My two cents worth:

FM birds are only worth 1 contact per channel. Last year, I used them only if there was no worthwhile pass on a pass-band transponder bird available. The results at my club, K0GQ, had were that last year we made more satellite contacts than in the previous 4 years combined. We made the most on AO-7, followed by FO-29, ISS (it was in cross-band repeater mode), VO-52, and one contact on SO-50. We made several attempts on AO51 but, due to the congestion, it was impossible to make a QSO on either channel.

I'll put my money on the pass-band birds anytime.

73 de N8AU, Jim in Raymore, MO, Satellite Captain at K0GQ

Light travels faster than sound... This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2007 20:15:43 -0700 From: "Greg D." ko6th_greg@hotmail.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: VO-52 To: lists@hatzakis.net, kc6uqh@cox.net, amsat-bb@amsat.org Message-ID: BAY118-F3695A242D5EEEB48ACA5CAA9210@phx.gbl Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Hi Mike,

Normally I would agree that the FM Sats are easier to work, and more contacts can be made in a short time. But Field Day is far from a normal day.

On FD, the FM Sats are swamped with far too many people trying to make a

contact, and the single channel / FM Capture Effect generally results in

nobody getting anywhere. As has been pointed out, any station is only allowed one Satellite contact, but there are so many stations trying for

that one contact that none succeed. SSB/CW on a linear transponder is the best bet.

VO-52 is likely to be one of the more successful birds, along with FO-29 (if they can bring it back in time), and maybe AO-51's mode LU on the second

transponder (FM, but there are few enough stations out there with the right equipment that it might just work). AO-07 is a crap shoot for mode, and

likely to suffer from too much uplink traffic for its severely weakened power system to handle. Please go easy on the old bird.

SSB/CW can be a bit tricky, especially under the pressure of FD. But, that's what it's all about - operating under less than ideal conditions, and succeeding.

Sounds like another option may be digital, i.e. digipeating through one of the digital birds. Hadn't tried that before...

Greg KO6TH