On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 3:28 PM, Bato,Andras bato@starjan.hu wrote:
Gentlemen,
I have spent too much money on an FT-847!
I had better to buy a well equipped HF transceiver instead!
There is practically no usable satellites -except for AO-7 and VO-52.
I've worked FO-29, AO-27, and AO-51 with my '847.
The problem is that you can find always the same stations on them.
Sometimes that happens but, once in a while, I contact a station I've never worked before or reach someone in a new grid square.
I've been on satellites for just over 3 years and I've logged over 340 different stations and over 270 grid squares, making contacts in 5 different countries in North America and Europe. I did that using 7 different birds and the ISS FM repeater.
F2IL is in my log about 300 times...
Spending money on FM satellites were made according to long term plans of IARU, ARRL and AMSAT which had been a dream of handling emergency traffic using hand-held equipment and antenna -as far as I know.
Satellite activity is seriously declining!
I've found that there's always something new I can try over a satellite. This year, I started on SSB and made contacts over AO-7 Mode B, FO-29, and VO-52. I'd like to try AO-7 Mode A if I can get a proper antenna for it.
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