At 06:08 AM 1/29/2008, OZ1MY wrote:
Hi all, This is a short version of an article I wrote in 2000 about using FM (single channel) satellites.
You may also be interested in something similar I wrote around the same time... http://vkradio.com/satiquette.html
I find this business of chasing gridsquares on FM satellites to be a recipe for disaster (be better if that was confined to CW/SSB, where there's more capacity and less demand), as it increases the demand on an already overloaded resource. Over here, you don't normally hear gridsquares on the birds (well I certainly didn't when I was active). Guess having 95% of operators in half a dozen grids helps - could collect them all in 2 passes on the same day if you're lucky! :)
Down, I have seen a wide range of passes, from busy when SO-35 was active, to literally having a pass to myself - I could certainly hear the downlink, but no one else was on...
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com