - going back to 20m or 40m and
making QSOs for points for ARRL Field Day on those bands.

As for the general theme of many messages on here since the
end of Field Day, I guess it wouldn't be a Field Day among
satellite operators without all the hand-wringing about the
situation on the FM satellites. I'm not sure I heard "lots" of
QSOs on any of the V/U or U/V FM satellites - I heard some,
but heard more CQing, "QRZ", or on one AO-85 pass a station
IDing so often it was basically a CQ call without saying CQ.
Were there QSOs being made into Saturday night and into
Sunday morning? I didn't hear many QSOs on the western AO-92
pass yesterday, just before 1800 UTC, that I heard from home.

I don't think a "net control" style of operation would work
for very long on FM satellite passes during Field Day, even
if one station was willing to make some non-scoring QSOs in
the interest of helping other stations make QSOs for points
(or even the 100-point bonus). I'd rather hear that, than
hear stations aimlessly calling or transmitting, with no QSOs
being made. Unfortunately, so many try satellites for the
first time on Field Day weekend, even with helpful articles
in advance of the weekend like the one KX9X wrote for QST.

Away from the FM satellites, the SSB satellites were better,
but sometimes transponders got overloaded. The best options
for me to make QSOs were on the western AO-92 L/V pass on
Saturday morning, followed by the NO-84 passes late Saturday
afternoon. The first of the NO-84 passes, that went over
much of the continental USA, saw only one QSO completed
using the 145.825 MHz digipeater. One QSO!!! The later NO-84
pass out west saw WD9EWK and 3 other stations (AI6DO, KB6LTY,
KK6OTJ) making QSOs with each other - with room for more
activity. Unfortunately, FalconSat-3's passes didn't line up
with my time in northern Arizona. I wonder if anyone made
QSOs through that digipeater.

73!

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

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 3:55 PM, David Bartholomew <dgbartholomew at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>