I have made a few QSOs on the SSB birds while running half-duplex. Now, I am
trying to implement full duplex using an FT-817, an FT-897 and an Arrow
antenna on an az-el rotator. Separate coax cables connect the FT-897 to the
70 cm part of the Arrow and the FT-817 to the 2m part. I have a diagram of
this setup that I could post.
On the 1215Z pass of AO-07 just now, I was able to hear my CW signal while
sending a string of dits. I set the FT-817 to 145950 CW mode with no Doppler
correction and listened via headphones. On the FT-897, I started
transmitting at 432150 CW with no Doppler correction. Eventually my transmit
frequency reached 432146.1 and I heard my dits on the FT-817. Then I entered
3900 as the Upl Calibr in the CAT menu of SatPC32. I switched the FT-817 to
USB mode and the FT-897 to LSB and clicked on the Doppler correction (the
C+) in SatPC32. Using a handheld mic on the FT-897, I called a short CQ, but
did not hear my voice. I have the FT-817 as the top radio in the Radio Setup
menu of SatPC32 and the FT-897 as the bottom radio.
With all of these settings, there is ample opportunity for error! Can anyone
offer any suggestions to get me straightened out here? Thanks in advance for
any assistance.
Red, KC4LE
The 27th AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium will be held on the weekend of September 15-16 at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Guildford, England, GU2 7XZ, close to the University of Surrey.
All accommodation will be at the Holiday Inn hotel. Please note that the hotel will only hold our reserved rooms until 3 weeks prior to the event, ie until August 24. If you book after this date, you risk there not being a room available. Bookings for Fri/Sun nights, or ones made after this date cannot be guaranteed.
Booking information at
http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/twelve
73 Trevor M5AKA
AMSAT-UK http://www.uk.amsat.org/
----
Since AO-7B came out of the eclipsed orbits, it has been
performing poorly. I can usually do very well on the low
elevation passes towards Europe, but now I may only be able
to hear my own cw signal with no other signals heard.
Today on the 2116utc pass I worked PV8DX on CW but as the bird
moved north, it became apparent that the satellite was starved for
power. If I used more than 5 watts on CW, the returning signal was
only a key click. Five watts produced a tone but there was fm'ing.
Voice signals were weak and distorted. Again I found that using more
than 5 watts on ssb would yield garbled audio. The satellite cannot
support much activity in this condition.
Let's hope this is only temporary and that the satellite will return
to the level of performance we had before the eclipse periods. In the
meantime, FO-29 is still producing 1300km orbits between Europe and
North America in our early afternoon. These high elevation orbits
won't last forever so take advantage of them now.
73,
John K8YSE
Hi all! Will be driving down to Nazca starting tomorrow. Potential
grid activations include fh25 and fh16.
The good news is that we should have wheels for the rest of the trip.
This means fo-29 and ao7(I'll give it a shot both mode a and b!)
morning and evening passes from the Morrow Solar (fh17lt).
73 es be good!
Norm n3ykf
Mode A seems to be more tolerant of lower power coming
from the solar panels than Mode B. Still you can tell
that the satellite is suffering. A 5 watt CW signal will
cause the bird to FM but it is not driving the bird to its
maximum power capability. I heard N4ASF much louder on it
in CW on the 2030utc pass today also with fm'ing. This has been
my observation of Mode A in the past. Prior to the eclipse
periods it was possible to hit Mode A with a lot of power and
it would not complain very much. The 10m transmitter must use
a lot less power than the 2 meter transmitter. Therefore it is
more tolerant of the lower solar panel power.
AL7RS reported that he heard AO-7 with a clean CW signal coming
back down in AP65. This could be an indication that sun angle
in certain parts of the orbit is the major cause of the problems
that I'm seeing here. Hopefully the solar panels will start
producing more power soon.
73,
John K8YSE
In the process of rebuilding all my antennas I have an extra tripod. 25'X5.5' at the base, about 300Lbs. Obviously it will be a "fairly" local sale. Used for HF antennas for several years.
73 Bob W7LRD
John, et al,
For those able to reach the UK on FM LEOs, I will be in UK in mid-August (family holiday), and able to operate the FM sats from the IO81/82 grid boundary. I may also be able to make a trek over to IO71/72 (less common, I bellieve) one day. I'll be using call M0GOE. I'll post closer to the time when I know my schedule.
73,
Jerry, K5OE
>Station 2 Oscar 12 Whiskey was heard and worked on FO-29 this
>morning. QSL info is on qrz.com. This is a special event
>station celebrating the London 2012 Olympic Games. They are
>operating from IO81IJ. They should be active for several weeks.
>73,
>John K8YSE
MiR also known as Yubileiny 2 or RS-40 was built by students and research staff of the Siberian State Aerospace University.
PE0SAT reports the downlink is 435.365 MHz
http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/tag/yubileiny-2/
73 Trevor M5AKA
