Congratulations to Jay AA4FL on his DX accomplishment. I am a relative newcomer to the satellite game. I have been lucky to have worked just about every DX entity that has come along for the last 50 years. I find that there is little interest in CW on the satellites. That is not surprising since there is little interest in CW in the HF spectrum. I enjoy both DXing and ragchewing. I have watched many FO 29 passes over Europe where my signal is good copy but no activity. Not surprising since it is 3 AM in Europe. If anyone in Europe would like to try a schedule with me on FO 29 I would be interested. I am primarily a CW operator too (my preference).
Every year I see many DXpeditions to various spots in the Caribbean for contest activity. It would be great if these groups would get on the satellites and spice up the birds. I have thought about going to OX (Greenland) next Summer where I could access both Europe and a lot of North America on both the FM satellites as well as those with SSB/CW. Is there any real interest in working DX (rhetorical question) ?
I have heard a couple of Central American stations get ignored on the FM satellites while stations swap reports for the umpteenth time between themselves.
FO 29 gives plenty of DX capability but rarely have I heard it utilized. I work Europe on AO 7 but FO 29 appears to be better in my opinion.
Anyone interested in a sked from NA to EU ? Any interest in working OX (Greenland) ?
73 Jim W9VNE EM79tb
Hey Jim (and all),
Sign me up on the list for those interested in working OX from orbit! As you and some others know, my approach to this whole game is "old school" to say the least. I continue to enjoy the challenge - and, yes, to endure the frustration a times - of doing everything manually. AO-7 is proving to be the biggest challenge in that regard, but FO-29 has been quite the opposite - as you know because we've worked on FO-29.
AO-16 is just a hoot, and very historic because of a bent pipe mode of operation that also includes the FM-to-DSB conversion.
I preferred to work CW, too, when I was active on the HF bands in the 1980s and early 1990s. I wish now that I'd never given away my Bencher when I donated all my ham gear to an ARES group 4 years ago. I never expected paddles to be as pricey as they are now, but I have to bite the bullet and do something because the two used radios I picked up for the CW/SSB satellites both have keyers built in. I'll be answering your CQs in CW soon!
73 to all,
Tim - N3TL AMSAT Member No. 36820 Athens, Ga. - EM84ha -------------- Original message from "Jim Danehy" jdanehy@cinci.rr.com: --------------
Congratulations to Jay AA4FL on his DX accomplishment. I am a relative newcomer to the satellite game. I have been lucky to have worked just about every DX entity that has come along for the last 50 years. I find that there is little interest in CW on the satellites. That is not surprising since there is little interest in CW in the HF spectrum. I enjoy both DXing and ragchewing. I have watched many FO 29 passes over Europe where my signal is good copy but no activity. Not surprising since it is 3 AM in Europe. If anyone in Europe would like to try a schedule with me on FO 29 I would be interested. I am primarily a
CW operator too (my preference). Every year I see many DXpeditions to various spots in the Caribbean for contest activity. It would be great if these groups would get on the satellites and spice up the birds. I have thought about going to OX (Greenland) next Summer where I could access both Europe and a lot of North America on both the FM satellites as well as those with SSB/CW. Is there any real interest in working DX (rhetorical question) ?
I have heard a couple of Central American stations get ignored on the FM satellites while stations swap reports for the umpteenth time between themselves.
FO 29 gives plenty of DX capability but rarely have I heard it utilized. I work Europe on AO 7 but FO 29 appears to be better in my opinion.
Anyone interested in a sked from NA to EU ? Any interest in working OX (Greenland) ?
73 Jim W9VNE EM79tb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
--- On Sun, 10/12/08, Jim Danehy jdanehy@cinci.rr.com wrote:
Every year I see many DXpeditions to various spots in the Caribbean for contest activity. It would be great if these groups would get on the satellites and spice up the birds
N1JEZ sure sparked some interest when he put FP/N1JEZ on the air in July of 2000 giving out many Saint Pierre/Miquelon contacts. Beautiful card too with an aerial shot in color of the QTH. I'm sure there's been other satellite DXpeditions since that time during my period of inactivity on the sats.
