As of late Thursday afternoon the ARISS site was showing the 145.99/437.80 pair in two locations. Unfortunately one location was the inverse of the other. Which was correct? If I had packed up my equipment and gone out to work the ISS repeater, and heard nothing because I picked the wrong frequency pair I would come home rather frustrated/irritated.
AO-51 is a wonderfully capable machine and the controllers are doing a wonderful job of changing the satellite capabilities which encourages the newcomer to improve his station and the old timer to dust off his AO-40 hardware. Unfortunately, for any number of reasons, the satellite capabilities and frequencies have been changing rather quickly. If a user does not check the AMSAT website, and the AMSAT BBS before trying to hear the satellite he risks hearing nothing and getting frustrated thinking that there is something wrong with his equipment or his understanding of the process.
I would like to suggest that the controllers give some serious thought to more stability in the AO-51 configuration. Maybe the configuration periods should be at least 2 weeks so that people have a better chance of knowing the hardware and frequencies of the satellite. Also, the person trying a new configuration has a few consecutive days to get the bugs out of his station. Additionally, make sure the information presented on the AMSAT and ARISS sites is correct.
73 de WB2LLP Gene