I had a rough time of recieving the downlink tonight.. I herd a few responding to my call (cw) but the fade was just too much for my 1/4 wave vert. I did complete a QSO with K9QHO lastnight, strong-arming the uplink yagi.. following in SATPC32 and having the PC do the cw work for me with CwType. It was a bit of a comedic act.. but It was nice.... I was able to also record with my windows sound recorder. Not an easy act with an 11 ele yagi in hand .Ohh I forgot to mention that I was dooing the dopler correction myself as well, as my CW program needs com 4 as my SATpc32 does too.. and they cant share. ( using a rigblaster plug & play as a com port emulator ) If any one is interested in listening to this contact I have it uploaded to a pseudo web page I threw together on Yahoo Groups. This is where I will be putting my log book as well for a back up in case I loose the data. The yahoo group is here : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SatelliteLogBook/
This weekend I plan on constructing the framework for the base of my GME 4.5' quad pod. It will be ground monuted.. and then I can work on figuring out a rotor option. Being one that hates to do things in a 1/2 donkey mannor.. This may have to wait a bit because I dont want to cut corners on quality... and the Yaesu 5500 seems as the only viable option.. especially if I want ease of installation/use and computer interface. Being ground mounted is going to be my saving grace as if I have a problem.. it will literally be right outside my window.
73's for now Steve Raas N2JDQ FN20vg