[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 Question
Jim, AO-27 always, at least under normal conditions, structures its operating period in blocks, including that leading telemetry burst. You can see the schedule here: http://www.ao27.org/AO27/listing.shtml 73s, Alan WA4SCA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: ISS last pass up and down links ??
VE3CSA working using his own call. Doing a great job handling FD exchanges! Alan WA4SCA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] VA3CSA Active from ISS...
on the 1325 UTC pass, 145.800 downlink. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Advice for transponder ops
I took this screen grab of this morning's eastern FO-29 pass, and what it shows is in my opinion very illustrative of a problem that is getting worse even on days other than Field Day. http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/FO-29FDanotated.jpg Spread out! There is no good reason that we should have a dozen operators fighting over the center 15 kHz of a 100 kHz wide transponder. Remember the gentlemen's agreement is the lower third is for CW, middle 1/3 is for mixed ops, and the upper 1/3 is for SSB. There is nothing magic about the Doppler shift at the very center of the passband that simple addition and subtraction can't duplicate elsewhere. Just my opinion, and please take it constructively. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 Question
On 27 Jun 2009 at 22:50, Jim Jerzycke wrote: Hi, everybody. Today at Field Day was the first time I tried to work AO-27, and succeeded. One thing I noticed, is that as the satellite came up over the horizon, I wasn't hearing anything until what sounded like a long data burst happened. Then I heard the sat come alive, with what sounded like people already in QSO. As the sat progressed, I heard a lot of operators, then the long data burst happened again, and it seemed like the sat went dead I know a bit about how it's scheduled (TOPR), but since this is the first time I was able to hear it well enough to actually consider it usable. What's the data burst? Is it part of the TOPR, or am I hearing something else? 73, Jim KQ6EA AO-27 alternate between analog and telemetry date session see below and check their web site at http://www.ao27.org/AO27/index.shtml Current Time UTC = Sun Jun 28 10:58:47 2009 Schedule Time= 00:51:32 Current State= 7 Mode= OFF Remaining = 00:49:16 Next Event UTC = Sun Jun 28 11:48:03 2009 State= 0 Mode= Digital Med TOPR Epoch (UTC) = Sat Jun 13 18:58:13 2009 TOPR Epoch(ctime) = 1244919493 Schedule Period (sec) = 6048.524 State Start Time End Time Duration(sec) Mode 0 00:00:00 00:00:20 20Digital Med 1 00:00:20 00:07:20 420Analogue Med 2 00:07:20 00:08:20 60Digital Med 3 00:08:20 00:32:01 1421OFF 4 00:32:01 00:33:01 60OFF 5 00:33:01 00:33:21 20OFF 6 00:33:21 00:33:41 20OFF 7 00:33:41 01:40:48 4027OFF - Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE ___ 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
[amsat-bb] SX1DL looking for AO-7 DX
Hello AO-7 friends, We make a short activity on 4.+5.07.2009 from a high mountain close to Athens. With that good take of, we try to make some DX via the old lady. We will have some passes which covers the north-east of the USA and Canada, as well we have some good opportunities for VU, ZS and 5R. A real difficult area is Brasil. We have a extreme short window to Natal, HI24-square. Is there anyone out, who is able to work AO-7?? PY´s, please look for someone and give us a short info!! In most of the directions we have the horizon at -1deg !! So stay tuned at 145.950MHz -+Doppler and QRM. For further infos ask me: sx...@dh5mk.de 73 from the SX1DL-crew Mike, DH5MK Here are some calculations about the opportunities USA Canada i.e. Hartford (FN31QR) -- Day Time(U) Az1 El1 Az2 El2 MAHight L SSP B Orbit -- 04.06.2009 19:27:40 313 2 52 0 -168,7 1463 339 54 58115 04.06.2009 19:29:00 319 0 45 1 -165,8 1465 337 58 58115 VU MK82SW (Bangalore) : -- Day Time(U) Az1 El1 Az2 El2 MAHight L SSP B Orbit -- 04.06.2009 15:25:00 123 1 278 14 -197,5 1450 53 15 58113 04.06.2009 15:31:30 92 22 314 0 -183,1 1456 47 35 58113 05.06.2009 14:28:30 93 1 324 20 -186,3 1454 64 29 58125 05.06.2009 14:33:30 66 10 335 1 -175,2 1460 58 44 58125 5R LH31RC (central Madagaskar): -- Day Time(U) Az1 El1 Az2 El2 MAHight L SSP B Orbit -- 04.06.2009 17:16:00 172 1 317 7 -206,2 1449 28 3 58114 04.06.2009 17:18:00 174 7 321 1 -201,7 1449 26 9 58114 05.06.2009 05:39:00 177 7 319 0 -86,3 1456 25 9 58120 05.06.2009 05:41:00 180 1 310 3 -81,9 1456 23 3 58120 05.06.2009 16:16:30 146 1 348 10 -201,6 1449 42 8 58126 05.06.2009 16:19:00 143 10 347 1 -196,0 1451 40 15 58126 ZS KG33XO (near Johannesburg): -- Day Time(U) Az1 El1 Az2 El2 MAHight L SSP B Orbit -- 04.06.2009 17:16:00 172 1 360 7 -206,2 1449 28 3 58114 04.06.2009 17:18:00 174 7 357 0 -201,7 1449 26 9 58114 05.06.2009 05:39:00 177 7 354 0 -86,3 1456 25 9 58120 05.06.2009 05:41:00 180 1 350 6 -81,9 1456 23 3 58120 05.06.2009 18:10:00 195 0 334 3 -204,7 1449 14 3 58127 05.06.2009 18:11:00 198 3 335 0 -202,4 1449 14 6 58127 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 question
