RE: [amsat-bb] FM Satellite Etiquette

[Tony Langdon <tlangdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I can't emphasise that enough. When I first got my FT-847, one windy 
> nasty night I stuck it in my car and drove to a parking lot (I was an 
> apartment dweller at the time). I stuck the same Arrow on it that I'd 
> been using with a VX-5 (while cussing out the "clique" and the 
> "good-old-boys" who wouldn't let a poor newbie girl in). I 
> plugged in a 
> set of headphones (oh, I guess it seems obvious, but you *do* need to 
> use headphones to do this!), hooked it up to a big battery pack, and 
> squirted some signal at UO-14 while *listening* to the downlink.

That certainly makes all the difference.  Next, one has to get the brain
working in full duplex (can sometimes be easier said than done! :) ).  And
again, I have done without the 'cans', but they make it sooooooo much
easier!  No feedback, and much easier to listen to.

> It was very enightening. Sometimes I was getting in. 
> Sometimes I wasn't. 
> But I wasn't getting in when I would have thought I was, and 
> conversely 
> I *was* getting in sometimes when I would have thought I 
> wasn't. Nobody 

Yes, you never really know, unless you can listen in real time, as the QRM
level can vary.

> Now that I'm set up in a permanent location with better 
> antennas, I've 
> honed the technique of getting off the key quickly when I haven't 
> captured the bird,and riding on when I have. A boom mike and 
> a footpedal 
> are *invaluable* to free your hands for logging or antenna pointing 
> (yes, I still do that manually...need to find a cheap FODtrack 
> someplace), too.

Well, I have a different way of doing things.  Still portable and manually
controlled.  Logging?  Sure, feed some of the audio to an RF link to a
receiver hooked up to the computer, can pick up the pieces later, if
necessary.  Since my clock's within 1 second of real time, I can easily
reconstruct all necessary information.

> Once you've got the techniques down, as ony said, a trained 
> ear can get 
> by without the full-duplex. Proof of that is the UO-14 
> contact I picked 
> up in 2-land on my perfectly ordinary dual-band mobile while 
> driving to 
> work the other day.

As I said, I've worked SO-35 mobile with manual band changes in the mobile.
Wouldn't reccommend that to most people though, not exactly safe! :) 

> Of course I didn't manage to log it, because I wasn't even 
> expecting a 
> pass...I'd kicked the radio into scan and it stopped on the UO-14 
> downlink, so I grabbed a quick one. By th etime I could stop the car 
> saefly, I'd forgotten the callsign. :-)

Hehehehe. :)
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