Joseph, sorry to hear about your sickies.....hope it wasnt the Pig Flu.
First........there are NO such things as dumb questions, as that is the only way I learn is by asking them myself.
Secondly.........all directional data given by a tracking program is using TRUE NORTH, and in my case it is 13 deg/27' inclination. I dont know if you are looking at any tracking software or not, but the popular ones are Orbitron, Satscape, Nova and SatPC32, which is what I use.
Thirdly.....the setup you are using should have no problem working into AO-51, AO-27 or SO-50 using 5 watts and an Arrow. ISS is rarely on FM voice, but more used for APRS or Packet on 145.825mhz. KG6NUB near San Francisco runs 500 miliwatts and an Arrow and does fine. Do you have another downlink receiver you can use to see if you can hear yourself come back from the bird? That is the best route, but it can still be done quite nicely using half-duplex as you are now. Just takes abit more patience. Try and see if you can find someone nearby who is also using the satellites and that will help in the instruction.
I have only been on satellites a short time myself, but it is addictive as "coke" (coca-cola that is!). It is a truely amazing mode of operation.
My first setup was a "Armstrong" AZ-EL system on a tripod. I have now graduated to some crossed-yagi's that are fixed at 25 degrees elevation and rotated with a cheap Radio Shack rotor. The antennas are at 12 feet above ground. With this setup, I am able to work 90% of the passes, with direct overhead being the hardest, due to the null on the downlink. (see photo)
Good luck and also alot of information here on the BB, just go back in the archives.
73 de John W6ZKH DM06
----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph Armbruster" josepharmbruster@gmail.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 8:28:48 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [amsat-bb] rotator questions
Hey everyone at the amtat-bb!
I spent a good portion of the day sick in bed yesterday and only naturally got to thinking about quite a few things. I figured i'd pop on here and start asking questions. Here's some background information on my sat experience; my rig consists of a TH-F6A (handheld, not full-duplex) and an arrow antenna. I have been successfull at manually trakcing the ISS and AO-51, but I have been unsuccessful at making a contact. I went out to field day (in Oviedo Florida) and was able to check out the rig the LMARS club uses. This got me wondering about sat tracking software, the internals and what definition of "North" that is used.
I'm familiar with the IGRF (from my day job as a GIS guy) and was wondering if any of these apps use the IGRF for calculating magnetic declination: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/IAGA/vmod/igrf.html
I've thought about creating my own rotator and started wondering about the configuration used. When you buy a rotator and put it out in the yard, i'm guessing you have to orient the base 'correctly'. How is the base of a rotator usually aligned? Do you get a compass out and use local magnetic north (without compensating for the declination from the IGRF).
I'm still in learning mode and very new to the world of sat, so if these are really dumb questions, my apologies!
I am open to any reading materials you can suggest on the matter.
Joseph Armrbuster, KJ4JIO _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb