OK, fair enough.. In my case this was a morning (10:15 EST) ascending pass on saturday 2/13. I was located at BWI airport and AOS was slightly to the southwest. I worked the satellite when it was west of me just short of mid pass at a little over 30 degrees. The station I worked was in Vermont who commented I had a good signal into the satellite. This is all subjective and not very accurate but I also didn't plan on working the satellite, it was completely opportunistic. - Howie AB2S
From: bruninga@usna.edu Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 19:55:52 -0500 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Recent AO-85 Observations (where???)
Argh!...
These testimonials of when people heard the satellite and what it took to hit and where it was in their pass are -meaningless- unless you say where you are relative to the millions of square miles of the country!
Someone on the west coast will have more than 10 dB better chance with any satelillite RISING from over the pacific, and someone on the EAST coast will have more than a 10 dB better change of a SETTING satellite over the Atlantic. But unless people say where they are relative to the 3D geometry of the pass, and the rest of the mass of users and RFI from 350 million other people and their part-15 emissions, any such reports make no sense to anyone else. The guys in the Midwest in most of a pass will have a hard time ALWAYS.
People need to think in terms of WHERE the satellite is with respect to the other 700,000 hams in the country before any comments on link quality can make much sense.
The satellite on one's horizon and 1500 miles away is only 500 miles above SOMEONE ELSE. That's 10 dB right there...
Soap box off. Bob, WB4APR
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Howie DeFelice Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 10:42 AM To: Paul Stoetzer; Clayton W5PFG Cc: AMSAT-BB Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Recent AO-85 Observations
For what it's worth, I worked AO-85 for the first time this Saturday morning while sitting in the car using a 19" whip and Yeasu 857. I could hear the satellite almost at AOS but waited to transmit until sat was above 30 deg elevation since the 19" whip was 3/4 wavelength at the uplink freq. Got in the first time and made contact with N1JEZ. I never bothered to check SWR on this antenna and from the radio display power is down considerably. I did notice fading as well.
- Howie AB2S
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 09:13:40 -0500 From: n8hm@arrl.net To: w5pfg@amsat.org CC: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Recent AO-85 Observations
Clayton,
I have observed the same. Over the past couple of months, on directly overhead or ascending passes to the east, I could never get in until about TCA using about 20 watts to an Arrow antenna. On overhead descending passes or to the west, I could not get in after TCA.
Now, over the past few days, it's been much easier to work horizon to horizon, but the fading is much worse throughout the pass and I am constantly twisting to try to regain the downlink. Some times, neither polarity works.
According to DK3WN's Illum program, AO-85 will be in constant sunlight until 2/25. We'll see if it returns to it's previous patterns after that.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Clayton W5PFG w5pfg@amsat.org wrote:
For the past several days, I have observed the following:
- On ascending passes, I can activate the transponder at AOS very
easily.
Either polarity V or H works.
- Previously, I needed 10-15 degrees at times on ascending passes to
activate the transponder. As I approached TCA, the challenge getting in always went away and I could get into the transponder
easily.
- Descending passes have never been an issue for me. I could access
the transponder at AOS and activate the transponder as low as 0.1 degrees elevation.
- Downlink receive polarity seems to flip almost constantly or be
equal at times. I'm running a V or H antenna configuration (not RHCP or LHCP.)
- Suspected reason is the spacecraft's spin rate has changed with it
now in constant sun.
- As a result I'm hearing some newer stations working AO-85 with
handheld transceivers. I've worked 2 new stations in the last 2 days who emailed me directly after the pass stating they were seeing
some success with an HT.
Thoughts/comments?
73 Clayton W5PFG
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Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
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Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb