Just got on the ISS repeater - L band up and V band down from FN34 here in Vermont. I used full power here. 80 watts in the shack to a 55 el 1269 Directive Systems loop yagi. Transmission line is 75' of 7/8" hardline.
Results were mixed. The pass was 25 degrees max here. I had little to no success as the ISS was ascending. I opened the repeater a couple of times. I'm not sure if this was because other stations were trying and we were clobbering each other or not. As the ISS was going overhead, it appeared that the polarity was shifting rapidly as I would open the repeater for just a word or two. I did hear Clare, VE3NPC briefly. As the ISS was descending, things got better and I was able to consistently open the repeater, but nobody came back.... I could not access the repeater below 10 degrees....
If anyone else was on and trying, can you let me know? I'd like to see if that was the reason I couldn't access the repeater as it was ascending. One other observation, I found the doppler correction to be pretty critical. I've seen this when running low power into AO-51 for tests.
I hope to try a few more passes this week.
73, Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 "A closed mouth gathers no feet"