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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/W65V3NKFPMK2I25Z4XDSUZF34VHVRSE2/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "CAN6TEUeGKLVgteG=N-t44cpO9mrh6vnEU8vzjtw-HOEGO0GXNg@mail.gmail.com",
    "message_id_hash": "W65V3NKFPMK2I25Z4XDSUZF34VHVRSE2",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/W65V3NKFPMK2I25Z4XDSUZF34VHVRSE2/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "amsat-bb (a) wd9ewk.net",
        "mailman_id": "21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] AO-92's 1.2 GHz uplink, last Sunday",
    "date": "2018-02-08T16:28:21Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Hi!\n\nI have been busy this week, and haven't been able to finish this sooner.\nBetter late than never...\n\nHaving the 1.2 GHz uplink active on AO-92 last Sunday was fun! I tried to\nwork\n4 different passes, heard myself on one of the two morning passes, and\nworked\nstations on the two passes in the evening. It was fun to dust off a radio\nand\nsome antennas for the uplink, and end up with a few QSOs by the end of the\nevening.\n\nThe first of the 4 passes was a nice 25-degree pass Sunday morning at 1638\nUTC.\nTo avoid the houses and other things around my house, I went to a city park\non\nthe DM33/DM43 grid boundary. This was my setup:\n\nTX: Alinco DJ-G7T @ 1W, Diamond RH951S 2m/70cm/23cm whip (on Diamond\nBNCJ-SMAP\n    adapter)\nRX: Kenwood TH-D74, Elk Antennas handheld 2m/70cm log periodic\n\nThe 145.880 MHz downlink was easy to hear, of course, but I never heard\nmyself\nthrough the satellite. Between using an omni antenna on my uplink and\nplaying\nwhack-a-mole trying to find the right uplink frequency, I was a spectator.\nWith\nthe next pass 90 minutes away, I went home to regroup.\n\nBefore the second pass, I went looking through some boxes for more stuff I\ncould\nuse for the L-band uplink. I found a very old Comet CY-1205 5-element Yagi\nfor\nthe 1.2 GHz band. This antenna has a BNC connector on the bottom of the\ndriven\nelement, and was originally sold in two versions (BNC and TNC connectors)\nto\nbe compatible with the radios available in the early 1990s. The listed gain\nfor\nthe CY-1205 is 11.0 dBi, which was an improvement over the 5.5 dBi gain for\nthe\nDiamond RH951S whip used earlier. Gain figures aside, a directional antenna\nshould be a better performer than an omni antenna for satellite work - even\na directional antenna sitting on top of the radio.\n\nThe last pass for the morning was at 1812 UTC, to the west. It was lower,\nwith\nmaximum elevation of 14.4 degrees. I went outside with a slightly different\nsetup...\n\nTX: Alinco DJ-G7T @ 1W, Comet CY-1205 5-element Yagi (on Diamond BNCJ-SMAP\nadapter)\nRX: Kenwood TH-D74, MFJ-1717 2m/70cm long duckie\n\nFor a few minutes, there was no activity on the downlink, and I heard the\nvoice\nID followed by more static. Around 1817 UTC, I heard the downlink come on,\nand\nTom N6NUG in San Diego appeared. Now I was trying to find a combination of\nuplink\nfrequency and antenna orientation to hear my signals through AO-92. I\nfinally\ndid, around 1818 UTC when the satellite was just under 14 degrees\nelevation. By\nthat point N6NUG was nowhere to be heard. I heard later that N6NUG's 1.2\nGHz\nsetup was for terrestrial operation, and he wasn't able to catch up with\nthe\nsatellite after the point I heard him. I was able to get through a couple\nof\ntimes, and this gave me encouragement for at least one of the two passes\ncoming\nup in the evening.