I have been following most of the recent post's on Sat usage and I gather the main topic was the lack of use on the linear bird's. I think working the FM sat's (or lack of) are always fun and always have been. I am dying to work AO-7 for sure and VO-52, FO-29 but gave up trying to do so without the right equipment. I tried several times with an FT-857 and presets, heard people many time's but could not keep up with tuning and punching button's. Frustration overcame my desire to even try, knowing mostly that without the proper rig's I was just not going to fulfill my aching for these wondrous long passes with more than just a grid exchange.
Which brings me to the point: Lack of money, you can get on the FM bird's with an Arrow and a Hand Held, I get a minute or so on my mobile! So what is the cheapest "proper" entry on the linear birds? Full duplex I found very nice on the FM sat's though I do not always have that luxury. An 857 run's what 8-900 buck's and I do not think even two of those would be very good?
Let's change the topic a bit and ask the elmer's how to help us younger and or newer guy's get on the Linear Satellite's instead of reminiscing what once was or the lack of use of these great bird's that still live!!!
Kevin KF7MYK
Hi Kevin...look out for the Icom "twins", the IC-271a/471a. I used such a set up for years. Probably not much more that a couple of hundred bucks apiece. They or a similar variant can be had for really quite reasonable, via hamfest, ebay etc. Not computer useable, you have to use that "big" knob. My first antennas were home brewed quagis with a real cheapie rotor with the antennas tilted up about 20 degrees. there there's always a way!
73 Bob W7LRD
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Deane" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 11:58:46 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Satellite's
I have been following most of the recent post's on Sat usage and I gather the main topic was the lack of use on the linear bird's. I think working the FM sat's (or lack of) are always fun and always have been. I am dying to work AO-7 for sure and VO-52, FO-29 but gave up trying to do so without the right equipment. I tried several times with an FT-857 and presets, heard people many time's but could not keep up with tuning and punching button's. Frustration overcame my desire to even try, knowing mostly that without the proper rig's I was just not going to fulfill my aching for these wondrous long passes with more than just a grid exchange.
Which brings me to the point: Lack of money, you can get on the FM bird's with an Arrow and a Hand Held, I get a minute or so on my mobile! So what is the cheapest "proper" entry on the linear birds? Full duplex I found very nice on the FM sat's though I do not always have that luxury. An 857 run's what 8-900 buck's and I do not think even two of those would be very good?
Let's change the topic a bit and ask the elmer's how to help us younger and or newer guy's get on the Linear Satellite's instead of reminiscing what once was or the lack of use of these great bird's that still live!!!
Kevin KF7MYK
_______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. 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
--- On Wed, 29/8/12, Kevin Deane [email protected] wrote:
I am dying to work AO-7 for sure and VO-52, FO-29 but gave up trying to do so without the right equipment.
Yes full duplex is a must for working linear sats. If you already have an FT-857 you've already got the "hard part", generating SSB on 70 cm, sorted. All you need is a separate receiver.
A $20 RTL2832-E4000 TV Dongle would appear the cheapest way of achieving that, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTh4DAmMzrM
I've never used that dongle myself but it may well provide sufficient performance to receive a 2m satellite downlink. Has anyone used one to receive amateur linear sats ?
73 Trevor M5AKA
There is no problem receiving the linear sats with the Dongles. The dongle offers a big advantage in that you can see the whole 'band' at once and spot people very quickly. SSB and CW reception is great. The doppler correction with SDR-Radio works as well as the gold standard SatPC32.
The extIO stuff for the cheap dongles are still in the early stages and very geeky but they do for the most part work. The FCD is a much more mature product so I have been working with that and waiting for the other dongles to catch up.
Problems with integrating with transmitter control remains. SDR-Radio links with external radios but I have been unable to figure out how to offset the transmit frequency. I am currently working with HDSDR and controlling it with and none other than SatPC32. HDSDR appears to be a bit more flexible interms of connections with other gear. Omni-Rig support is built into HDSDR and works great but has the same limitations as SDR-Radio external radio control.
