[SJDXA] FD Satellite info

[Bob Schenck N2OO]

AMSAT Field Day 2022 on the Satellites


It's that time of year again; summer and Field Day! Each year the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a 'picnic, a campout,
practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!' The
event takes place during a 23-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. 

For 2022 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on
Saturday June 25, 2022 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 26, 2022. Those who
set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 25 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio
Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day
for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL
event.

This year should be as easy as last year since we have more than 10
transponders and repeaters available. Users should check the AMSAT status
page at http://www.amsat.org/status/ and the pages at
https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ for what is available in the weeks
leading up to field day. To reduce the amount of time to research each
satellite, see the current FM satellite table at
https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellite-frequency-summary/ and the current linear
satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/linear-satellite-frequency-summary/

If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites, there are ISS, SO-50,
AO-91, PO-101 and possibly LilacSat. It might be easier this year to make
that one FM contact for the ARRL bonus points with so many FM birds. The
congestion on FM LEO satellites is always so intense that we must continue
to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the
International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is
operating Voice.

It was suggested during past field days that a control station be allowed to
coordinate contacts on the FM satellites. There is nothing in the rules that
would prohibit this. This is nothing more than a single station working
multiple QSO's. If a station were to act as a control station and give QSO's
to every other field day station, the control station would still only be
allowed to turn in one QSO per FM satellite while the other station would be
able to submit one QSO.

The format for the message exchange on the ISS or other digital packet
satellite is an unproto packet to the other station (3-way exchange
required) with all the same information as normally exchanged for ARRL Field
Day,

e.g.:
W6NWG de KK5DO 2A STX
KK5DO de W6NWG QSL 5A SDG
W6NWG de KK5DO QSL

If you have worked the satellites on Field Day in recent years, you may have
noticed a lot of good contacts can be made on some of the less-populated,
low-earth-orbit satellites like FO-29, AO-7, EO-88 or the XW satellites.
During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend.
The good news is that the transponders on these satellites will support
multiple simultaneous contacts. The bad news is that you can't use FM, just
low duty-cycle modes like SSB and CW.
More information may be found at https://bit.ly/39nefgb. Rules in
downloadable format: https://bit.ly/3QpJc44. The fillable scoresheet is
included in the Rules download.

Bruce Paige, KK5DO
AMSAT Director of Contests & Awards

ANS

 

 

73!

de Bob Schenck, N2OO

President SJDXA!

GO SJDXA!

www.sjdxa.org <http://www.sjdxa.org> 

 

 

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