wheatley@inuxg.UUCP (Steven Wheatley) (10/16/84)
Well, another interesting statistic would be to look at oscar-8/7 and the RS bird usage. It seems to me that it is much easier for the average ham to experiment with a two meter up/ten meter down situation than it is the oscar 10 bird. I have successfully worked several states with the oscar 8 and rs satellites using 25 watts, my magnet mount vertical, and a piece of wire on my hf rig for a receive antenna. Sure, there are lots of nulls in the flyby, but i can still work them. I realize the need, and fully support the "geostationary" or at least the original intent of oscar 10, which permits long period of operations. Certainly, after listening to a maximum of half hour of the rs/oscar 8 birds, or trying to chase rare dx on the low orbit birds, one can appreciate this philosophy. However, i contend that, based on my experience, it is a lot easier to take the initial plunge, using the RS birds, with no or little expenditure, before spending much more, either in hard earned bucks or building time, to build/acquire the directional antennas, and high frequency gear required to operate oscar 10. This argument may be all wet, but, i would like to see the oscar 7,8, or RS usage statistics (anyone got friends at box 88 moscow??) to see how they are used. steve, ku9c inuxg!wheatley