The other problem which is not as difficult is the front end overload problem with the dongle. The sensitivity of the dongle is excellent but the front end selectivity is almost non-existent. Filtering is necessary and even with a 70 cm tuned cavity I am still having desense that makes hearing the downlink difficult.
I am close to a SatPC32 <-> dongle system but there is probably someone with a much better 'simple' or even a 'very simple' solution. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has actually achieved fully synchronized doppler corrected transmit control with a dongle for the receiver. A reply offline would be best to prevent flames.
As Steve Jobs liked to say "Just one more thing". The new AMSAT store looks great. Take a look if you have not seen it. Thanks to those who built it and thanks to Martha for keeping things going while it was down.
73 W9KE tom...
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 5:28 AM, Trevor . [email protected] wrote:
--- On Wed, 29/8/12, Kevin Deane [email protected] wrote:
I am dying to work AO-7 for sure and VO-52, FO-29 but gave up trying to do so without the right equipment.
Yes full duplex is a must for working linear sats. If you already have an FT-857 you've already got the "hard part", generating SSB on 70 cm, sorted. All you need is a separate receiver.
A $20 RTL2832-E4000 TV Dongle would appear the cheapest way of achieving that, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTh4DAmMzrM
I've never used that dongle myself but it may well provide sufficient performance to receive a 2m satellite downlink. Has anyone used one to receive amateur linear sats ?
73 Trevor M5AKA
Sent via [email protected]. 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
Hi Tom,
There will be an article coming up in the AMSAT Journal on work that W1GHZ, W1FKF and I have done on tapping the common IF in the FT-817 and using the FunCube as a Panadapter. Our primary application is weak signal microwave.
I would think it would work well for satellite. That way your software would be controlling an FT-817. The common IF is centered on 68.33 MHz in the FT-817, so you see +/- 40 kHz around that. You would be able to take advantage of all the front end filtering in the FT-817.
73, Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 "A closed mouth gathers no feet"
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Doyle" [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite's
I am close to a SatPC32 <-> dongle system but there is probably someone with a much better 'simple' or even a 'very simple' solution. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has actually achieved fully synchronized doppler corrected transmit control with a dongle for the receiver. A reply offline would be best to prevent flames.
Hi Mike,
I have two radios that have a built in panadapter and have used the dongle as a stand alone panadapter. The problem is all the panadapters I have used or read about, other than SDR based gear like the Flex radios, do not have a connection between the panadapter and the frequency control of the radio. With an SDR receiver you click on the waterfall or spectrum display and the radio is tuned to that frequency. That is what I am trying to do and that bit you get for free with an SDR receiver the hard the part I am trying to solve is controlling the transmit frequency (including doppler correction and offset) when using linear sats. The only way I have been able to do this so far is to use SDR-Radio with its built in doppler correction for the receiver and my IC-7000 as a transmitter under the doppler corrected frequency control of SatPC32. This works but changing the frequency on the SDR does not adjust the transmit freq. I am hoping someone has actually done this as I have never been a big fan of reinventing the wheel.
The FT-817 is a very cool rig and I will be very interested to see how you control the FT-817 frequency from the panadapter - that is the tricky bit since the panadapter does not have to even know what frequency you are receiving. It should be possible to poll the panadapter for the offset of the frequency you have clicked on and add that to the FT-817 frequency and feed it back into the FT-817. I am sure you guys have come up with something. Thanks for writing the article. I look forward to reading it.
73 W9KE Tom Doyle
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:18 AM, Mike Seguin N1JEZ [email protected] wrote:
Hi Tom,
There will be an article coming up in the AMSAT Journal on work that W1GHZ, W1FKF and I have done on tapping the common IF in the FT-817 and using the FunCube as a Panadapter. Our primary application is weak signal microwave.
