OK, this is a good one. I finally found why every time I tried AO-73 I kept hearing myself coming back on the downlink real squeaky and hard to understand. No matter how I tuned. It sounded like I was splattering all over the place. Here comes the funny part. I am using a pair of earbud headphones to hear my downlink. However, I took them off for a second to reach for something. I forgot to put them back on and once again keyed up called CQ. HOLY CRAP.. I got was getting into my souround-sound system real loud and squeaky. It actually startled me. All this time I thought I was hearing myself sounding real squeaky on the downlink in my earphones and it was actually my darned stereo system in the house. I finally made my first linear contact. Woohoo.
Michael Vivona Sent from my iPad
On Aug 18, 2015, at 10:26 PM, Paul Stoetzer n8hm@arrl.net wrote:
Michael,
Nice to hear you work PV8DX right after my AOS on the 0215Z pass for your first AO-73 QSO. I tried to find you afterward, but never heard you again.
I worked AB4AN on that pass, heard a CW station that I didn't stick around long enough to identify, and also heard N5KDB, though the sat went over my building before I could work him.
Nice to hear some activity on the evening pass!
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 9:20 AM, Mvivona Mvivona@yahoo.com wrote: Clayton, Recently you may have heard me attempting to find myself on the bandpass. I am tuning manually, but can never get a clean downlink of my voice. Also, I only show up on my spectrum as a small spike and others show up nice and strong. I have tried several times to work it with not much luck. I am using an IC910H, dual Arrow antennas on rotor, no preamp yet, but my coax is quite short with about 3db loss on the 70cm and almost nothing on the 2m. On a high pass I can hear myself, but I can never get my audio to sound right. It always sounds like I'm not on frequency as my voice is always real high pitched through the tuning range. I'm hitting the bird with about 200W ERP. I thought I might be getting into my frontend with harmonics due to my antennas being only about 3 ft apart so I also tried using an eggbeater for the uplink and setting it 20ft away. Granted that dropped my ERP to about 100W, but still the same outcome, but with 100W I could barely hear my downlink. I can hear others nice and strong and they are clean sounding. I also tried a different radio just for the heck of it, but the same outcome. I use dual fed coax and switch polarity as the bird rotates. My settings are: Uplink - 435.130 - 435.150 LSB Downlink - 145.950 - 145.970 USB
Michael Vivona KC4ZVA Sent from my iPad
On Aug 18, 2015, at 8:14 AM, Clayton W5PFG w5pfg@amsat.org wrote:
One thing I might add: often I encounter stations spending a lot of time trying to find themselves on the transponder. I suspect they are trying to calibrate their SatPC32/MacDoppler/gpredict. Sadly, they spend so much time doing so that they miss out on the precious transponder time. Ditting/hola/test-test-test without sending a callsign doesn't even make for a good SWL report.
I would suggest stations NOT try using computer control and enjoy the transponder with manual control.
Chances are if you are not hearing your own downlink on AO-73, you probably either have a poor antenna/feedline OR (more likely) you are not listening in the correct corresponding downlink frequency for your uplink frequency into the transponder. AO-73 is VERY easy to hear!
73 Clayton W5PFG
On 8/17/2015 21:13, Paul Stoetzer wrote:
Good evening,
As we're nearly two months pass the Summer Solstice here in the
Northern Hemisphere, transponder time is increasing on evening passes
over North America. Here in Washington, DC, on the 0155Z pass, I had 6
minutes and 10 seconds of pass time from AOS until the satellite
entered sunlight and the transponder switched off. I heard and worked
PV8DX at my AOS, but no other stations were heard.
AO-73 is currently the only amateur satellite consistently available
during regular evening hours, even if not for an entire pass, so let's
hear some more activity! It's really quite an easy satellite to work
with the strong downlink.
73,
Paul, N8HM
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