An interesting thought...could they have the squelch engaged while also requiring tone? I personally haven't been able to get in on 80 degree passes over New England with 25 watts and an omni at 5:30 AM local time.

Reception is just fine, but there are a lot of "empty" spaces in between contacts that could be collisions I guess...

Roger WA1KAT

----- Original Message ----- From: "MAC1" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 1:25 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Still not getting into the ISS...

Hi Gordon,

I had a chance to talk to Mike from the ISS on Saturday for 7-8 minutes. I was the only station at the time (3 AM..) During the pass I tried to adjust to minimum power and my pre-amp on and off. My feeling is that 5 W is not enough to keep the ISS squelch open. The pre-amp made a difference on low elevation. I used 25W, 120 FT LMR 400 coax, 4 element Yagi on 48ft tower, automatic AZ/ EL and automatic doppler with SatPC32.

Dino VE7XDT