RE: [sarex] FO-29 Digitalker

["Walls, Jim R" <WALLSJR@xxxxxxx>]

First, I wrote (in part):
>> Is it just me or does it seem to be a waste of a perfectly good satellite
to
>> have FO-29 spending most of it's time in digitalker mode?  According to
the
>> latest ANS news, here is the schedule for FO-29 for the next few weeks:

Then my good friend Mike - KF4FDJ replied (in part):

> To the seasoned satellite operator, the digitalker is not very
> exciting.  Once you've worked FO20, or RS13, there just isn't much
> thrill in listening to a digital loop.  The digitalker is not meant for
> you or me.

> Imagine a 15 year old kid with a scanner.  She reads about an amateur
> satellite she can easily hear with her scanner.  She spends a few hours
> exploring our world, downloading a tracking program and keps.  She makes
> her plans.  At the appointed minute, she heads outside with her little
> brother, and begins waving the antenna around to acquire the bird. 
> Success, there is FO29, and she has just heard her first radio
> transmission directly from space.

Now my reply:

OK, I'll take the eggs on my face scrambled (well done please).

Mike, that was a very well written reply and a perspective that I had never
thought of before.  Furthermore, I will take up your challenge and use that
as a demo to at least one kid and report the results here.  We certainly can
use more active stations on satellite - although AO-27 is real busy, I can't
tell you how many FO-20 passes, I have alternately called CQ and scanned
across the entire passband for an entire pass and never heard a sole.

BTW, Thanks for the QSL card Mike, that gets me one closer to WAS.

73
------------------------
Jim Walls - K6CCC
k6ccc@amsat.org
Ofc:  626-302-8515   FAX:  626-302-9999
Res:  626-914-4641
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