Hi.
A great challenge for the month ahead. Good luck with finding your own signals. - A few CW dots will be easier than SSB.
One possible issue though....I used an IC706 Mk 2G for the uplink here for a while. Turned out that on transmit the synthesiser generates wideband noise across the whole VHF/UHF spectrum. It's quite low level, but it can cause issues with VHF reception if the antennas are too close together. I tried all sorts of SAW and Cavity filters but never solved the problem.
73 es Merry Christmas
David G0MRF
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff A. Boyd the2belo@msd.biglobe.ne.jp To: amsat-bb amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org Sent: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 14:50 Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-73/FUNcube mode switch.
On Fri, 18 Dec 2015 18:15:04 -0000, "Jim Heck G3WGM" jimlist@zoho.com wrote:
Just to let you know that I have just switched AO-73/FUNcube to continuous transponder mode. As previously announced, it will stay in this mode all over the holidays until Sun 3 Jan PM (UTC) when we'll switch it back to normal 'education' mode.
Perfect.
As a complete neophyte at SSB transponder operation this will give me a great opportunity, over my holiday break, to work all the bugs out of the mobile station I just built. Icom IC-706 (first generation, 1996 vintage! Yipe!) up, Yaesu FT857D down, Alaskan Arrow on a tripod with ball mount and separate feeds, old laptop running Ubuntu and SATPC32 on Wine for tracking. Whenever the CAT cable for this Icom arrives, then I'll have computer control of tuning for both rigs.
I think this operator should commit himself to achieving the goal, before this month is out, of landing a signal on AO-73 and returning it safely to the Earth.