And now for a dissenting opinion.....
FM sats work. They serve a good purpose. I, and a hundreds of other sat ops enjoy them. Sometimes the communications can be chaos, but most passes here they are not over used.
Dave are you one of the guys who also complained about the 'ditters' on the linear birds? And the guys who don't follow the 'one true rule' on the linear birds? And the guys who slide by up/down onto your qso on the linear birds? And the guys running too much power and loading down the passband on the linear birds. Is that good operating?
Yes, poor operating habits can appear anywhere. So instead of grinding your ax all the time, be an elmer.
Ernie
Dave Guimont wrote:
John, the operation of FM voice satellites is a travesty for ham radio...
I've been licensed for 57 years, on amateur satellites for 33 years (Oscar 7) and the FM voice operation is the most ridiculous aberration I've witnessed in all of amateur radio...Pandemonium exists here also!!
It is pretty obvious NO COMMUNICATION exists on AO51, all of their communication is on here. Why do they bother to turn the radio on???
Many of us attended AMSAT a lot conventions in an attempt to discourage throwing that money "down the tubes" on FM voice, to no avail. Someone had an "ax to grind", and several of the existing "powers that be" in AMSAT-NA told me to "mind my own business". They were obviously the "ax grinders".
FM voice on the amateur satellites is about equal to the same degree of difficulty as a cell phone operation!
No wonder our membership is deteriorating.
Ancient AO7 and present VO52 hopefully are keeping some interest, until Europe launches P3E....
That's where my donations go.....