I think that the whole problem is the sheer number of stations trying to get into the bird at the same time... destructive interference occurs between all the differently-phased PL tones, and NO ONE gets in most of the time.
I would love to see how much easier it would be to use with the tone turned off. Either that, or leave it in linear mode all the time.........
George, KA3HSW
----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan P. Biddle" APBIDDLE@UNITED.NET To: "'WCP'" wcp2@mchsi.com; amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 12:18 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: XW-1 FM
A good question. Some people seem to get in effortlessly, others seldom if at all. I fall into the seldom category, though I had better luck today. Someone suggested that perhaps my dilithium crystals needed realignment, so I pulled out my calibrated deviation meter, and verified the PL is set as recommended for the FT-847 at 700 Hz. Next, I pulled out my counter with GPS time base, and measured 66.961 Hz for the tone. I am pretty certain that an accuracy of .06% should be good enough. ;)
I am wondering if it wants significantly more or less PL audio level. It shouldn't be too hard to rig up an external injection when the operation is more frequent. You have got to love satellite ops. Always something interesting to consider!
Alan WA4SCA