[amsat-bb] Re: QSL info

[mmccarty@xxxxxxx (Lisa R. McCarty)]

>Hi all looking for the QSL info on F8APM who I work for my first AO-10
>contact
>If you are not working AO-10 because you only have 35 watt up dont give
>up thats all I used. 73
>    Steve


I've never used more than 25 watts into an accurately pointed KLM
435-40CX crossed yagi (probably 20 watts at the beam) and have
never felt I needed more power.  My signal is comparable to any
other on the bird.  When it is near perigee and conditions are good
I've even dialed back to half that.

I remember a few months back I was having a chat with a fellow in 
New Zealand and the transponder kept dropping out.  After chatting
a bit I moved up the passband and started calling CQ.  An operator
from the states came booming in there answering me.  I quickly had 
to crank down the volume to save my hearing.  I gave him a 5x11 
report and he just laughed.  I hinted again, a bit more strongly, that he
back off the power a little, but he couldn't take the hint.  I have no doubt
he was the cause of the transponder dropping out on the earlier QSO.

When I first started researching amsats, somehow, somewhere I
became convinced that I needed a minimum of 75 to 100 watts into
that big KLM beam to work AO-10.  After a year of operating AO-10
with much less I have no idea where I ever came up with that.

Anybody else care to comment on the power level they are using for
AO-10?  My station works out to an ERP of around 650 watts from a 
circularly polarized antenna.  It would be interesting to compare.

-Mike McCarty, KB8YHV/KH2
 Yigo Guam
 

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