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I will be making a trip to Las Vegas to see some vendors in a couple of weeks and am thinking about taking an ultra-lite station with me to work the FM birds the first day while I am out there. The best day I can hope to work the birds will be 4/28. Satscape indicates the following passes will be available -
SO-50 [+] 28 APR 2008 09:42:48 337 26 (AZ 046) AO-51 [+] 28 APR 2008 09:49:28 001 30 (AZ 293) SO-50 [+] 28 APR 2008 11:23:29 322 43 (AZ 249) AO-27 [+] 28 APR 2008 15:21:09 155 59 (AZ 073) AO-27 [+] 28 APR 2008 17:02:11 210 15 (AZ 269) AO-51 [+] 28 APR 2008 19:22:53 143 36 (AZ 066) AO-51 [+] 28 APR 2008 21:02:02 197 25 (AZ 269)
The times listed are in CDT, I didnt get the conversion made for PDT when I ran these calculations. I am planning on taking 2 handhelds - one for uplink and one for downlink so I can run full duplex. Planning on using 1/4 wave 2 mtr mag mount and 5/8 wave 70cm mag mount for antennas. I used DM25 as a beginning reference for the pass calcs. Will be within 2 to 3 hours of Las Vegas and North during most of the passes.
I havent flown with ham gear since before 9/11. Anything I need to know to be prepared to deal with TSA ? I plan on putting the mag antennas in the check-in luggage and will put the handhelds in a Pelican case that will have some recording gear I will be using to record some interviews for a radio show that I do. No promises that I will get to appear on any or all of the passes but I will do my best.
Thanks,
Ron KA4KYI
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Many thanks to those that replied to this message. I started the first tests today of the equipment that I hope to be taking on the trip. The way it looks right now, I will be taking two radios so that I can run full duplex. My uplink so far has been an ICOM ICT2H and the downlink is an ICOM ICU82. Today I tested using a 1/4 wave mag mount for uplink and 5/8 wave mag mount for UHF. Since the SSB birds seem to require more power than I can provide using a handheld, I will probably limit myself to the FM birds. Dont know if I will try to take one of my FT817s so I can also try AO-16. Will have to see how the testing goes.
On the passes later today or tomorrow, I will shift to using a 3 element Arrow UHF handheld antenna. I will probably take both antennas with me so that if weather is bad, I will use the UHF mag mount for downlink and if the weather is good, I will use the Arrow UHF beam. On both downlink antenna setups, I will use my ARR UHF preamp and a mode J filter to keep from having receive problems.
To keep my position reports accurate, I plan on taking a Garmin eTrex GPS so that I will know the exact grid that I am in. Dont know if I will try to take my arrow dual band antenna or not. I do have the model with the split boom model. Since I will have to put it in the checked luggage, I am thinking about using some PVC pipe and coming up with a small case that will fit in the luggage to keep the antenna from getting crushed during the flight out.
Thanks,
Ron KA4KYI
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Ronald Nutter