Satgen282 SSB, CW ,FM Analog Satellite Usage by GM4IHJ 20 Aug 94 BIB of this msg is SGEN282 Please use this BID if you retransmit this msg Correspondence regarding usage of analog v digital sats plus, a couple of sharp reviews of the recent Surrey Amsat UK Colloquium, prompted a look to see just how good or bad the analog situation is. Operating began at 1222 ut on 13 Aug 94 . Amrad oscar 27 was due but did not show up. Indeed this sat has not been heard in GM since the weekend 29 July to 1 August . Next up was Fuji Oscar 20 at 1300. The beacon on 435.795 + doppler was strong and there were plenty of ongoing QSOs including UA4, OZ1, HG, DG6 and G on the 435.8 to 435.9 downlink. RS14 Oscar 21 was next at 1310 ut with FM downlink around 145.987. Signals were clear and strong as soon as it came above the western horizon with W2, W3 and K8 stations active , followed by Europeans getting trans atlantic QSOs. Circuit discipline was excellent, with short sharp overs and very little mutual QRM. Dove Oscar 21 came around next at 1333 ut with a strong brief, digital voice message. Then at 1522 RS12 was up with good signals from W3 and K4 stations on the roughly 29.42 downlink. RS14 , Fo20 and Dove then returned regularly every 105 minutes or so , But RS12 and RS10 had gone out of range . RS10 returned at 1944 with QSOs from all over Europe. Operation had started too late to catch AO13 , which had been available most of the morning, but AO10 was in great shape from 1940 onwards with most of Europe coming in. So all things considered there was hardly any time for meals, with a good allround selection of mode K, A , B and J birds available, and it was very clear that a lot of radio amateurs were making good use of them . Which cannot be bad noting that the average age of these Analog birds is now about 5.5 years, a time period when most of our past sats and, many commercial ones have already long ceased to operate. This is quite a different picture from the digital sats where a high rate of attrition and very few users seem to be the order of the day for all except the 9600 bps birds. Using file holding times as a yardstick suggests that the one or two 1200 bps birds that are fully operational are very short of users. So where does this suggest we go in Amsat post Phase 3D. Information to hand here suggests that there are at least 4 more digital birds in the building queue, but only one analog bird. Perhaps it is time the Analog users began to make themselves felt a little more. Do not write to GM4IHJ. Please write to your affiliated Amsat, if you think your views are being submerged in a mess of digital pottage. PS. RS12 and RS10 have been giving sub horizon extensions over the Arctic out to 30 degrees beyond the GM horizon. F5DGQ @ F6KNL.FAQI.FRA.EU . Wants material on the subject of schools physics class experiments with satellites. Please get in touch with Christian at his packet address if this subject interests you. 73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN