Jerry,
This is the ham equivalent of Charlie Brown's kite eating tree. Somehow no matter what you do, a tree limb (which hopefully you do not have in the attic), cable, or control cable will reach out and snag someone.
73s,
Alan WA4SCA
<-----Original Message----- <From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jerry Buxton <Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 9:03 PM <To: AMSAT-BB [email protected] <Subject: [amsat-bb] Murphy < <Well, the launch and deploy went without an apparent hitch and given the <presence of Murphy throughout the Fox-1A project up through delivery I <thought that was pretty amazing if not downright spooky. < <My qualms were settled tonight when Murphy was back, this time on the <first pass that I have had an opportunity to copy AO-85 on my own. I <set up at home to do just telemetry, and when she rose the signal was <horrible to say the least. It did get a little better as things went on <and pretty good at 30+ degrees of elevation but still pretty weak. < <Having read reports that ranged from "outstanding" to "disappointed" I <thought I was finally finding out for sure what we had done. < <So I tried manually moving the antennas thinking that if the keps are a <little off that might help. < <That's when I noticed that the antennas weren't moving. Still pointed <southwest, maybe 45 degrees elevation, even though the satellite was <passing up high to the west. <I ran up to the attic and lo, the very dual band Diamond vertical <antenna that I had borrowed from the Hood County Club and placed in the <attic for testing Fox-1Cliff/D on the air, was caught in the elements of <my 70 cm antenna! The antenna was pointed north-northeast at 45 degrees <elevation and the rotator had been turning the mast within the tripod so <it thought it was pointing southwest/west. I guess I've been off the <birds long enough that it never occurred to me that where I placed it <was duh, not a good location when you start swinging long beams around. < <How's that for comedy? Fox-1D (current configuration in the Labs <running on that Diamond antenna) takes down my Fox-1A pass out of sheer <jealousy! :-D < <The good news was, I was copying telemetry even though the satellite was <generally off the back or 90 degrees above the beam of the antenna. And <when it came into the beam, it was loud and clear as I had expected, <although it faded as it set and I could not track it but lowering the <elevation since azimuth was hosed. < <It's good to be back in the realm of ham radio where anything that can <go wrong, will! < <-- <Jerry Buxton, N?JY < <_______________________________________________ <Sent via [email protected]. 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