Greetings Everyone,
Again this year, AMSAT will have a booth at the Rochester (NY) Hamfest on June 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The following Satellite Demo(s) are planned:
AOS LOS Date Day Sat UTC UTC --------- --- ----- ---- ---- 01Jun2007 Fri AO-27 1912 1926 01Jun2007 Fri AO-27 2051 2105
02Jun2007 Sat AO-51 1404 1418 02Jun2007 Sat VO-52* 1435 1446 02Jun2007 Sat VO-52* 1611 1624 02Jun2007 Sat AO-27 1844 1857 02Jun2007 Sat AO-27 2022 2037
03Jun2007 Sun AO-51 1325 1339 03Jun2007 Sun AO-51 1504 1516 03Jun2007 Sun VO-52* 1630 1642 --------------------------------- * For VO-52, I will be on (or about) 145.910 MHz
The callsign will be "N2SPI/Portable".
If you're on any of these satellites this weekend, listen for us, give us "a shout", and say hello to crowd observing the demo. We typically get a dozen, or more, interested observers.
If you're interested in the partially homemade portable station I'll be using for the FM LEO(s), go to "http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/crow". The radios I use are discussed at the end of the articles. For the Hamfest, the Hamtronics LNK-450 Preamp and Alinco DJ-S40T UHF HT will be clipped to my belt and pants pocket on my right side. The Yaesu FT-1802M (or ICOM IC-2100) 2m "mobile" will be clipped to my belt on my left side. It will be powered by a homemade NiMH battery pack of 11 "high-current" sub-C cells in my left pants pocket which easily puts out 10 amps at 14V. For SSB on VO-52, I'll be using a Yaesu FT-290 and FT-790 both clipped to my belt. This allows me to walk about looking for the best location to access a given satellite.
-Richard, N2SPI