[amsat-bb] Re: KD8KSN/M & a question

2011-05-14 Thread Zachary Beougher
Hi Jeff!

>1.  The fact that your downlink antenna is always vertically polarized
>rather than steered to the polarization of the satellite.

I know the vertical antennas have a null directly overhead, but it doesn't 
make sense to me why I can hear TCA-LOS fine, but AOS-TCA is hard - and that 
was on an 87 degree pass.

>2.  The position of the antenna on your vehicle could also have a huge
>affect as well as the orientation of the vehicle to the satellite during 
>the
>pass.

We were driving in a straight line on the interstate at the time of the 
pass(s), so the vehicle was generally oriented the same direction.

The FTM-350AR is full duplex, but it also has a more sensitive receiver than 
the TH-D7A, so I have used it for receive.  I could still use it for uplink 
as well, but I had the ARR preamp hooked inline, and you obviously don't 
want to transmit 2m through it.  In the short term it was just easier to use 
the TH-D7A for uplink.  Why do you ask?

73!

Zack
KD8KSN

-Original Message- 
From: Jeff Moore
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:53 PM
To: amsat-bb@amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: KD8KSN/M & a question

I could be wrong, but I suspect a couple of things:

1.  The fact that your downlink antenna is always vertically polarized
rather than steered to the polarization of the satellite.

2.  The position of the antenna on your vehicle could also have a huge
affect as well as the orientation of the vehicle to the satellite during the
pass.

Isn't the FT-350 full duplex capable?

73,

Jeff Moore  --  KE7ACY

- Original Message - From: "Zachary Beougher"


Hi All,

Thanks for the QSO during my few mobile ops the past couple days – and for
your patience.  We had three small road trips planned for various reasons
Wednesday-Friday, so it provided a great opportunity to try the mobile
equipment out, find out what combinations work better than others, etc.,
etc., so I can perhaps get on the air a little more while mobile during
vacations and such.  I will be uploading all QSOs to LoTW within a day or
so, and if anyone wants a card just email me the QSO details.  I did have a
question:

One consistent issue I found while operating is that I could just barely
hear a bird from AOS-TCA, but from TCA-LOS I could hear fine, even down to
10-5 degrees.  I am not understanding why I can’t hear one side of the pass,
but I can hear the other fine – almost full quieting with the preamp.  I
should also mention that I experienced this issue on AO27 and SO50, not
AO51.  I would thinnk it would be a polarization issue, but that still doesn’t
make sense to me.  My main setup consisted of:

Uplink:  TH-D7A (7w plugged into 12VDC), Comet CA-2x4SR mag for uplink.

Downlink:  FTM-350AR, ARR SP432VDG preamp on battery or 12v, Arrow duplexer
(440 side hooked up which solved my desense issues so I could work full
duplex), and a 19” quarter wave mag.

I had posted here about a month or so ago wondering if intermod would be an
issue using a preamp while mobile.  I monitored about 7-8 passes over the
past three days while mobile and intermod was never an issue.  I did have a
little bit of alternator whine on the FTM-350AR’s receive, but it was very
minimal.  That could be solved by running the cables directly to the
battery.  Since we were in the family vehicle I just used the cig lighter (I
know that’s not a good idea, but it was only for a couple days).

73!

Zack
KD8KSN
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[amsat-bb] Re: KD8KSN/M & a question

2011-05-13 Thread Jeff Moore
I could be wrong, but I suspect a couple of things:

1.  The fact that your downlink antenna is always vertically polarized 
rather than steered to the polarization of the satellite.

2.  The position of the antenna on your vehicle could also have a huge 
affect as well as the orientation of the vehicle to the satellite during the 
pass.

Isn't the FT-350 full duplex capable?

73,

Jeff Moore  --  KE7ACY

- Original Message - From: "Zachary Beougher" 


Hi All,

Thanks for the QSO during my few mobile ops the past couple days – and for 
your patience.  We had three small road trips planned for various reasons 
Wednesday-Friday, so it provided a great opportunity to try the mobile 
equipment out, find out what combinations work better than others, etc., 
etc., so I can perhaps get on the air a little more while mobile during 
vacations and such.  I will be uploading all QSOs to LoTW within a day or 
so, and if anyone wants a card just email me the QSO details.  I did have a 
question:

One consistent issue I found while operating is that I could just barely 
hear a bird from AOS-TCA, but from TCA-LOS I could hear fine, even down to 
10-5 degrees.  I am not understanding why I can’t hear one side of the pass, 
but I can hear the other fine – almost full quieting with the preamp.  I 
should also mention that I experienced this issue on AO27 and SO50, not 
AO51.  I would thinnk it would be a polarization issue, but that still doesn’t 
make sense to me.  My main setup consisted of:

Uplink:  TH-D7A (7w plugged into 12VDC), Comet CA-2x4SR mag for uplink.

Downlink:  FTM-350AR, ARR SP432VDG preamp on battery or 12v, Arrow duplexer 
(440 side hooked up which solved my desense issues so I could work full 
duplex), and a 19” quarter wave mag.

I had posted here about a month or so ago wondering if intermod would be an 
issue using a preamp while mobile.  I monitored about 7-8 passes over the 
past three days while mobile and intermod was never an issue.  I did have a 
little bit of alternator whine on the FTM-350AR’s receive, but it was very 
minimal.  That could be solved by running the cables directly to the 
battery.  Since we were in the family vehicle I just used the cig lighter (I 
know that’s not a good idea, but it was only for a couple days).

73!

Zack
KD8KSN
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