Re: [amsat-bb] Why V/S in stead of U/S

[Margaret Leber <maggie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Murphree wrote:

> The Drake required no IF mods if you converted to the 430 MHz IF and
>  the crystal is commonly available at DigiKey, etc.

"The Drake required no IF mods...if you modded it"? :-) The 2800 ran 
pretty good (for a Drake) out of the box on an 847.

> It wasn't the price of entry, you wanted to operate a new mode and 
> you need different equipment to do it.

I didn't particularly want to operate a new mode. I would be perfectly 
happy operating the "old" mode, but AO-51 would need different equipment 
to do it.

Mark L. Hammond wrote:

> I wouldn't consider the S-band transmitter on AO-51 to be an "entry 
> point."...  

I don't consider it an "entry point" either. "Cost-of-entry" (by which I 
meant "entry to S downlink operations") doesn't mean quite the same 
thing as "entry level".

 > ...Rather, the FM "easy sat" configuration is.

I don't expect S-band downlink to be "[as] easy [as V/U]"...but it would 
have been nice if it wasn't "harder than necessary". As you point out, 
V/S is indeed comparable to C/R/X on P3E and Eagle, and that's a shame. 
It's just that U/S would have been a no-brainer on the ground station 
side because it's a capability I already built for AO-40.

> S-band operations are still pretty much "special" and operations on 
> this band for A0-51 are clearly in the minority.

I do agree that AO-51 V/U works very well...except when AO-51 isn't 
*running* V/U. Field Day this year will be a reminder of how "special" 
S-band is--for better or worse. :-)

Look, people, I've explained why I think switching to V/S is a major
headache if you already equipped for U/S on a shoestring. Obviously a 
lot of you have an equipment budget where that's not an issue for you, 
so you can quit explaining to poor old Maggie why she's wrong.

  73 de Maggie K3XS

-- 
-----/___.   _)Margaret Stephanie Leber CCP, SCJP/"The art of progress /
----/(, /|  /| http://voicenet.com/~maggie SCWCD/ is to preserve order/
---/   / | / |  _   _   _    `  _  AOPA 925383/ amid change and to  /
--/ ) /  |/  |_(_(_(_/_(_/__(__(/_      K3XS / preserve change amid/
-/ (_/   '        .-/ .-/        ARRL 39280 /order."-A.N.Whitehead/
/________________(_/_(_/_______AMSAT 32844_/<maggie@voicenet.com>/
----
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