Re: Fw: Stop Your Whining Already! Re: [amsat-bb] Satellite FIeld Day!

[Franklin Antonio <antonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:11 AM 7/6/2000 -0400, Glenn Little wrote:
>...then the big gun comes on to monopolize the satellite with enough power
>to fully caopture the bird from the one attempting a contact with lower
>power.  I think that the FCC rules still state...

Nonsense.

FM transponders fundamentally only let one guy in at a time, and the 
physics dictates that its the guy with the highest signal level.  Even if 
everyone were working with exactly the same EIRP, distance differences 
would still produce tremendous power level differences at the satellite, 
and at any given time one station would still have a substantial signal 
level advantage over another.

FM transponders simply aren't designed to let a lot of people communicate 
at once.  Therefore, they aren't much good in an emergency, and aren't easy 
to use in a contest.  If you expected something else, you had incorrect 
expectations.

You and others have been piling on complaining about "big gun" stations, 
claiming that they ran hugely excess power, but I contend that you have no 
way to determine how much power they were running, or to what degree it was 
in excess.  That's the nature of an FM transponder.

I suggest that next field day you consider the nature of the satellite you 
are trying to use.  If you want to use a transponder that is designed to be 
shared by a large number of people, then choose a satellite with a linear 
transponder instead of an FM one.

I also suggest that in a real emergency you need margin against unforseen 
circumstances and the bedlam created by the real emergency and in a contest 
you need margin against the bedlam created by competition.  In that sense, 
the contest accurately simulates difficult emergency conditions.  Sounds 
like you just weren't up to the challenge.

It is also important to understand that a contest is "a contest".  That 
means you try to get more points than other folks.  If you want polite 
operating conditions, you might want to operate on a different day.  If 
you're sailing in the America's cup, expect to have the other boat cut 
between you and the wind.  They call that strategy.  Similarly, I can't 
fault someone for following the rules and trying to get as many contacts 
(ie points) as possible on field day.

Someone suggested a rule change to limit the number of points one could get 
on an FM satellite.  I think that's a reasonable idea.  Of course, in a 
real emergency, there won't be any such "rules".


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