brainwagon

I like working AO-51. It’s the easiest of the easy satellites, with strong signals, little fading, and is workable with small handheld antennas or mobile rigs of the sort that many hams already have. Unfortunately, it’s not always the most courteous place to operate. All sorts of impolite operation seems to be the norm, especially when the satellite is busy during the “gut passes” over the middle of the U.S. I was bitching about this on the #amsat channel, and others agreed. One person, Ben N1WBV, was smart enough to realize that it might be good to collect our suggestions on how to be polite, and write them up. So he did:

Courteous AO-51 Operation

This was more or less concieved one night in #amsat while discussing the operational issues on AO-51. The satellite is a very good, very easy satellite to get into, however, the more people jam on, the harder it is for people to use it. So, myself, John (KB2HSH), Charles (N3CRT), and Mark (KF6KYI) all tossed around ideas on what is more a less a good “code of conduct” for AO-51 operation.

Feel free to circulate this widely.