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

[Lee810@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 7/7/00 7:01:19 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
jono@enteract.com writes:

> If I am running 100 Watts to 22 elements to the bird and it is at a LOW
>  angle pass for me while you are running 5 watts to 3 elements and it is
>  directly overhead for you, YOU MIGHT BE THE BIGGER STATION!!!  Guys,
>  understand that working a satellite is NOT a linear thing.  People with
>  overhead passes are far more able to work the bird better than those who
>  have low angle passes.  It's the difference of the satellite being a few
>  hundred miles away vs a few thousand!

No,...YOU will be the bigger station because you're running more power and 
antenna gain.  That's the definition of a big station.  My signal may be 
bigger for a small window of time that the bird is overhead, but even if the 
bird goes directly over my position, I'll be on the fringe of the footprint 
for the beginning and ending (i.e. the majority) of the pass anyway.  Simply 
being on the edge of a satellite footprint is no excuse to use excessive 
power levels.

When it's possible to work an FM bird from horizon to horizon with less than 
5 watts into a 3 element beam, why would anyone be working it with 100W into 
a 22 element beam?  Would it be to wrestle control of the bird away from 
those running lower power levels?

If someone really wants to correct the bad FD behavior we should make an MP3 
or Real Audio recording available on a server that preserves for all eternity 
the misbehavior of the offending stations.  This would go a long way to 
prevent the same thing from happening again.   We could call it the 
"Satellite Operators Hall of Shame".  :-)

Lee Devlin, KØLEE  (K0LEE)
Greeley, CO
http://members.aol.com/lee810/ham.html
----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org