I don't know where anyone would get the idea that "the repeater operator claims exclusive right to the uplink of the system".

The web pages and the AMSAT Journal article do nothing to give that impression.

As has already been noted in this forum, the use of the gateway confers no special advantage on it's users who must supply their own uplink just like everyone else using the satellite. The gateway is provided free of charge to any ham who wants to use it and has been directly responsible for getting hundreds of Hams in Western New York and Southern Ontario involved with amateur satellites who wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford the initial expense.

Hundreds of Hams in Southern Ontario and Western New York have been using the VE3VRW Satellite Gateway via the SSPBD Repeater System to make contacts on AO-27, UO-14, Sunsat, SO-41, SO-50, Echo, Mir and ISS since it was first installed in 1997.

The 'strong' uplink is not provided by the gateway but by the individual stations using varied equipment.

Details about the gateway can be read here: http://www.dogparksoftware.com/mdpxgateway.html or here: http://www.va3sf.com/amateurrptr.htm or in the Nov/Dec 2004 AMSAT Journal.

NEC2 compiled for Mac OS X / Darwin 1.2.1.
<http://www.si-list.org/swindex2.html>

Actually -

   He's a pretty good candiate for a MacLoggerDX Ad too

Thanks Mike !

73 Don VE3VRW