[sarex] "Is it REALLY the antenna?"

["Scott Avery" <wa6lie@xxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

I have heard and seen a lot of complaints of how ISS is "deaf"
PCSAT seems to have good ears? Hmmmm.... I have worked PCSAT ever since it 
was put into space. My Icom 821H satellite rig has been dead in the water 
for the past year, so I have had to use my FT-470 HT with 5 watts ever 
since. Yeah, I can't become too much of a satellite aligator with 5 watts 
and a J Pole antenna! Go figure..... But I am sucessful!

Has anyone considered some SIMPLE facts: ISS is running 5 watts.
PCSAT is also running 5 watts. Which is MORE popular?
Has anyone thought about packet collisions?
Here is another SIMPLE fact: IF YOU CAN'T HEAR EM, YOU CAN'T WORK EM...
You MUST be able to decode the packets BEFORE you will SEE any results.
With my peanut whistle station of a J Pole and 5 watts, I DO NOT hear 
everything and I also can not uplink everything. THIS IS NORMAL!!!!!!!

I used to have a full blown satellite station working MIR, but I also had 
about 15KW ERP looking at MIR, and was like shooting fish in a pond.
At that time, I was working with MIREX to UPLOAD messages and paramaters to 
the TNC. I needed to "capture" MIR at the time, as an
aligator. However, it was NOT necessary to run soooo MUCH ERP to MIR or ISS 
to do UNPROTO communications.

One has to remember Location, location, and how busy ISS might be at your 
QTH. I am sure that those in let's say South Africa have no problems working 
ISS with 5 watts and a wet noodle.
Why? you might ask.... Lack of ground traffic on the frequency.

Remember.... ISS is VERY POPULAR, and YOU are not the ONLY one trying.
Be patient... it will happen for you!

Good Luck, and best 73....

Scott WA6LIE




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