Richard,
You probably didn't hear AO-27 because it was off on the passes you tried to work. Was the satellite over Canada or was it moving from north to south?
AO-27 isn't difficult to work, except that it is *very* popular (can be hard to get a word in edgewise) and is on a timer. In general, AO-27 is operational over the United States for a period of seven minutes in the afternoon passes when the satellite is traveling from south to north.
Before transmitting, make sure you can hear the satellite. If you don't hear it, it isn't turned on. When AO-27 is on and passing over the middle of the US, it will sound like a DX pile-up. Since you are in Oregon, your least crowded passes will be when AO-27 is off the west coast over the Pacific Ocean. (I've had relaxed conversations on AO-27 from Indiana when it is over the Atlantic Ocean.)
The design/assigned frequency for SO-50 is 436.800, but I've been finding it between 436.791 to 436.794 (before Doppler correction). SO-50 also requires that you transmit a 67 Hz subaudible (CTSS or PL) tone. The SO-50 transmitter is on a ten minute timer that is reset by sending a 74 Hz tone, but don't worry about it until you become familiar with the satellite. Let other stations worry about resetting the timer.
Clint Bradford, K6LCS, has some great information for hams just getting started on satellites. You can find it at www.work-sat.org .
73, Steve N9IP -- Steve Belter, Indiana Dataline Corp 427 N 6th Street, Suite C Lafayette, IN 47901-2211 Tel: (765) 269-8521 www.indiana-dataline.net
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard Grabotin Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 12:38 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-27/SO-50
I am new to satellites as of this weekend. I have worked AO-51 three times with much success. SO-50 I can hear off and on, but I am having trouble raising it. As for AO-27, I had a nice daytime direct overhead pass and heard nothing. I am using a yeasu g-5500 rotator with the AMSAT controller and ham radio deluxe. Kenwood ts-2000 for the rig and a 8 element 440 and a 4 element 2 meter antenna. The antennas are currently linear polarized since my phasing cables still have not arrived from the manufacturer.
My questions are, is AO-27 difficult to work? Is it on a schedule? Any ideas why I could not raise or hear it?
As for SO-50: Should I be listening 5khz down? Ham radio deluxe is controlling the radio frequencies and I made a custom entry for 5khz down and corrected for Doppler. This still did not seem to help.
Richard K7LWV
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