--- On Wed, 7/30/08, w7lrd@comcast.net w7lrd@comcast.net wrote:
John-Will you be on AO-7? It is possible to work CN87 (Seattle). Takes timing, planning and luck!. 73 Bob W7LRD
You're right, Seattle should not be hard on AO-7. There's even some theoretical overlap of 0.8 minutes from the Shetlands to Redding, California (thus 49 states), but you'd better have good horizons and a good receiving setup. I'll be seeing if that much overlap might be enough to make it to Alaska on AO-51 (as Iceland has been worked from there without sked).
What it really came down to was size/weight and how to compensate for doppler on the uplink, as the SSB rig that i've been offered doesn't have computer control. Even if it did, there are too many software issues to solve prior to travel and i'd need to take the docking station (nearly doubling the computer's weight) if i needed a real serial port. But what it really comes down to is that don't want to carry any more weight (that is assuming the rig[s] would even fit in my luggage), as it does not make sense to have a car for the third of the trip that we're in Edinburgh or Glasgow. So unless someone in the SF Bay Area (or Scotland) can offer a better idea, higher orbit LEO's won't happen this trip.
"if this were easy, everyone would be doing it"
Yeah, maybe next trip i'll have access to suitable equipment. I've been talking to another local ham about a small dsPIC-based SSB transmitter and/or receiver. But even if hardware existed a month ago, it's unlikely the software issues would have been solved in time... It's too bad that Yubileiny doesn't have mode J-FM. Maybe someday someone else can put up something more useful into that kind of an orbit.
-- KD6PAG