Patrick, I too am dismayed by the satellite K5D issue. Being probably the most active satellite operator in the southernmost part of the US, there are many times the bird rises from the south, and I get a chance to chat with my friends in Spanish from Central, South America and Mexico. More than once I have asked them to listen for K5D instead of just calling them endlessly. During one pass, it seems that each station down south took their turn calling them one right after another, which means that even if they were on that pass, it would have been impossible to hear them coming back to anyone. They did listen to me, for a while, but as the bird went further north to the states, many of the US stations did the same.

A few days ago, the entire scenario was played out except this time K5D was actually on the bird, and their operator repeated several calls he heard back in sequence (my call included), while offering no explanation of it's significance. Naturally those stations who he recognized, started to call him, and I believe he was only able to complete 1 or 2 QSOs. The rest of those stations have no idea if they are in the log or not.

I was finally able to work K5D yesterday. The operators who wanted to work K5D were more orderly, and again I was blessed that the bird was rising from the south which means I had less competition. However, I must say the satellite operation of K5D can't be compared to their HF operations. Their audio on the satellite was extremely low, barely audible. They were strong, yet the audio was really down. Unfortunately I had to ask for a repeat of my call because of that; and that may have prevented another ham from operating them. In addition, their web page is apparently setup to only display HF contacts, so we can't tell if we're in the log.

There are many lessons to be learned from this mess. I quoted you below and I agree with them. However there is one issue which you have left out: not every ham who gets on the satellites reads this reflector, or goes on the Amsat web to read about what's going on the birds.

The reasons for this are simple. Not everyone reads English so they don't monitor this reflector. Some hams have axes to grind with Amsat and left this reflector a long time ago. Some would rather operate than read these messages. Some hams aren't computer savy enough to even install software (case in point, there is a small fix for Ham Radio Deluxe which needs to be unzipped to the installation directory; and many users aren't able to figure that out). That doesn't make 'us' more intelligent than others. We simply need additional methods of getting the word out; and continue to get the word out; and to have patience.

However; pulling the plug on a problem, doesn't make the problem go away - in the long term. It will simply create more axes to grind against Amsat.

73 de W4AS Sebastian

On Feb 23, 2009, at 1:25 AM, Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) wrote:

If AMSAT is going to make an effort to solicit equipment for use on DXpeditions like K5D, coach at least one of the DXpedition crew on how to use the gear, and then schedule AO-51 to be available for that purpose, there should not be any threats to shut down the repeater like the one KO4MA posted above. Especially if whoever sent that e-mail to Drew says they are having fun. Let it work like on any other band - if K5D is fed up with whatever has been happening on AO-51 while they are trying to work stations, they can go back to working other bands or doing other stuff. Let them decide, and don't prematurely pull the plug on their satellite effort if they are still trying to work stations on the birds.

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - back in Calexico, California, for tonight http://www.wd9ewk.net/