On Wed, 28 Oct 2015 01:06:40 -0400, "W3MAT ." w3mat03@gmail.com wrote:
I thought wrong. This was just as bad, or as difficult, as trying to get in with the Arrow antenna. In my opinion, AO-85 is certainly not every hand held radio and Arrow antenna operators easy to work satellite, like posted on a YouTube video prior to its launch. I'm not a big fan of the U/V set up for those of us that work hand held set ups.
It is indeed an additional handicap for those of us with Arrows and HTs, and it took me about four passes before I could get a grasp of what uplink frequency to use at what stage of the pass. But I eventually got in there. (I had a lot of noise behind me, but I was copyable.)
I agree that SO-50 is much easier to hit, but if there's one thing most hams like, it's a challenge. If anything it's an incentive for me to think about upgrading my gear.... :)