Hi John!
It is rare to ever hear SO-50 crowded in that part of the world, compared to what you'd hear over North America or Europe. Depending on the passes you are trying, you may not be in the footprints with the North Island in ZL or eastern Australia, where there are some regulars working SO-50 and other satellites. Do you have a memory channel programmed to transmit on 145.850 MHz with the 74.4 Hz PL tone? You may need to turn the satellite on and then make some calls, in case everyone is listening but not trying to activate the satellite's 10-minute timer.
Have you tried AO-85 down there? That satellite may be more of a challenge than SO-50 to work, but give it a try if there are some passes compatible with your schedule down there.
I was in Australia in 2011, and found that satellite passes were more laid back than here. On the SO-50 passes I worked from locations around Melbourne and Sydney, I was lucky if I heard more than two other stations. This made for nice chats. There was no interest in exchanging grid locators, even though I had my TH-D72A HT and a Garmin GPS receiver to know my grid locator whenever I worked satellite passes (QF22 when around Melbourne, QF56 when in or near Sydney).
On the AMSAT-VK Yahoo! group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amsatvk/
I have seen reports where there were more stations on some SO-50 passes than just 2 or 3, but for you the footprints will determine if that is possible. You may want to join that list and mention you are in the region, as that might drum up some activity.
Good luck, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (VK/WD9EWK in 2011) http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK
On Sat, Apr 9, 2016 at 5:49 AM, John, 9H5G [email protected] wrote:
Hello,
I'm a recent (read inexperienced hi hi) satellite op working only FM at the moment and always /P. I'm currently in RE45 (ZL - South Island) but have heard no activity so far on SO-50. I'd be interested to know if this is normal down here.
73 de John, 9H5G _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb