Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
I've been working sats off and on for many years. I must admit that I haven't done much since RS-12/13 and RS-15 went silent. I believe that if we had more "easy sats" with Mode VHF up and HF down they might be more popular. Tuning and alignment weren't as critical.
Just my two cents or so.
Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE Grid EL09uf Eagle Creek Observatory http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org I've stopped asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people are taking it as a challenge.
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Les Rayburn Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:32 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
Contrarily... I believe if we had more "hard" sats that would present more of a challenge to many. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer! 73 Bob W7LRD
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE" kevin@eaglecreekobservatory.org To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 2:48:19 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The "Good Ole Days" are now
I've been working sats off and on for many years. I must admit that I haven't done much since RS-12/13 and RS-15 went silent. I believe that if we had more "easy sats" with Mode VHF up and HF down they might be more popular. Tuning and alignment weren't as critical.
Just my two cents or so.
Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE Grid EL09uf Eagle Creek Observatory http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org I've stopped asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people are taking it as a challenge.
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Les Rayburn Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:32 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
Amen, I second that motion...
Third word hams who do not have 70cm rigs can work the sats more easily (70cm FM gear is very rare here, not to mention SSB)
The 2m uplink is workable with transverters and HF multimode CAT capable rigs are almost ubiquitous for the 10m downlink
73
El 18/09/13 17:48, Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE escribió:
I've been working sats off and on for many years. I must admit that I haven't done much since RS-12/13 and RS-15 went silent. I believe that if we had more "easy sats" with Mode VHF up and HF down they might be more popular. Tuning and alignment weren't as critical.
Just my two cents or so.
Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE Grid EL09uf Eagle Creek Observatory http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org I've stopped asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people are taking it as a challenge.
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Les Rayburn Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:32 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
I miss RS-6 and RS-8 .... sniff ....
On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 2:58 AM, Pavel Milanes Costa co7wt@frcuba.co.cuwrote:
Amen, I second that motion...
Third word hams who do not have 70cm rigs can work the sats more easily (70cm FM gear is very rare here, not to mention SSB)
The 2m uplink is workable with transverters and HF multimode CAT capable rigs are almost ubiquitous for the 10m downlink
73
El 18/09/13 17:48, Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE escribió:
I've been working sats off and on for many years. I must admit that I haven't done much since RS-12/13 and RS-15 went silent. I believe that if we had more "easy sats" with Mode VHF up and HF down they might be more popular. Tuning and alignment weren't as critical.
Just my two cents or so.
Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE Grid EL09uf Eagle Creek Observatory http://www.**eaglecreekobservatory.orghttp://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org I've stopped asking "How stupid can you be?" Some people are taking it as a challenge.
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@**amsat.orgamsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Les Rayburn Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 3:32 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] The "Good Ole Days" are now
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
______________________________**_________________
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I did the same... I worked the the FM sats. I started with a IC 821 until it crapped out on me. I was on AO40 and it worked well until the radio went south. I got a IC910H and I already had SatPC32 so the two worked very well together. I have a second IC910H that I use for terrestrial comms. I have a 23cm module in the first one. I have been having a great time working FO29, VO52, AO7 and SO50. SatPC32 does great in controlling the radio and rotor.
73, Dale-KL7XJ AMSAT Area Coordinator Alaska On 9/18/2013 12:31 PM, Les Rayburn wrote:
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
Well said, Les!
I've been having a blast ever since getting my minimal satellite station put together, even though I'm in a really terrible situation for it (urban environment surrounded by buildings, high noise, 152 MHz pager transmitters a quarter mile away, and a military spread spectrum radiolocation system crackling all over 70cm).
I'm using a Yaesu FT-817ND for the uplink, an Icom IC-R10 for the downlink, and an Arrow antenna. I had to add a PAR Electronics 152 MHz notch filter to keep the pager transmitters from overloading my receiver, the AMSAT Broadband Preamp to compensate for the relative deafness of the IC-R10 (at least on 435 MHz), and an MFJ duplexer to cure desense when operating Mode J. I carry the radios in a small tablet bag around my neck, go outside into the parking lot/courtyard of my building, and work the passes. It's a lot of fun. I finally got everything going just under a month ago and have made 56 QSOs, including some DX like CO6CBF, YV6BFE, and PV8DX. Almost worked EI3GRB and EA8HB (both of whom heard me, but just couldn't complete the QSOs). Even made a Mode A QSO on AO-7 with AC0RA using an AlexLoop Walkham Portable Magnetic Loop to receive the 10m downlink.
Sure a HEO would be great (I've checked the pass predictions for AO-10 and AO-40 and my south facing balcony would work wonderfully) and I look forward to the challenge of assembling a HEO station when the day finally comes that we are able to get a launch. I think a great compromise would be a bird in a similar orbit of the old RS birds (30 min passes and being able to work deep into Europe and out to Hawaii on a regular basis would be great), but as Frank, K4FEG, likes to say, I'll work whatever's up there until the antennas burn off during reentry.
See everyone on the 0101Z pass of FO-29!
73,
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Washington, DC (FM18)
On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 4:31 PM, Les Rayburn les@highnoonfilm.com wrote:
Like many hams (I suspect), I dreamed of working satellites for decades. Followed them with at least a passing interest but always seemed to put them off till "someday". Even during the craze of the "work satellites with your handheld", I was distracted by other priorities. When I got involved in VHF/UHF a few years ago, and purchased an Icom IC-910H, I kept thinking I'd finally pull the trigger. But years passed without anything other than weak-signal contacts being made on that rig.
A few months ago, I finally decided to give it a try. Downloaded SATPC32, and updated my keps. FO-29 was the next satellite coming my way, so when I was inside the footprint, I tuned around a bit, and found some stations coming in. Cool! I was actually hearing hams on satellite---next up was answering a CQ...nervously I pushed the PTT on the mic.
82 grids and a few hundred contacts later, I'm having a ball!
I don't miss the birds that came before, but just enjoy what we have now. My only complaint might be that more folks are not active on F0-29 and VO-52. Even SO-50 can be nearly empty after midnight.
My understanding is that within the next year we'll have 2 or 3 more linear LEO satellites, and possibly another FM bird, right? While we may not work a lot of DX on those, we should get to the point where no one has to wait long for "something" to be overhead. That's exciting to me!
AMSAT is staffed with wonderful volunteers, and seems to be doing great work. I'm thrilled to be a member, even if it is #38965.
The good ole days are now. Get on the birds and make some contacts. I need your grid! (ha, ha)
--
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF 121 Mayfair Park Maylene, AL 35114 EM63nf
6M VUCC #1712 AMSAT #38965 Grid Bandits #222 Southeastern VHF Society Central States VHF Society Life Member Six Club #2484
Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light
______________________________**_________________ 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-bbhttp://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (7)
-
Bob- W7LRD -
Dale Hershberger -
Kevin Muenzler, WB5RUE -
Les Rayburn -
Paul Stoetzer -
Pavel Milanes Costa -
Rob