Tanks, everybody. I suspected that's what was happening, and reading the AO-27 pages kinda sorta confirmed it, but I'd just never *heard* the bird before. Guess my receive setup is working as expected! 73, Jim KQ6EA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops
I noticed it, too. I was up at the top-end all by my lonesome because I didn't want to step on anybody! Jim KQ6EA --- On Sun, 6/28/09, Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com wrote: From: Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Advice for transponder ops To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 7:25 AM I took this screen grab of this morning's eastern FO-29 pass, and what it shows is in my opinion very illustrative of a problem that is getting worse even on days other than Field Day. http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/FO-29FDanotated.jpg Spread out! There is no good reason that we should have a dozen operators fighting over the center 15 kHz of a 100 kHz wide transponder. Remember the gentlemen's agreement is the lower third is for CW, middle 1/3 is for mixed ops, and the upper 1/3 is for SSB. There is nothing magic about the Doppler shift at the very center of the passband that simple addition and subtraction can't duplicate elsewhere. Just my opinion, and please take it constructively. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops
AMEN brother! I called CQ multiple times on AO-7 in CW last night between 145.940 and 145.944 (downlink), and NOBODY was tuning down that far. I found that very disappointing, as I did the close proximity of all the stations on FO-29 and VO-52. I believe a lot of us could have made a lot more contacts on the linear satellites if we'd just used the passband. Thanks for this post Drew! 73 to all, Tim - N3TL -- Original message from Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com: -- I took this screen grab of this morning's eastern FO-29 pass, and what it shows is in my opinion very illustrative of a problem that is getting worse even on days other than Field Day. http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/FO-29FDanotated.jpg Spread out! There is no good reason that we should have a dozen operators fighting over the center 15 kHz of a 100 kHz wide transponder. Remember the gentlemen's agreement is the lower third is for CW, middle 1/3 is for mixed ops, and the upper 1/3 is for SSB. There is nothing magic about the Doppler shift at the very center of the passband that simple addition and subtraction can't duplicate elsewhere. Just my opinion, and please take it constructively. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops
I also noticed a lot of warbling on the AO-7 stations I heard. I'm assuming this is the FM'ing I've read about. I cranked my power down to about 10 Watts on the AO-7 passes I tried to work, and my downlink sounded OK, but some guys had a very 'watery' sound. I also noticed a couple of sats where the downlink seemed to drop out after I heard some very LOUD stations on them. I don't think it was receive blockage causing me to lose the signal, but it was something I never heard before. Jim --- On Sun, 6/28/09, n...@bellsouth.net n...@bellsouth.net wrote: From: n...@bellsouth.net n...@bellsouth.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Advice for transponder ops To: Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com, amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 8:45 AM AMEN brother! I called CQ multiple times on AO-7 in CW last night between 145.940 and 145.944 (downlink), and NOBODY was tuning down that far. I found that very disappointing, as I did the close proximity of all the stations on FO-29 and VO-52. I believe a lot of us could have made a lot more contacts on the linear satellites if we'd just used the passband. Thanks for this post Drew! 73 to all, Tim - N3TL -- Original message from Andrew Glasbrenner glasbren...