I only worked satellites during Field Day and I ended up making 97 QSOs on 24 passes of all active 10 voice satellites during the 24 hour period. My score for AMSAT Field Day was 83 points.
The breakdown by satellite is below:
AO-7B - 2 QSOs AO-73 - 10 QSOs, 1 dupe AO-85 - 1 QSO, 5 excess FM QSOs FO-29 - 37 QSOs, 4 dupes LilacSat-2 - 1 QSO, 1 excess FM QSO SO-50 - 1 QSO Ukube-1 - 6 QSOs XW-2A - 11 QSOs XW-2C - 6 QSOs, 2 dupes XW-2F - 8 QSOs, 1 dupe
Total - 83 valid phone QSOs, 8 dupes, 6 excess FM QSOs = 83 points
The major difference between AMSAT and ARRL Field Day rules for satellite is that "satellite" is considered a single band while for AMSAT Field Day, each satellite transponder is considered a separate band. For example, if I worked WD9EWK in SSB on FO-29 and then in SSB on XW-2A, that would be worth two points under AMSAT rules, but only one point under ARRL rules. VE3YRA was my most worked station this year - I worked them on six different satellites.
I was operating 1B from the parking lot/courtyard of my apartment building in southwest Washington, DC.
The equipment I used was as follows:
2 x Yaesu FT-817 (with 3000 mAh internal LiPo batteries) Microset VUR-30 dual band amplifier 5100 mAh LiPo battery for the amplifier High Sierra Microwave LNAA432 preamplifier High Sierra Microwave LNAA146FIL filtered 2m preamp Arrow II 146/437-10BP Dual Band Handheld Yagi
All of this was carried in a camera bag and held by shoulder straps while I held the Arrow in my hand.
It was lots of fun, though tiring to head downstairs and outside for 24 different passes. I only slept for about 2.5 hours between 3:30am and 6:00am (and skipped a pair of AO-7 passes as a result).
One big issue I notice during Field Day is the use of excess power on the transponders and the inexperience and/or inadequate stations used by many of the satellite operators. Many times I would call a station and not receive a reply or someone would start CQing or tuning up on top of me. This was especially noticeable on AO-73 and UKube-1 as the frequencies for the uplink are somewhat different than published. It sounded like many were trying to use their computers to correct for Doppler and did not have the experience necessary to set the uplink offset. I heard several "ditters" trying to find themselves for entire passes. Operating satellites isn't difficult, but it does take some practice and experience to understand the characteristics of each satellite. Trying to figure it out at 1800Z on Field Day Saturday is not the recipe for success.
I would note that my excess FM QSOs (both ARRL and AMSAT rules allow only one QSO per FM satellite, AMSAT rules further limit APRS digipeater QSOs to one per satellite as well) were made because stations were calling and attempting to make a contact with no one else replying and I wanted to make sure they got their QSO.
It's fun doing Field Day from home, but next year I think I would like to head to a Field Day site and help with satellite operations for a club (and maybe fill in elsewhere between passes).
73,
Paul, N8HM