AO-16 is a very strong bird; it's one of my favorties. There is some distortion on the downlink, being that it's FM up and sideband down, which makes for some interesting RIT work, but I enjoy it very much. Sad to see that it will probably be going away soon for just awhile we hope.
73 de W4AS Sebastian
On Sep 24, 2008, at 5:53 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
Wow! This was the first time I worked AO-16. Of course I was the only one on AO-16 at this early hour.
Since I don't have any antennas up for satellites at my house (yet) I worked the satellite from my truck. I hooked up my arrow antenna to my FT-857 for receive and used a 5/8 wave vertical on my portable for the uplink. I couldn't believe how clear my 5-watt signal was making it to (and from) the bird! On that little antenna and my HT I was full quieting into AO-16!
I can't wait until the next pass!
73, Eric Christensen, W4OTN