[amsat-bb] Field Day (whew)

[Matthew Stevens]

The first AO91 pass after start time on saturday, I just listened to
N5AT (op KG5CCI) doing an awesome job as what you have called the "net
control" station. I have a feeling half the people on the pass
wouldn't have made a qso at all if it hadn't been for Dave calling
them amid all the "CQ field day" and callsign-dropping, keying down,
and aprs packets (why? Who knows lol). And Dave was operating the same
as I did this weekend, a handheld antenna and manually tuned rig.

I have mixed feelings about the one-Q FM sat rule - it makes sense in
a way, but in my experience one competent, experienced op (keyword
there is competent..) on the FM sats can make a lot of FM-only HT ops
very very happy, scoring them their 100 point bonus they promised for
their clubs! I guess the rule does (hopefully) prevent the
uber-stations from tying up the pass working each other to pad scores,
but it doesn't do anything about the massive QRM that always seems to
happen on FM. I'm glad to hear a few guys on there who are worried
less about their own scores, and more about handing out contacts to
those that really need them on Field Day.

I pretty much just hung out on linears this year, operating for about
an hour and a half total on sats while waiting for 6m to open.It was a
lot of fun, and by and large I thought most everyone I heard was doing
a great job. There was only a few stations that never seemed to hear
when they were called. Overall, good job to all the amsat ops, and I'm
looking forward to next year!

73,

- Matthew nj4y


On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 1:05 PM, Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)
<amsat-bb at wd9ewk.net> wrote:
> Hi Bruce!
>
> Based on the passes I heard and worked, if there was a
> station strong enough to get through and complete QSOs,
> others hoped that station would stick around and make
> more QSOs. Otherwise, why would anyone call a station
> just after that station completed a QSO? That was the
> case for me on the two passes I mentioned - I complete
> one QSO, then others called me. I could have gone silent
> and not answered any of them, but I decided to make the
> non-scoring QSOs, and one of those non-scoring QSOs
> was the bonus-scoring QSO one club was hoping to make.
> What I did on the SO-50 and AO-91 passes was, in effect,
> the "net control" station you mentioned. When I get my
> Field Day report to you, you will see those non-scoring
> contacts noted - just as I have done for most of the past
> few years.
>
> I'm not saying the scoring should change for FM satellites.
> Short of declaring FM satellites off-limits like ARRL does
> with the WARC bands and 60m for its Field Day, it seems
> like the situation won't change. Or have AO-92 in L-band
> all weekend. :-)
>
> 73!
>
>
>
>
> Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
> http://www.wd9ewk.net/
> Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 4:53 PM, Bruce <kk5do at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> In the AMSAT rules we do state, because someone asked about it, you can be
>> a net control type station and work every station you want. You would only
>> be able to score one contact yourself but had given many out to those
>> trying to make the 100 point satellite bonus.
>>
>> We still feel by limiting to one FM contact that if you worked someone and
>> both of you leave the bird, two more stations can work each other thereby
>> maximazing the number of possible contacts on the satellite during a single
>> pass.
>>
>> 73...bruce
>>
>>
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