Hi all, it's been a while since I posted. I spent last year building up my satellite station and almost got QSO-ready, but had to rip it down to move.
I've got my original antennas back up at my house, and I'm in the process of expanding the aluminum farm as we speak.
I recorded a little bit of AO-51 audio the other evening, and encoded it to MP3 for random perusal. It's still pretty down in the noise, but I am getting clear copy at times, so I figure I can work on the station some and only improve it.
http://thearmz.net/stash/sat1.mp3
Current setup: -Icom PCR-100 receiver (I have two, one is stock, the other has 10.7 IF and discriminator out) -Homebrew 8 element 437mhz yagi (OWA design, it's pretty crude and un-tweaked, but works okay) turned with an Alliance U110 on a 12 foot mast -30 feet of some 0.405" coax that's better than RG-8, not as nice as 9913 -Ramsey PR40 $20 preamp in a junk box in the shack -TX (unsuccessful so far) is from an IC-271A through either a Diamond vertical or a dual band j-pole
This week, I finished my design plan for my 2 meter beam and plan to build it tonight and tomorrow. 6 element OWA on a 4.5' boom should let me get in with my 25 watts no problem (I do have a partial treeline to deal with, though). Right now my antennas are below my roof line so I've got that to deal with as well. I've got another 5 feet of mast in the garage ready to go up with the beam, however.
Just wanted to drop my two cents on the list and say hello (again!). I'm excited to spend the winter rebuilding and enhancing my station.
Oh, and any one of you can send me an IC-471 - I'll gladly give you my address and even pay shipping. :)
73 de KC4YLV Matt