Hi Luc,
No satellite capability at present but I can confirm for anyone on the BB who hasn't tried it, transatlantic contacts are perfectly possible via AO-51. With most of Europe out of the footprint you will probably have the satellite to yourselves.
Another great time to try, when the passes are sutiable is around midnight UTC into western USA and Canada. 5W is plenty. Just Nortyh amarica, Scandinavia and Scotland in the footprint.
73 John G7HIA
________________________________ From: Luc Leblanc lucleblanc6@videotron.ca To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Cc: eu-amsat@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, 11 December, 2009 9:36:21 Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 trasatlantic QSO possible now
Each 3 days AO-51 footprint reach eastern NA and Europe. This "very early" morning pass here at 0855 UTC put in range of the east of North America (me...at least): Northern Europe and most of Scandinavia. The next similar pass will be on Monday December 14 at 0837 UTC. This pass will cover from a line starting at the South of Spain to the north border of Italy covering near the whole western European continent UK as well Scandinavia will also be in range.
Signal on this morning low pass about 7 deg here was Q5 S6 to S7. If there is any takers i can set my alarm clock to be QRV next Monday morning but i know it is a working day could be not the best pass to have a lot of stations but it is not a too bad thing considering the limitation of a one channel sat.
Best time to have a look over the Atlantic from FN36KA.
"-"
Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe DSTAR urcall VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE
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