I had to share for the excitement was wonderful. I am usually unable to work many satellite passes of any kind during the week but by chance on the train ride home from work I noticed an 81 degree pass of HO-68 at its peak elevation this evening. I had tried before to make contacts on this satellite unsuccessfully and so far I have only tried FM. But with this pass so close to overhead I looked up what mode HO-68 would be in and in fact it was to be in FM mode at that time. So for the first time I decided to try a pass of a satellite at night and was overwhelmed to hear such clear signals. Receiving others was easier than getting the proper az/el combinations for uplink. Listening to my downlink helped immensely. I was absolutely floored that my first contact on HO-68 was YV1RDX from Venezuella. About 20 mins later and a few confirmed contacts I was so thrilled to have finally done it that I rushed to download the recording before the batteries that were low could possibly run out. I have only been working the satellites since about April or so and especially since antenna restrictions limit my activities. I am so hooked on this facet of the hobby and I can¹t believe it took about 17 years to get started! It really doesn¹t in fact take much...just two HT, an Arrow II antenna, a compass, a watch, and a digital recorder. Thanks to all that I made contact with and hope to see you all on the satellites soon!
73, Pat N2VYT FN20un _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
