Hi!
Ysterday's Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club hamfest in Phoenix AZ was a great event. A new outdoor location (it had been indoors for the past few years), along with great weather, brought out a good crowd for the morning. I was out there with an AMSAT table, and gave demonstrations using two SO-50 passes and a VO-52 pass. There were good crowds for the demonstrations, as usual.
Around 1415 UTC, I had overlapping passes on SO-50 and VO-52. Since the VO-52 pass had a maximum elevation of only 7 degrees, I opted to work the SO-50 pass with maximum elevation of 21 degrees. This was a good choice, as it allowed 8 stations from across the central and eastern USA along with Canada and Cuba to say "hello" to the hamfest crowd at that hour.
Just before 1600 UTC, I had passes on VO-52 and SO-50 that did not overlap as much. This allowed me to work VO-52 at 1550-1603 UTC, then switch over to SO-50 for the remainder of that pass. For these two passes, I used an FT-817ND as my transmit radio and a Kenwood TH-F6A for the receiver. I was able to work 4 stations on the VO-52 pass, and 3 of those 4 stations moved over to SO-50 where I was able to work them again.
When working SSB via satellite, I try to show that it can be done with equipment that is not terribly expensive. Both the FT-817 and TH-F6A have been manufactured for over a decade, and are plentiful on the resale market. The FT-817 and FT-817ND can be computer controlled, where the TH-F6A can't. In the field, this combination is one option to work more than just the FM satellites. When I switched from VO-52 to SO-50, I changed the frequencies on the two radios, and swapped the coax connected to the 2m and 70cm ports on my diplexer, so I was not transmitting into the wrong port on the diplexer.
I was recorded working part of the 1603 UTC SO-50 pass yesterday. Thanks to Chris N7ICE, that video is on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5CaLvpAcJQ
AMSAT did very well at the hamfest as well. Lots of the WA4SXM Getting Started with Amateur Satellites books flew off the table, along with one new member. Thanks to the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club for providing AMSAT with a space at the hamfest, as they have done for the past several years. And, as always, thanks to everyone who called WD9EWK during those demonstrations. :-)
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/