73, Gary -K8KFJ- West Virginia <EM98> AMSAT #32574 Sat VUCC #125
VP2EAG, FS/KO4MA, and KG4MA were all very well received on satellite! It's a hoot to be on the other end of a pile up, and well worth the hassle of taking the radios, and getting the license.
73, Drew KO4MA
----- Original Message ----- From: "Garie Halstead K8KFJ" khyberpass65@yahoo.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 1:04 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: DX on satellites
--- On Sun, 10/12/08, Jim Danehy jdanehy@cinci.rr.com wrote:
Every year I see many DXpeditions to various spots in the Caribbean for contest activity. It would be great if these groups would get on the satellites and spice up the birds
N1JEZ sure sparked some interest when he put FP/N1JEZ on the air in July of 2000 giving out many Saint Pierre/Miquelon contacts. Beautiful card too with an aerial shot in color of the QTH. I'm sure there's been other satellite DXpeditions since that time during my period of inactivity on the sats.
73, Gary -K8KFJ- West Virginia <EM98> AMSAT #32574 Sat VUCC #125
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi!
VP2EAG, FS/KO4MA, and KG4MA were all very well received on satellite! It's a hoot to be on the other end of a pile up, and well worth the hassle of taking the radios, and getting the license.
Yes, Drew, it is fun to be on the receiving end of the pileup. I have not done this on satellite from other countries (yet), but on HF I've done it a few times from Argentina, Canada, and Mexico in the past few years. Now that the satellite "bug" has bitten me and it's a terminal case, I will make sure that I include satellite operating when I travel.
Next month, I will be in Vancouver BC for a few days. I will only take a couple of HTs and portable antennas with me, and operate from around the city (CN89) and possibly at Whistler (CO80) on the FM birds as CJ7EWK - replacing my normal VA7 prefix with a special prefix that Canadian hams are permitted to use during this month and November.
Other future trips... I used to frequently visit Mexico and get the XE radio permits for those trips. The process was a hassle, having to pay around US$ 100 to US$ 125 for a 6-month permit. Having the legal paperwork when in Mexico with radios was a good thing, despite the cost and the hassles, as not having it might cost a lot more in the end. I don't know how the current struggles between different drug cartels and the Mexican Army will turn out, but I hope to return to operating from there in the not- too-distant future as XE2/WD9EWK via HF and now satellite.
For satellites, it looks like there are some very desireable grids inside Mexico not far from the USA border for satellite operators. I've seen the lists of some long-time ops and web sites like the one WI7P (ex-N7SFI) has, to get some idea of which Mexican grids would be in demand via satellite. I am not limiting myself to just those grids near the border, as I might expand my travels further into Mexico in 2009. We'll see...
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
VP2EAG, FS/KO4MA, and KG4MA were all very well received on satellite! It's
a
hoot to be on the other end of a pile up, and well worth the hassle of taking the radios, and getting the license.
For the next several days here are some Satellite DX opportunities that have crossed the ANS Editor desk ...
+ Dave, G1OCN hopes to be using the call sign G1OCN/VP9 while on holiday in Bermuda from Monday 1October 13 to Sunday October 19. His equipment will be a Kenwood THD7G with an Arrow antenna, so he will be operating V/U FM, on those available satellites.
+ Paul, 2E1EUB will be active on all birds from Scotland with the callsign 2M1EUB. He plans to operate from October 11 - 21.
+ Joe K3SZH reports working EA8HB, G1WPR, PA1TNO, G7NFO, ON7EQ and K8YSE on FO-29.
+ Congratulations to Mika, OH8MBN on AO7 on his 2000th contact via AO-7.
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm@amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service
participants (6)
-
Andrew Glasbrenner -
Garie Halstead K8KFJ -
Jim Danehy -
JoAnne Maenpaa -
n3tl＠bellsouth.net -
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)