Hola Paulo,

We must continue to educate them, in my opinion.

Here in the USA, on the FM satellites, a couple of things continue to manifest themselves on passes I listen to and/or try to work.

1 - The most egregious involves operators who transmit just because their station is in the footprint, with no regard to whether they actually can hear the satellite. There is no doubt that the single most important step any operator can take to make his/her station the most effective it can be involves optimizing the receive side. Our FM satellites (because AO-51 currently is experiencing some power issues) all are transmitting signals at 500 milliwatts or less. We must teach satellite newcomers that (1) it is much easier to reach the satellite with a transmission than it is to hear the satellite's re-transmissions, and (2) that TX power levels do NOT affect the power the satellite uses to re-transmit. Using AO-27 as the example, since you mention it in this post - If you reach it with your transmitter set a 1 watt - or 5 watts - or 50 watts, it will re-transmit what it hears using a 500 mW transmitter.

2 - This relates to No. 1 - it involves stations that call "CQ" incessantly when it is obvious that cannot hear the satellite. I and some friends like to say that those stations are suffering from CHS. It's not "Can't Hear Saetllite," but it's close - only one word is different ... hihi. We must help newcomers to understand that, unlike a terrestrial repeater, the FM satellites rarely (if ever!) are "quiet." If they are not hearing other stations, it is because they are not hearing the satellites - not because other stations are not there. The only exceptions to this could involve passes in the middle of the night.

I believe it to be incumbent upon all of us who truly enjoy the amateur satellites to try to educate those who obviously are new to space radio. All of us were new at one time. I made many mistakes, but others who were interested in growing the ranks of amateur satellite operators contacted me and provided suggestions and guidance, which I appreciated very much. I try to do the same thing whenever I can.

73 to all,

Tim - N3TL -------------- Original message from Paulo Pinto ct1ete@gmail.com: --------------

Hi,

After almost a year off the air, I tried a few minutes ago a contact in AO-27. Things didn't change since my last QSO's. Stations keep making satellite contacts as they were using repeaters. The QSO rate is so low that I wish I stayed in the cool environment of my office instead of being inside my car with almost 35 degrees celsius inside.

Why does an amateur radio operator succeed with a technical examination and it's not able to understand some basic principles of satellite operation?

Is there anything we can do?

73

-- CT1ETE, Paulo Pinto MSN: pspinto@yahoo.com http://www.ct1ete.net http://transponderclubedeportugal.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ 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