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

["Dennis Morris" <denmorr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Franklin:

I didn't guess - I asked.  One of the mega-stations was running 100 watts
into an 18 foot 2 meter boomer.

73,
Dennis Morris
WA4ZJJ
----- Original Message -----
From: Franklin Antonio <antonio@qualcomm.com>
To: Glenn Little <glittle@awod.com>
Cc: Dennis Morris <denmorr@bellsouth.net>; <amsat-bb@amsat.org>;
<kk5yy@arrl.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Stop Your Whining Already! Re: [amsat-bb] Satellite FIeld
Day!


> 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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