If my remarks came across as “shaming,” I apologize. They were intended as encouragement. Yes, FM is cheap and easy, but the level of operator skill necessary to get QSOs on a crowded channel is daunting. The skills necessary to put together a linear station are more on the technical side. That’s a challenge, but it can be fun to get there.
On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 06:09 Roy Dean via AMSAT-BB [email protected] wrote:
What I can't understand is that people continue to shame other hams for not operating on the linears. Having only just recently obtained the equipment necessary to work the linears (and then, only at the shack, my equipment is not portable in any way), I can say that it was not cheap nor easy to do. Working the FM birds is both far cheaper and easier, for sure.
Those that are stuck on the FM birds are likely not doing it by choice. It's all they have. Please keep that in mind.
--Roy K3RLD
EO-88 is in a low inclination orbit and so stays close to the equator.
Many
of us in the northern part of the continental U.S. and Canada cannot
access
it because it never passes far enough north for us to be in the
footprint.
That said, it can sometimes be lonely on linear satellites on passes that cover much of the continental U.S. I can’t understand why people would prefer to step all over one another on a single channel FM bird rather
than
spread out on a nice passband. Yes, the linears require a bit more
effort,
technical skill, and possibly a bit more of a monetary investment. But by finding some bargains on used gear and learning a bit more about how things work, they are well within reach of the average ham.
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