Well, this certainly was more fun than last year.
I participated as W5SI with the Texas Emergency Amateur Communicators (TEAC) club in Kingwood, TX again this year. We doubled our satellite contacts from last year.
Our station had an unobstructed view north and south. To the east, we were next to a building so zero visibility. To the west we were blocked the first 20 degrees or so. Had to wait for the highest passes.
We started off field day working SO-50 and AO-91 on the first passes. Everything was done manually, radio tuning and LEO pack antenna turning. That makes it a little more fun as more people can be involved. Did not work a single station. By 4:00 PM I decided to head to the house. We had to have high elevation passes due to our location.
When I returned an RV had moved along side the antennas. The antennas were moved another 20 feet away and had to place the radio in the back of my car as the coax was not long enough to reach where the radio was before.
Next pass that was high for us was FO-29 in early evening around 8:30 PM. I have not worked an SSB satellite since 2001. Have been using the HT and mobile radio with the Arrow. But, heck it is like riding a bicycle. Found my downlink, cruised around and found W5RRR, my friend Andy, W5ACM, at the mic. We made a contact with them.
Next good pass for us was SO-50 later in the evening around 10:30 PM. Unplugged the power and coax cables, closed up the car and went inside for some air conditioning. Time to work SO-50. A good 14 minute pass, we should make one contact, easy as pie. Hooked up the radio and started listening, nothing. Did not hear a peep (you can see where this is going?). Pass was about 90 degrees and still nothing.
Someone looked down and said, the coax is not plugged in. Uh, huh, in my haste, forgot to plug them in. Quick which is 2m, which is 70cm. Hooked up and listening. Heard a familiar voice. Yes, last couple minutes of the pass, worked W5RRR with Andy once again at the mic. What are the chances? Out of all the stations on the air during field day, we wind up working not only someone else in the Houston area but the same station.
Murphy tried to ruin our field day, but we got over on him. Those that were there to help and watch the satellite contacts enjoyed it and as I said, we did double our score from last year. We had 2 this year. Maybe next year will use Satpc32 for radio control and double this year's score.
Be sure to get your scores into me. They are due by 11:59PM Central Time on July 9, 2018. A lot less time to submit than ARRL. We do this so that we can get our story out in the next issue of the AMSAT Journal.
73...bruce