Working Satellites

[cockpitbob]

Anyone here work satellites?

I made my first QSOs with satellite AO-51 today. I made QSOs in RI, NY, MI and OH with a my FT-60R HT and the hand-held Arrow antenna everyone seems to use for this kind of thing. Very fun! Things move very fast.

I also tried to at least hear some of the other satellites: HO-60 and the 2M/440 repeater on the Int. Space Station but I never heard a thing from them. I'm pretty sure they are mode-J repeaters just like AO-51, but nuthun. I tripple checked the frequencies & PL tones...nuthun. I'm sure I have a short between the headphones, but I can't figure it out

 

[tele_mark]

I worked one of the easy Russian UOSAT's in the early 90's. It was a weird combo, something like 10 meters up, 15 down. It was very LEO and as such moved pretty good, just enough time for a signal exchange in high speed CW. I have the card somewhere, but it's just a regular card, with a notation of the uplink and downlink, so it's kind of hard to find in my QSL pile. I was looking for it to post in the QSL thread.

I've gotten interested lately in amateur satellite communication and might get to building a serious amateur satellite ground station soon.

 

[matt]

haven't played with satellites at all. Sounds kind a cool!

 

[MACGYVR]

2 best QSO's I ever had were with the MIR space station astronauts and the astronauts on the international space station.

50W, 2m with a 9db vertical is all it took. Good for 15 min pass (horizon to horizon) with a minute long null as it passed overhead.

 

[cockpitbob]

2 best QSO's I ever had were with the MIR space station astronauts and the astronauts on the international space station.

50W, 2m with a 9db vertical is all it took. Good for 15 min pass (horizon to horizon) with a minute long null as it passed overhead.

OK, now I'm jealous.

I guess if I want to get deeper into this I'll need more equipment. Right now I'm using an HT and hand aiming Arrow's dual-band Yagi. I bet I look silly to the neighbors as I stand in the yard waving that thing around

 

[C-pher]

OK, now I'm jealous.

I guess if I want to get deeper into this I'll need more equipment. Right now I'm using an HT and hand aiming Arrow's dual-band Yagi. I bet I look silly to the neighbors as I stand in the yard waving that thing around

What's the model? I would think that at some point I would like to get into doing that...seems like it would be pretty cool.

 

[cockpitbob]

What's the model? I would think that at some point I would like to get into doing that...seems like it would be pretty cool.

It's the Arrow-II model 146/437-10. (Link). I got mine @ HRO for $135 (I think). It comes with the 2M/70cm diplexer built in but you can undo the BNCs and run the 2 halfs from seperate transceivers. I just used my FT-60R set to Tx on 2M and Rx on 0.7cm (which took some time to figure out). The antenna is beautifully made with colorful aluminum arrow shafts for the elements. The whole thing unscrews in about 3 minutes for storage & transportation.

Satellite AO-51 seems to be the most popular and the only one I've heard go overhead so far. See AMSAT's website(link) for 90% of the information you'll need. You can find out about the passes for the various satellites there (link).

This 3pg article on working AO-51 with your HT contains most of what you need to know. (link)

I was warned that satellites can be addictive for some people. I'm worried I'm one of them

 

[cockpitbob]

I just made contact with satellite SO-50. It is another of the "easy sats" you can work with a hadheld (Tx on 2M and Rx on 440). That's the 2nd satellite I've worked. The first, AO-51, appears to be the most popular, but they just put it in a new mode for the next week where the downlink is now 2.4GHz.

 

[matt]

I've got to give that a try with my VX7 ht. I've got a 9db gain vertical that runs 2m and 440... I bet I could get something with that...

 

[cockpitbob]

Try at least listening to SO-50 tomorrow (Fri) between 1:30pm & 1:45pm. The downlink is 436.795MHz, but for doppler start at 436.805 and tune down to 436.785 by the end of the pass. I just fiddle 5KHz back-n-fourth feeling for the strongest signal.

 

[cockpitbob]

Satellite AO-51 Supporting the Boy Scouts

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts, satellite AO-51 is making a 2nd repeater available this weekend for "...Scouting stations, and when not in use, by Boy Scouts...".

They are keeping the normal uplink/downlink FM repeater going and I guess they had the hardware in that little cube for a 2nd FM repeater, so they published new frequencies dedicated to the Scouts for this weekend.

Very cool. I like anyone that goes out of their way for the Scouts.

My son, who just happens to be a ham and a Scout, has 1 contact on satellite SO-50 and one on AO-51. He was supposed to go camping this weekend but they scrubbed the mission due to weather. AO-51 won't be making more than about 3 good passes this weekend, but we'll be in the back yard, looking silly waving that hand-held Yagi, rain or shine.

 

[Bob J]

This sounds so cool..... Do you have a site or program that helps determine when the satellites are passing overhead?

 

[Realtor MA]

Most folks use a program like the one integrated with Ham Radio Deluxe but Cockpit Bob does it the old fashioned way. He uses binoculars and looks for the slightest flash of metal up in the heavens. Then he aims the yagi and calls cq. j/k

 

[cockpitbob]

This sounds so cool..... Do you have a site or program that helps determine when the satellites are passing overhead?

Go back 1 page to post-7. The 2nd paragraph has the link to AMSAT's web site. Click the "Passes" tab, put in your lat/lon (it remembers so you only do this once) and it will show detailed information on passes for the sat you selected. Any pass with a Max Elevation of 20degrees or higher is worth a try with your base station.

Also click on the Sat Status tab and click on the sat of interest. Sometimes they change the sat's mode from FM to USB or CW. I haven't seen them do that with AO-51, but I wasted time in the back yard hearing nothing but static from SO-50 a few weeks back.

Most folks use a program like the one integrated with Ham Radio Deluxe but Cockpit Bob does it the old fashioned way. He uses binoculars and looks for the slightest flash of metal up in the heavens. Then he aims the yagi and calls cq. j/k

Don't tempt me. You seem to know me too well. Actually I don't have HRD yet, but the web pass predictor seems to work well.

 

[Bob J]

Awesome! Thanks!

Go back 1 page to post-7. The 2nd paragraph has the link to AMSAT's web site. Click the "Passes" tab, put in your lat/lon (it remembers so you only do this once) and it will show detailed information on passes for the sat you selected. Any pass with a Max Elevation of 20degrees or higher is worth a try with your base station.

Also click on the Sat Status tab and click on the sat of interest. Sometimes they change the sat's mode from FM to USB or CW. I haven't seen them do that with AO-51, but I wasted time in the back yard hearing nothing but static from SO-50 a few weeks back.

 

[cockpitbob]

My son, who just happens to be a ham and a Scout, has 1 contact on satellite SO-50 and one on AO-51. He was supposed to go camping this weekend but they scrubbed the mission due to weather. AO-51 won't be making more than about 3 good passes this weekend, but we'll be in the back yard, looking silly waving that hand-held Yagi, rain or shine.

We stood out in the dirzzle and hit both of today's good passes. Useage was light as it's using a temporary and not widely published pair of frequencies. My son was the only Scout we heard. He added "troop-81" to his call and that got everyone's attention. One QSO was with KO4MA who we later read is AMSAT's Director and V.P. of Operations! His QRZ.com profile says he QSLs direct. I can't wait to see that card! Right now I'm sipp'n rum thinking life is pretty good.