Tony Langdon wrote:
At 08:36 AM 2/26/2008, Robert Bruninga wrote:
How about trying to use the more preferred protocol of... Callsign phonetically. grid square, op mode Like... Kilo-Six-Lima-Charlie-Sierra, Delta Mike 13, handheld
On FM, in my opinion, there is no need for phonetics except for calls with troublesome letters. Most calls can be heard easily without using up time with phonetics.
I disagree, signal levels for some stations can be marginal, especially on the downlink. There are also a LOT of troublesome letters, particularly if your audio lacks high's. Is it a B, D, E, G, P, T or V? :-) Or maybe it's a _really_ muffled C?
I mostly agree with this, there are some calls which are rather difficult to pull apart sometimes, and often just the fact that you are slowing down to say them phonetically helps.
But perhaps this is a good time to introduce a little personal rant of mine. First of all, I work satellites exclusively QRP with a TH-D7A and an arrow antenna (no preamp). This is a fun way for me to work, and I enjoy it a great deal, and quite frankly, with some ear buds I can hear the satellite very well, and always get good strong signal reports above 10 degrees or so, which is pretty much the minimum altitude I feel comfortable keying up on given that my horizons are very nearly that high anyway in most directions.
That's what makes the following particularly frustrating: someone with a LOT more power than me simply comes on and blasts over my QSO. Well, that's just the half of it. It's even worse when they ask for a repeat (often multiple times) for a callsign which I, with my completely meager equipment, can hear perfectly well. Of course, as I patiently wait to try to jump in at the end of a QSO, I hear multiple people keying up and blasting over the satellite. This happens time, after time, after time, after time, especially on the more crowded passes over the central U.S (I'm a west coaster).
Yes, I understand there can be fading and the like, but once the satellite is above even ten degrees, I pretty much always get full quieting from AO-51. I keep wondering why people with presumably much larger stations have so much more difficulty hearing the bird. I'm left with equally puzzling alternatives: that people running much more power than I simply don't have sufficient receive gain to hear the satellite, or that they simply don't care whether they interrupt existing communications and just key up over people.
Some more minor peeves: people who take a long time to thank people for the contact when the pass is very busy, people who make a half a dozen or more contacts on a busy pass, and people who apparently aren't listening closely enough to realize that the person that they are replying to has already given their callsign and grid half a dozen times in the pass. (Yes, i know, the footprint is continually changing, but c'mon... it gets a little silly).
Back to the original subject:
I find it hard to believe that it's hard for people to send and receive full quieting signals to AO-51, even with the most modest of equipment, at least over the great majority of passes over 10 degrees or so. Perhaps if you are asking for repeats, you should consider that your receive performance isn't the greatest, you should work on upgrading that portion of your station before clogging the satellite. The maxim "you got to hear 'em to work 'em" should be the motto of every satellite operator.
Hope to work more of you in the future.
Mark KF6KYI
Also, if there is fading, the longer phonetics may still get enough information through to avoid a repeat. Repeats are more costly in terms of time, when they occur. And don't forget the impact of different accents. I have enough problems with getting my details to a lot of Americans (even when using phonetics!) over a good, strong IRLP link. At least the smaller footprint of a LEO limits the variety of regional accents in many cases.
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com
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