@mindspring.com: -- I took this screen grab of this morning's eastern FO-29 pass, and what it shows is in my opinion very illustrative of a problem that is getting worse even on days other than Field Day. http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/FO-29FDanotated.jpg Spread out! There is no good reason that we should have a dozen operators fighting over the center 15 kHz of a 100 kHz wide transponder. Remember the gentlemen's agreement is the lower third is for CW, middle 1/3 is for mixed ops, and the upper 1/3 is for SSB. There is nothing magic about the Doppler shift at the very center of the passband that simple addition and subtraction can't duplicate elsewhere. Just my opinion, and please take it constructively. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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 ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Original 13 Colonies Special Event Update - K2T
Instead of signing K2J as initially planned, I was able to get K2T (T since North Carolina is the Tarheel State) assigned to me at the last minute for the 1-4 July time frame. K2J will still be on the air from NC, at least on HF, and I'll be QRV on both HF as well as the sats. I'll be on the FM birds at the least; the linear sats will be used as well if I can get my Acer netbook to use SatPC32 to talk to my 897 and?adjust the freqs for Doppler. Contacts with either K2J or K2T will count for North Carolina toward the certificate offered for the event. Nine of the 13 colonial states will have sat stations on during the event. We're still looking for ops for Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Pse note that the special event runs the calendar days of 1-4 July; per the event web site, it officially runs out at 05/0400Z July. Finally, for?any sat op who is a county hunter, I'll be running North Carolina counties on both CW and SSB on 20, 30, and 40 meters as K2T throughout the event period and then using my regular call afterward on the way home to Florida. Spots of my HF county hunting operation will be available at http://ch.w6rk.com/?and will include the county that I'm in at the spot time shown. Although the grid square is not indicated on this web site, it shouldn't be difficult to identify since the county I'm in is shown. 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC / K2T ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 Question
Hi Jim, Interesting... That was probably the pass I was trying to work AO-27 too, but I didn't have any success at all. All I got back was hash, with others audible below it. I think my uplink was interfering my downlink locally, though it went away after the pass. Gotta work on that. But, in answer to your question, the satellite has a scheduled sequence that it goes through. There's a program to predict when the different phases are going to kick in, downloadable from http://sites.google.com/site/ao27satellitescheduler/ and it shows exactly what you and I experienced during the pass. I suspect it appeared like the satellite turned on with conversations already in progress because they jumped the gun a bit on the uplink, or weren't aware of the timer and were transmitting without being able to hear anything. The digital parts of the pass are telemetry, and you can decode and contribute what you hear to the archive. The main page is http://www.ao27.org. Enjoy, Greg KO6TH Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:50:49 -0700 From: kq...@pacbell.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-27 Question Hi, everybody. Today at Field Day was the first time I tried to work AO-27, and succeeded. One thing I noticed, is that as the satellite came up over the horizon, I wasn't hearing anything until what sounded like a long data burst happened. Then I heard the sat come alive, with what sounded like people already in QSO. As the sat progressed, I heard a lot of operators, then the long data burst happened again, and it seemed like the sat went dead I know a bit about how it's scheduled (TOPR), but since this is the first time I was able to hear it well enough to actually consider it usable. What's the data burst? Is it part of the TOPR, or am I hearing something else? 73, Jim KQ6EA ___ 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 _ Windows Live™ SkyDrive™: Get 25 GB of free online storage. http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Labjack U12 Piggy back
Hello Group, Could someone tell me any satellite tracking software other than NOVA, compatible with Labjack U12 Piggy back combo to drive Yaesu G 5500 rototor. with regards Mani VU2WMY ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Labjack U12 Piggy back