I would think it would work well for satellite. That way your software would be controlling an FT-817. The common IF is centered on 68.33 MHz in the FT-817, so you see +/- 40 kHz around that. You would be able to take advantage of all the front end filtering in the FT-817.
73, Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 "A closed mouth gathers no feet"
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Doyle" [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite's
I am close to a SatPC32 <-> dongle system but there is probably someone with a much better 'simple' or even a 'very simple' solution. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has actually achieved fully synchronized doppler corrected transmit control with a dongle for the receiver. A reply offline would be best to prevent flames.
Hi Tom,
The "uplink" connection in the panadapter seems to be the missing piece right now, but truthfully, I have not looked lately to see what's available.
I can tell you that HDSDR and Omni Rig work well with the FT-817 and the FUNcube. In HDSDR, the tuning controls the FT-817 (and tuning the FT-817 manually updates HDSDR) and behind the scenes, HDSDR locks the FUNcube to 68.33 (or whatever you set it to use - I use 68.32 to get away from the DC offset spike). But, no doppler control.
I guess if I were going to do it, I'd tap the common IF of my FT-847. Then use SatPC as usual to control the 847 and HDSDR to just display the FUNcube. I wouldn't have full integration, but I'd be able to see most of the passband and could simply tune the 847 to receive the downlink. SatPC would compensate for uplink Doppler.
I could probably do the same with an FT-817 or two of them....
Having the ability to see other signals in a +/- 40 kHz window (for those weak signals off frequency) was the big plus for us working microwave and I could see it being a big help in satellite work as well.
73, Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 "A closed mouth gathers no feet"
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Doyle" [email protected] Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite's
Hi Mike,
I have two radios that have a built in panadapter and have used the dongle as a stand alone panadapter. The problem is all the panadapters I have used or read about, other than SDR based gear like the Flex radios, do not have a connection between the panadapter and the frequency control of the radio. With an SDR receiver you click on the waterfall or spectrum display and the radio is tuned to that frequency. That is what I am trying to do and that bit you get for free with an SDR receiver the hard the part I am trying to solve is controlling the transmit frequency (including doppler correction and offset) when using linear sats. The only way I have been able to do this so far is to use SDR-Radio with its built in doppler correction for the receiver and my IC-7000 as a transmitter under the doppler corrected frequency control of SatPC32. This works but changing the frequency on the SDR does not adjust the transmit freq. I am hoping someone has actually done this as I have never been a big fan of reinventing the wheel.
The FT-817 is a very cool rig and I will be very interested to see how you control the FT-817 frequency from the panadapter - that is the tricky bit since the panadapter does not have to even know what frequency you are receiving. It should be possible to poll the panadapter for the offset of the frequency you have clicked on and add that to the FT-817 frequency and feed it back into the FT-817. I am sure you guys have come up with something. Thanks for writing the article. I look forward to reading it.
73 W9KE Tom Doyle
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:18 AM, Mike Seguin N1JEZ [email protected] wrote:
Hi Tom,
There will be an article coming up in the AMSAT Journal on work that W1GHZ, W1FKF and I have done on tapping the common IF in the FT-817 and using the FunCube as a Panadapter. Our primary application is weak signal microwave.
I would think it would work well for satellite. That way your software would be controlling an FT-817. The common IF is centered on 68.33 MHz in the FT-817, so you see +/- 40 kHz around that. You would be able to take advantage of all the front end filtering in the FT-817.
73, Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 "A closed mouth gathers no feet"
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Doyle" [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite's
I am close to a SatPC32 <-> dongle system but there is probably someone with a much better 'simple' or even a 'very simple' solution. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has actually achieved fully synchronized doppler corrected transmit control with a dongle for the receiver. A reply offline would be best to prevent flames.
--
Sent from my computer.
tom ...
participants (5)
-
Bob- W7LRD -
Kevin Deane -
Mike Seguin N1JEZ -
Thomas Doyle -
Trevor .