I've also heard a very strong downlink of my signal on a couple of occasions, but not had any replies. I am on the East Coast of the US in Brooklyn.
That said, I get very deep fades with AO-73. I think the antennae are in the x-y plane and are dipoles. They are therefore rotating as the satellite rotates about Z. If you are using an arrow antenna, or similar, then you get a deep null periodically and you can completely loose your signal if you are not careful. Does a CP antenna help with this? Can anyone using CP confirm? I understand AO-73 rotates about once a minute, or once every two minutes. So you should have a null every 30 seconds or so but it _seems_ worse than that and it's enough to throw you off, especially if you have struggled to find your signal in the narrow downlink in the first place. Then of course it goes into sunlight and your signal pops out of existence.... All in all, a tricky sat to work. I'm looking forward to my first contact through it. 73 Chris ac2cz On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 2:18 PM, Paul Stoetzer <n...@arrl.net> wrote: > Agree. It isn't quite as loud or as easy to get a signal into as > VO-52, but it's very close. > > I had a 70+ degree pass yesterday and my return signal was S8 with 500 > mW to an Elk antenna. Unfortunately, all I heard were people trying to > find their signals until the end of the pass. > > Looking forward to the FUNcube-2 payload on UKube-1 and the FUNcube-3 > payload on QB50p2, apparently both launching June 19th, but I see > conflicting information about the DNEPR launch for QB50p1 and QB50p2 > (with a FM transponder from AMSAT-F). Can anyone confirm that date? > > 73, > > Paul, N8HM > > On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 12:52 PM, D. Craig Fox <d...@rwglaw.com> wrote: > > I was on AO73 last night from southern Cal (DM13) at around 0555z, > calling many CQs. I kept my downlink at about 145.955. My sigs peaked at S9 > (no preamp), 5 el fixed at 30 deg. > > AO73 was very loud. I had no replies and heard no one but myself. It > does take a little more work to keep up with the Doppler, but this is a > great sat and I encourage you to take advantage when the transponder is > turned on. > > > > > > > > NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential > information. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, > or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to > the intended recipient, please advise the sender by reply email and > immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or > disclosing the contents. Thank you. > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB@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 > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@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 > -- Chris E. Thompson chrisethomp...@gmail.com g0...@arrl.net _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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
