Satgen 530 Amsats - Quo Vadis ? by GM4IHJ (BID SGEN530) 199-05-22 Where are all the satellite communicators ? A recent Oscar 10 pass with S5 signals , looking at a footprint stretching from the Western Pacific , across Asia and into Western Europe , had just 2 signals. It was evening in the Far East and morning in Europe, so social hours but nobody on. It is appreciated that Oscar 10 is rarely on, so have folks stopped looking for it, or is this part of a more general trend? Here in Scotland , formerly the abode of a dozen or so active amsat voice/cw communicators , there are now almost none and a survey of what the Scottish dozen used to do is quite revealing.Most started on mode A but swiftly migrated to mode B ( Oscar 7 and later Oscar 10) Mode J was never popular. At the start, 435 MHz equipment ( particularly receivers and antennas ) was not generally available. But even when equipment arrived the fierce doppler on mode J low earth orbiters put most folks off them . There was a brief surge of mode J activity when Oscar 13 appeared, albeit spoilt by false publicity, that it interfered with other amateur services. By contrast AO27 has given good results FM mode J. While Mode L was mostly a disaster. Requiring massive up link power in one case , and suffering equipment failure in another. Though happily AO13 mode S was briefly popular. Clearly mode B was best with mode S a good second , while mode J on Oscar 13 without the fierce doppler could also have flourished. But satellite operating schedules and orbits have caused problems and as stated above frequencies used in mode J, L and S operations are not really suitable on low earth orbiters, While many new satellites spend months in orbit before being open for general operation then operate low user density digital rather than analog modes. As regards digital operation only one of the dozen GMs has spent much time on digital packet operation and he has given up . General comment here is that - Radio amateurs talk, only politicians send telegrams . So the decline in amateur satellite operations here is unlikely to be arrested by more digital satellites. Indeed the switch to building digital satellites has probably been the reason why no really useful analog voice/cw sats have appeared , and no new sats = no new users. If and when Phase 3D gets aloft , it is to be hoped that mode B and mode S voice/cw communications facilities will be given maximum air time. If this is not possible it is difficult to envisage genuine radio amateur voice/cw communication surviving the next few years. If builders continue to concentrate on digital modes , they will clearly be building for themselves alone and all amateur satellite activity will come to resemble the present surplus to requirements, digital birds, which circle the earth unused and frequently unusable. It has become common place to deride the old idea that amsats would one day provide a 20 metre band equivalent in the sky, unaffected by time of day or ionospheric variability. But that was a great idea , which may have failed to appear as yet, but is perfectly possible in the future. Do we want to build digital gadgets used by a minority of a minority , or do we want to enjoy real amateur communication, nation shall speak unto nation ?