[amsat-bb] Frustration

2009-11-29 Thread Michael Tondee
I've been trying to get my receive setup going the last few days but I'm 
having horrible results. I have my 11 element 70cm "cheap yagi" back up 
on the mast and my homebrew SaebrTrack and OR-360  AZ/EL TV rotator 
system interfaced to SatPC32.
  I have an ARR preamp mounted at the mast fed with a seperate 12VDC 
feed and about a 40 foot run of  JEFA  brand LMR 400. Once I get into 
the shack there is a bit of patchwork to the cables. I'm using a Yaesu 
VX3 to receive and due to the SMA connector on the HT and not wanting to 
strain it I have a 4 foot adapter cable  of  LMR 100 that goes from an 
SMA to a SO-239. I then have to use a short length of coax with a PL-259 
to N male to mate up with a N barrel connector connected to my LMR 400 
coming from outside. Now obviously, I know this isn't optimum and eats 
up valuable RF and I intend to change it ASAP  but I'm hearing 
absolutely nothing on AO-51 passes. Not even the hint of signals.
I'm thinking with that preamp in the line I should at lest hear 
something discernible besides noise regardless of the patchwork of 
cables. Am I off base in thinking this? I did catch just a bit of 
discernible signal off  SO-50 last night but it was almost overhead.
 I'm not a beginner at this but I'm frustrated. Perhaps I'm putting too 
much faith in the preamp to push the signals through my hodgepodge of 
adapters and cables? Any thoughts are appreciated.
73,
Michael, W4HIJ
 
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[amsat-bb] "Frustration" Solved!

2009-11-30 Thread Michael Tondee
Well, just got through listening to a pass of AO-51. As several have 
suggested, it was a pointing issue with the antenna.
I can't believe my memory has gotten to the point where I couldn't 
remember where North was the last time I had the antennas up.
 Thing is, I actually took a compass reading the other day and 
compensated for declination but I must have  misread something 
somewhere. I was only about 20 degrees off! Declination here is only 4 
degrees so it couldn't have been that. That's what I get for working on 
stuff at dusk I guess. I'm slightly embarrassed!
  BTW, I didn't mean to make anyone think that an 11 element yagi was 
too narrow for LEO's. It's fine if you point the dang thing right!  
Also, the reason why I went this route with the more complex antenna and 
AZ/EL system is that I already had the stuff on hand from my last foray 
into satellites. Only the preamp was new and I knew that everything had 
worked before. I can certainly appreciate the suggestions on 
simplification and I was about to do just that if I didn't have any 
success today.
 Now I just have to work out some of my cable issues and get something 
going for transmit. My 2 meter "cheap yagi" has seen better days. Once I 
get that, I'll raise the mast and get the antennas up to their normal 
height.
 I'm just using HT's right now but I hope to have a new TS-2000X 
sometime after the first of the year. I've been quite interested in the 
TS-2000 vs. IC910H thread. I know that Icom has discontinued the 910 
because of the 9100 but I was under the impression that Kenwood would 
release a new rig at Dayton this year and wonder if that will mean the 
demise of the TS-2000.
 Thanks everyone for the suggestions and also allowing me to "vent" a 
bit last night.I was getting pretty frustrated.
73,
Michael, W4HIJ
 
 
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[amsat-bb] Frustration abt Arissat-1

2011-04-12 Thread Petr Pakr
Hallo NASA,
maybye is time to tell - Arissat-1 have a problem. I feel that too much peoples 
loose too much time for nothing... :-( 
73! Petr
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