\n\nFor the evening, I saw a couple of passes - a shallow 7-degree pass at 0314\nUTC,\nfollowed by a 61.4 degree pass around 0445 UTC. From home, I didn't think\nthe 7-\ndegree pass would be a good one to try. I drove to a rest area along I-17\nabout\n50 miles north of Phoenix, a location I use for low eastern passes. One\nproblem\nthere - all parking spaces at the south end of the rest area, the highest\npart\nof that location, were occupied. I think people, and especially truck\ndrivers,\nwere taking a break for the end of the Super Bowl game. I have never seen\nthat\nrest area that full of cars and trucks, and went back to I-17. Ten miles\nfurther\nnorth, there is a junction for the AZ-69 highway to Prescott. I did not go\nup\nAZ-69, instead parking in a large lot on the east side of the freeway\nbehind a\nMcDonald's near the interchange. This spot, in grid DM34wh, turned out to\nbe a\ngood spot.\n\nFor the evening passes, I used the following setup:\n\nTX: Alinco DJ-G7T @ 1W, Comet CY-1205 5-element Yagi (on Diamond BNCJ-SMAP\nadapter)\nRX: Kenwood TH-D74, Elk Antennas handheld 2m/70cm log periodic\n\nI recorded these passes using the audio recorder function in the TH-D74,\nwhich\nstores the audio as WAV files with the time (hour/minute/second) the\nrecording\nstarted in the file name - helpful to know when in each pass different\nevents\nhappened.\n\nThe first pass at 0314 UTC was very low to the east. I thought it would\nclear the\nhills east of the freeway, and I was able to hear the downlink about 30 to\n40\nseconds after the predicted AOS time. I heard a few stations, and I started\ntrying\nto get through. A couple of minutes into the pass, I was able to hear\nmyself. Glenn\nAA5PK in west Texas also heard me, and gave me a quick call. At this point,\nAO-92\nwas almost at the midpoint of the pass, with elevation around 6 degrees. I\nwas\ngetting through! Jeff WB8RJY in Michigan also heard me, and gave me a call.\nNow\nthe satellite was at its highest, just under 7 degrees elevation. Alan\nWA4SCA also\ncalled me, but I was not able to get back to him before LOS.\n\n>From comments I saw online during the day, it was apparent that the nominal\nuplink\nfrequency was higher than the published 1267.350 MHz. Most reports placed\nit about\n8 kHz or so higher than that. With my DJ-G7T and its 5 kHz tuning, I went\nwith\n1267.360 MHz as the nominal uplink, and that helped to get through.\n\nFor the last pass of the evening at 0445 UTC, things started out well. I\nheard\nJerry N0JY initially. Between tuning and twisting my HT/antenna\ncombination, I\nwasn't able to get lined up in time for a QSO with him. I was eventually\nable to\nget through, and after a few minutes Greg KO6TH in northern California\nappeared.\nWe started to chat slowly, mainly due to my need to tune and move the radio\naround\nto get each transmission through the satellite. During this time, AD5MT in\nsouthern\nCalifornia appeared. I made a quick QSO with AD5MT, but KO6TH wasn't able\nto do\nthat. No other stations showed up during the pass, which allowed KO6TH and\nme to\ncall out our uplink frequencies and the satellite's elevation on its way to\nLOS.\n\nI put the audio, pictures, and other files related to all of this in a\ncouple of\nfolders in my Dropbox space at http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/ . Files from the\ntwo\nmorning passes are available in the \"20180204-AO92\" folder, and files from\nthe\ntwo evening passes are available in the \"20180205-AO92\" folder. Each of\nthose\nfolders has a PDF file with a 2008 article from CQ VHF magazine by Kent\nBritain\nWA5VJB for smaller 1.2 GHz Yagis with 4, 6, or 10 elements. The 4-element\nYagi\nmight be enough with a 1W HT to use the AO-92 1.2 GHz uplink. Since I was\nable to\nget through with a 5-element Yagi, it seems like the 6- and 10-element\nversions\nin the article should be good options for 1.2 GHz and AO-92.\n\nLooking forward to more time to use 1.2 GHz...\n\n73!\n\n\n\n\nPatrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK\nhttp://www.wd9ewk.net/\nTwitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK\n",
    "attachments": []
}