2 real good points. I for one DON'T see what the big deal is about the FM birds other then being very easy.
Every time I listen it's like a free for all.
Sure do miss AO-40
John, W0JAB AMSAT life member
At 04:44 PM 4/23/2011, you wrote:
At 06:37 AM 4/24/2011, Kevin Deane wrote:
Or he could just use FM since hardly anyone uses the SSB birds compared to the other sats.
Although I am sure there are a million reasons not to use FM. even though it works just fine on the SSB birds. The feedback I got from the FO-29 Control Team was that SSB was pretty much "the rule" or "band plan" if you will.
FM works, but it is STRONGLY discouraged for 2 reasons:
- It uses more of the transponder's bandwidth (meaning less users
on the bird)
- It uses more transponder power, which is a serious consideration,
given that many of our birds are getting old and the batteries are getting weak.
73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com