Mani, SATPC32 works perfectly with that combination. I have been using it for several years. Alan WA4SCA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
Hi, I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'm new and I cannot invest much money the first year. Thank to all for your advice. 73 --- Jean-François Ménard VA2SS ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? I wouldn't even consider using an eggbeater without a mast mounted preamp. And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? Yes, with the amount dependent on the grade of RG-8 and it's age, among other things. LMR-400 is a good cable that may be less expensive than the heliax. I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'd start with the preamp first. 73, Drew KO4MA ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
There's a TREMENDOUS difference with the preamp, mounted at the antenna. You will hear the satellites earlier, and stronger, with the preamp. Good coax is also good to have, but if you're on a budget, buy the preamp first. I tried many different things, but the preamp made the most improvement. 73, Jim KQ6EA --- On Sun, 6/28/09, Jean-François Ménard va...@me.com wrote: From: Jean-François Ménard va...@me.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax To: AMSAT Mailing list amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 1:16 PM Hi, I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'm new and I cannot invest much money the first year. Thank to all for your advice. 73 --- Jean-François Ménard VA2SS ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
AMP: My vote, SSB pre-amps, outstanding, although agreeably expensive, but well worth the cost hands down; my MFJ pre-amp didnt hold up as it felt quite cheap. The other advantage of the SSB is that the power requirement is very low, which means it is compatible with ICOM's amps and will be powered internally from the radio. http://www.ssbusa.com/gaasfet.html COAX: Completely agree with using LMR, it is very much worth the marginal additional cost for 100 feet (two runs). http://www.timesmicrowave.com/content/pdf/lmr/22-25.pdf Michael K3MH -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Jean-François Ménard Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 1:16 PM To: AMSAT Mailing list Subject: [amsat-bb] Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax Hi, I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'm new and I cannot invest much money the first year. Thank to all for your advice. 73 --- Jean-François Ménard VA2SS ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Jim Jerzyckekq...@pacbell.net wrote: There's a TREMENDOUS difference with the preamp, mounted at the antenna. You will hear the satellites earlier, and stronger, with the preamp. Good coax is also good to have, but if you're on a budget, buy the preamp first. I tried many different things, but the preamp made the most improvement. 73, Jim KQ6EA Jean-François -- Welcome to the fraternity of satellite experimenters. I think you'll really enjoy the experience of improving your satellite station. If you have not yet bought your egg-beater antennas, you can save a considerable amount of money to begin by using simple, homebrew verticals with the preamps. If you just solder the appropriate length of stiff wire to a male connector, you can have a working satellite antenna for only about $5! The point here is that the preamp is absolutely critical, and with LEO satellites a small antenna will receive quite a bit if you can improve your commercial radio's sensitivity. Of course, you will want to upgrade from the homebrew verticals, but they do provide you with a cheap and reliable basis from which to judge future improvements. Also, don't forget that if you have a radio that doesn't provide power for your preamps, you might want to buy bias tees for your preamps. Finally, be sure to purchase good, low noise, preamps. The SSB USA models and the Advanced Receiver Research ones are both well-regarded on this list. 73, Bruce VE9QRP --- On Sun, 6/28/09, Jean-François Ménard va...@me.com wrote: From: Jean-François Ménard va...@me.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax To: AMSAT Mailing list amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 1:16 PM Hi, I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'm new and I cannot invest much money the first year. Thank to all for your advice. 73 --- Jean-François Ménard VA2SS ___ ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
