On Mon, 11 Jan 2016 07:49:43 -0500, Paul Stoetzer n8hm@arrl.net wrote:
Congratulations! As far as the weak signals - what type of coax are you using and how long is it? Most find that the 857 or 817 don't really need a preamp to work FO-29 horizon to horizon, at least in a clear location. Coax is cheaper than a preamp, so you might want to try it. I use 6' LMR-240 jumpers myself.
That might be what the problem is, then. I hadn't put too much thought into the coax -- I was just using 3-4m lengths of regular old RG58.
LMR240 itself would be quite expensive to import, but fortunately there are Japanese-made equivalents like Fujikura 5D-SFA (113dB/km is the only figure I could find on this, if that's useful).
http://www.fujikura.co.jp/eng/products/cable/coaxial/cd1211.html
From what I know of JA satellite operation, CW is definitely more popular than SSB. The two 73 on 73 Award applications I've received from Japan have shown a large majority of the QSOs on CW.
Time to start polishing my in-head CW copy speed...
73