The Tragedy of the commons
The situation on AO-51 is called the "tragedy of the commons" and is as predictable as day and night and an inescapable result of human nature. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
No amount of grousing and complaining, and high minded condemnation of others is going to change that. What we need to do is not try to change human nature (my wife has been trying to do that her entire life with little to show for it), but either live with it and take advantage of it, or change the paradigm.
I have been recommending for years that we solve it like we do any amateur radio net. That is, operate with volunteer net control operators that take checkins by region or other discriminant for the duration of the pass. On each exchange, he announces the next narrow selection and takes checkins. Ever mindful of the satellite location on the map.
Examples from a pass from Sandiego to Maine: "This is N6XXX taking checkins from K6's in SOCAL" "Now W6's... Now A6's.... Now N6's. "This is N6XXX taking checkins from HT's in SOCAL "now W0's... now K0's, now ... "Handing over to Net Control in the Central States... and so forth.
How do you define Net Control? Easy. the first guy with the most power and stamina.
Can you think of problems, sure! There are all kinds of complaints and issues and why-not-me, and how-could you limit my rights... etc... that we will hear, but operating as a net has always been the method in radio to gain some semblance of order, and we should be proud of our tradition in that regard.
What about contesting and points, and scores, etc? That is easy. We define a contact as a 2 way between every person that got his full call and grid or location through. After all, that is what a net control does, facilitate the many-way exchange of information between all users.
If net control hears of a DEMO, or DX station or special event, or emergency traffic, or island expedition, he can then give that station the attention it needs.
Anyway, this method cannot be worse than what we have now (which is a free-for-all which is setup to fail as the tragedy of the commons). We operated PCSAT2 FM voice repeater sometimes with a net control and it was nice and orderly and fun.
Anyway, there is the solution. Either try it, or keep complaining forever...
Bob, Wb4APR
We should try this on Field Day and see how it works. . .
73 de Pat --- KA9SCF.
On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 7:31 AM, Bob Bruninga bruninga@usna.edu wrote:
The situation on AO-51 is called the "tragedy of the commons" and is as predictable as day and night and an inescapable result of human nature. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
No amount of grousing and complaining, and high minded condemnation of others is going to change that. What we need to do is not try to change human nature (my wife has been trying to do that her entire life with little to show for it), but either live with it and take advantage of it, or change the paradigm.
I have been recommending for years that we solve it like we do any amateur radio net. That is, operate with volunteer net control operators that take checkins by region or other discriminant for the duration of the pass. On each exchange, he announces the next narrow selection and takes checkins. Ever mindful of the satellite location on the map.
Examples from a pass from Sandiego to Maine: "This is N6XXX taking checkins from K6's in SOCAL" "Now W6's... Now A6's.... Now N6's. "This is N6XXX taking checkins from HT's in SOCAL "now W0's... now K0's, now ... "Handing over to Net Control in the Central States... and so forth.
How do you define Net Control? Easy. the first guy with the most power and stamina.
Can you think of problems, sure! There are all kinds of complaints and issues and why-not-me, and how-could you limit my rights... etc... that we will hear, but operating as a net has always been the method in radio to gain some semblance of order, and we should be proud of our tradition in that regard.
What about contesting and points, and scores, etc? That is easy. We define a contact as a 2 way between every person that got his full call and grid or location through. After all, that is what a net control does, facilitate the many-way exchange of information between all users.
If net control hears of a DEMO, or DX station or special event, or emergency traffic, or island expedition, he can then give that station the attention it needs.
Anyway, this method cannot be worse than what we have now (which is a free-for-all which is setup to fail as the tragedy of the commons). We operated PCSAT2 FM voice repeater sometimes with a net control and it was nice and orderly and fun.
Anyway, there is the solution. Either try it, or keep complaining forever...
Bob, Wb4APR _______________________________________________ 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
Not that bad of an idea. Since I collect grids too, many times I just sit back and see if there is a grid square that I need. I try not to make more than one or two calls if possible on an FM LEO. Many times, even though I am not in a rare grid square, (FN00), I will get a call. I will try to answer it in between transmissions, but most of the time I purposely-go silent to allow others to work certain stations.
I find in a 10-minute pass, many contacts can be made. I think common sense could eliminate the problems. If the bird is crowded, do not run a pileup and CQ if you are not considered a rare grid square. If someone needs you, they will call you as you exchange with someone else.
In addition, I hear the wx forecast and other personal info being given between operators. One small exchange between two stations took 50 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but when you take 8 to 10% of a footprint to chat abt the wx from Ohio to Illinois for example, you encourage others to fight for the limited time and footprint left.
Lastly, not sure how many can use the SSB birds. It seems many times I have called or searched an 11-minute VO-52 pass and heard no one. If you want to discuss wx, your gallbladder etc, well AO-7, FO-29 and VO-52 are great birds for that. Common sense.
Greg N3MVF
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Bob Bruninga Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:32 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] The Tragedy of the commons
The situation on AO-51 is called the "tragedy of the commons" and is as predictable as day and night and an inescapable result of human nature. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
No amount of grousing and complaining, and high minded condemnation of others is going to change that. What we need to do is not try to change human nature (my wife has been trying to do that her entire life with little to show for it), but either live with it and take advantage of it, or change the paradigm.
I have been recommending for years that we solve it like we do any amateur radio net. That is, operate with volunteer net control operators that take checkins by region or other discriminant for the duration of the pass. On each exchange, he announces the next narrow selection and takes checkins. Ever mindful of the satellite location on the map.
Examples from a pass from Sandiego to Maine: "This is N6XXX taking checkins from K6's in SOCAL" "Now W6's... Now A6's.... Now N6's. "This is N6XXX taking checkins from HT's in SOCAL "now W0's... now K0's, now ... "Handing over to Net Control in the Central States... and so forth.
How do you define Net Control? Easy. the first guy with the most power and stamina.
Can you think of problems, sure! There are all kinds of complaints and issues and why-not-me, and how-could you limit my rights... etc... that we will hear, but operating as a net has always been the method in radio to gain some semblance of order, and we should be proud of our tradition in that regard.
What about contesting and points, and scores, etc? That is easy. We define a contact as a 2 way between every person that got his full call and grid or location through. After all, that is what a net control does, facilitate the many-way exchange of information between all users.
If net control hears of a DEMO, or DX station or special event, or emergency traffic, or island expedition, he can then give that station the attention it needs.
Anyway, this method cannot be worse than what we have now (which is a free-for-all which is setup to fail as the tragedy of the commons). We operated PCSAT2 FM voice repeater sometimes with a net control and it was nice and orderly and fun.
Anyway, there is the solution. Either try it, or keep complaining forever...
Bob, Wb4APR _______________________________________________ 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
participants (3)
-
Bob Bruninga -
Greg Dober -
Patrick Green