AO-7 was about as busy last night as I've ever heard it. CW all over the bottom half of the passband, SSB in the upper half, lots of both coming through very loud. Everything was pumping up and down and left and right with the strain of all that RF being aimed at it. The beacon sounded a lot like the one on Compass. All things considered, I think our grand old lady performed very well.
I managed to snag my satellite QSO for Field day on AO-7. My "plan" was to use AO-51 L/U, as I'd probably have a fair chance of getting through. Fewer stations competing for the L-band uplink, went the theory. Well, in practice, the competition was ZERO. After figuring out that the downlink was on .150 instead of .300 (Doh!), I found that I had the satellite all to my self. Even as bad as the audio was on AO-7, at least one could communicate. In contrast, the VU side of AO-51 was mostly an unproductive zoo. Greg KO6TH > Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:51:16 -0700 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops > > I also noticed a lot of "warbling" on the AO-7 stations I heard. I'm assuming > this is the "FM'ing" I've read about. I cranked my power down to about 10 > Watts on the AO-7 passes I tried to work, and my downlink sounded > "OK", but some guys had a very 'watery' sound. > I also noticed a couple of sats where the downlink seemed to "drop out" after > I heard some very LOUD stations on them. I don't think it was receive > blockage causing me to lose the signal, but it was something I never heard > before. > Jim > > --- On Sun, 6/28/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops > To: "Andrew Glasbrenner" <[email protected]>, [email protected] > Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 8:45 AM > > AMEN brother! > > I called CQ multiple times on AO-7 in CW last night between 145.940 and > 145.944 (downlink), and NOBODY was tuning down that far. I found that very > disappointing, as I did the close proximity of all the stations on FO-29 and > VO-52. > > I believe a lot of us could have made a lot more contacts on the linear > satellites if we'd just used the passband. > > Thanks for this post Drew! > > 73 to all, > > Tim - N3TL > -------------- Original message from "Andrew Glasbrenner" > <[email protected]>: -------------- > > > > I took this screen grab of this morning's eastern FO-29 pass, and what it > > shows is in my opinion very illustrative of a problem that is getting worse > > even on days other than Field Day. > > > > http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/FO-29FDanotated.jpg > > > > > > Spread out! There is no good reason that we should have a dozen operators > > fighting over the center 15 kHz of a 100 kHz wide transponder. Remember the > > gentlemen's agreement is the lower third is for CW, middle 1/3 is for mixed > > ops, and the upper 1/3 is for SSB. There is nothing magic about the Doppler > > shift at the very center of the passband that simple addition and > > subtraction can't duplicate elsewhere. > > > > Just my opinion, and please take it constructively. > > > > 73, Drew KO4MA > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ > Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ > Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _________________________________________________________________ Lauren found her dream laptop. Find the PC that’s right for you. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/choosepc/?ocid=ftp_val_wl_290 _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
