Hi Diane,
Given the chaos, it is easy to question the event. Then you get a letter such as this, and it gives you a new perspective. This is from one of our club members who I was coaching before Field Day on what birds to try, etc. I was not able to attend, but he did. Here's his report.
Greg,
Thanks. Back from a successful field day!
Yes, turns out AO-27 and AO-51 were both able to be heard well several times. I had trouble with uplink, but the discovered that the 2 meter feedpoint was broken ;(
There were about 5 ISS passes, including on visual last night. The repeater was on for one or two passes, but nary a word from the crew ;(
The real win was that some of our members got fascinate with the idea about an HT and handheld antenna. They heard several stations from "far off" and as each pass come interest grew. So that's a step forward.
See you at the next meeting.
take care, Carl
So, there you have it. "Typical" field day tribulations, no contacts, and still a positive result. In spite of all the chaos, 100 points, etc., operating Satellite is still a mystery to a significant portion of the Ham community, and a totally science fiction event for most of the general public. In some regards, there is no such thing as bad publicity, if it's handled right. So what we see as chaos, another person observing from afar might see as Hey! He's receiving signals from outer space with a walkie-talkie and a small TV antenna! How neat is that!
Greg KO6TH
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:18:54 -0400 From: db@db.net To: wa4hfn@comcast.net CC: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: FD Mess
On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 03:13:34PM +0000, wa4hfn@comcast.net wrote:
It took me 5 satellite passes before I could make 1 contact There were too many ops making what sounded like HI POWER multi contacts .This should not have happened. Maybe someone with good writting skills could send the ARRL world above 50 an artical on how to work the birds during FD WA4HFN em55 Damon
I know I am going to get hate mail again. I just know it. But here goes. I've been quietly suggesting that we should _not_ be encouraging sat use during field day, furthermore we probably should consider turning them off during field day to stop this.
Now hear me out before you hit that reply key. Field day operators are interested in those bonus points, we (amsat) are interested in promoting amateur radio sat operations. How many of these field day operations actually result in new satellite operators? Where are the surveys, stats? Does the extra massive battery use of our sats justify the PR? Keep in mind the state of AO-51 and FO-29.
Am I the only one? I'd be interested in a non-flame war discussion.
- 73 Diane VA3DB
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- db@FreeBSD.org db@db.net http://www.db.net/~db Why leave money to our children if we don't leave them the Earth?
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