Wow... many many answers !! Well, everybody seems to be agree that preamp are a must, and the first thing to add in my setup. I bought, at a great price, 2 second hand and near perfect eggbeater antenna from a ham here in province of Quebec who would like to upgrade to a more serious setup. Ok now, I just ordered 2 preamps from Advanced Research... VHF and UHF. I will put them in an wheater proof enclosure near my eggbeater antennas. the closer I can in an PVC enclosure... because I bought standard one. I received today from a friend of mine, a brand new 50 meters 1/2 heliax coil I will be able to change my 2 old coax runs with this. And finally, I will use my 2 FT-817 with SatPC32 seems to work perfectly at this moment... the 2 rigs are controlled simultaniously RX TX a great piece of software !! I hope I will be able to do a step further soon to have a contact !!! 73 J-F VA2SS Jean-François Ménard a écrit : Hi, I would like to know if there is much difference using a preamp for satellite receiving using a M2 Eggbeater antenna ? And also, is there much difference between a heliax 0.5 and a RG-8 on a 50 feet cable run between the antenna and the radio ? I would really like to optimize my receiving quality but I also want to know where to put all my effort first. I'm new and I cannot invest much money the first year. Thank to all for your advice. 73 --- Jean-François Ménard VA2SS ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Need advice : Eggbeater antenna, preamp, coax
/Hi Sebastian, I planning to work at 5W for now. I will use my 2 FT-817 one for RX and the other one for TX both controlled by SatPC32. I bought 2 premamps RF switch at 25W maximum from Advanced Research. J-F VA2SS From/: Sebastian w...@x mailto:w...@domain.hidden/ Date/: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:12:06 -0400 I'll add a thought here that I haven't seen anyone reply about. As everyone mentioned, definitely go with a preamp - but think for the future. How much transmitter output power do you have? If you have relatively low power, say 5 watts, you can get an inexpensive preamp. However, if you plan to use higher power in the future, perhaps for meteor scatter; that low power preamp may no longer be useful. Again, you've received several responses, but one thing hasn't been mentioned. What is your output power? If you have an HT with a couple of watts, that RG-8 may 'eat up' a lot of your power, especially if you are going to transmit on 440 Mhz. Without knowing how much power you have, and which birds you plan to use, it's difficult to give you a good answer. you can't work 'em if you can't hear them; also don't forget that you need to hear yourself FIRST. Work on hearing your downlink if possible before you start to call other stations. If you can't hear yourself, then post about it so we can help you out. I think it would be helpful if you told us which type(s) of rig(s) you will be using. When you find a fellow ham who has all the money that's necessary to build a perfect station, please let me know! 73 de W4AS Sebastian ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 Question
Thanks for plugging my son's program, Greg! I've been amazed at how accurate it is mode changes typically occur within seconds of predicted times, and, as the AO-27 site notes, the onboard clock can be up to 10 seconds off. 73, George, KA3HSW - Original Message - From: Greg D. ko6th_g...@hotmail.com To: kq...@pacbell.net; amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 1:02 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-27 Question Hi Jim, Interesting... That was probably the pass I was trying to work AO-27 too, but I didn't have any success at all. All I got back was hash, with others audible below it. I think my uplink was interfering my downlink locally, though it went away after the pass. Gotta work on that. But, in answer to your question, the satellite has a scheduled sequence that it goes through. There's a program to predict when the different phases are going to kick in, downloadable from http://sites.google.com/site/ao27satellitescheduler/ and it shows exactly what you and I experienced during the pass. I suspect it appeared like the satellite turned on with conversations already in progress because they jumped the gun a bit on the uplink, or weren't aware of the timer and were transmitting without being able to hear anything. The digital parts of the pass are telemetry, and you can decode and contribute what you hear to the archive. The main page is http://www.ao27.org. Enjoy, Greg KO6TH ___ 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
