I made a QSO on one of the XW2-F last week.
On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 12:51 PM Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
On 2020-01-28 18:29, RG via AMSAT-BB wrote:
I have had trouble hearing XW satellites lately.I have a Kenwood ts 2000
and for some reason don't hearing much if anything.I used to hear the beacon pretty loud at least for a few moments and most of the pass okay but not as much.I was wondering if other Op's. are having the same problem.Maybe I need to set up my 706 as a receive radio,It worked good.I dont have any problems with the Kenwood working other modes.It would be nice to use one radio.I run a vertical and realize it's not the best set up but again I haven't had this problem in the past.Just looking for some opinions.Thanks a lot73RichKB1FGC
marzo7088@yahoo.com
Hello RG,
Having just gotten a 2m antenna set up, which has been sitting in the shed for years, I did hear XW-2E today.
The CW beacon was doing odd things, like stopping mid-key and then returning to transmit with an upward-sweeping constant tone before resuming the CW beacon.
It might be that they're hitting some sort of low-voltage reset condition and coming back online when the load is briefly removed.
All of this was heard with a 2m copper-pipe J-pole at perhaps 15 feet in the attic, attached to ~40 feet of RG-8X. The beacon was easily copyable from 1-2 degrees to 22 degrees (highest elevation for the pass). A small J310 preamp awaits installation on another day.
Ideally, you'll want some sort of directional-gain antenna for receive. Ken Britain has a simple DIY antenna that can be assembled on the cheap:
https://www.wa5vjb.com/references/Cheap%20Antennas-LEOs.pdf
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