Newbie in Satellite for Amateur Com
Hi,
I'm a newbie for amateur satellite stuff, and I want to gain a deep knowledge and experience in it.
I have a 2-meter band VHF transceiver handheld radio, and has 5 watt for the output power. Can I use the radio to communicate with any satellites that support VHF?
And please direct me to the resource that I need to start building my first small station. Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
Situs Panesse
Your radio may work for listening and working the ISS, and if it has PL tones it will work for an uplink to SO-50. Maybe a few other things too.
Take a look at the AMSAT web store for "Getting Started on the Amateur Satellites". For a very modest donation, you'll get the best primer around.
Got a callsign yet?
73, Drew KO4MA
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 10, 2012, at 2:19 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hi,
I'm a newbie for amateur satellite stuff, and I want to gain a deep knowledge and experience in it.
I have a 2-meter band VHF transceiver handheld radio, and has 5 watt for the output power. Can I use the radio to communicate with any satellites that support VHF?
And please direct me to the resource that I need to start building my first small station. Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
Situs Panesse _______________________________________________ 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 10/10/2012 02:19 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hi,
I'm a newbie for amateur satellite stuff, and I want to gain a deep knowledge and experience in it.
It's very old and hard to find, but The Satellite Experimenters Handbook by Martin Davidoff K2UBC will give you fundamental knowledge on satellites, orbits, tracking, antennas, feedlines, etc. The book is old, but the laws of celestial mechanics haven't changed.
I have a 2-meter band VHF transceiver handheld radio, and has 5 watt for the output power. Can I use the radio to communicate with any satellites that support VHF?
You will need to operate on two bands, to work satellite. I can't think of any satellites offhand that operate on a single band. You will use one band to transmit TO the bird (uplink) and a separate band to receive sigs FROM the bird (downlink).
Can you get some 70cm gear? If you can transmit/receive both VHF 2M and UHF 70cm, you can operate Mode-B (70cm UPlink and 2M DOWNlink) or Mode_J (2M UPlink and 70cm DOWNlink). Some birds operate FM, some use a linear transponder for use with CW/SSB. It's *possible* to run FM through a linear transponder but it's frowned upon because it hits the satellite batteries harder, not to mention bogarts the passband.
Failing this, if you have an HF rig and know CW, you could try AO-7 via Mode-A (VHF 2M up, HF 10M down). Put a key across the PTT line of an FM rig, disconnect the mic (no modulation of the carrier) and you have a poor-man's CW rig on 2M. Listen to your sigs and hopefully a few replies on your HF rig.
And please direct me to the resource that I need to start building my first small station. Thank you in advance.
Well, once you have gear for two bands, you will need antennas. A rubber duckie is workable, but far from ideal. Popular these days are small, hand-held yagis, of various designs. But you could experiment with other designs, such as the quadrifilar helix, the turnstile, the lindenblad, and so forth.
How do you wish to operate? Portable, from all over the place? From your own back yard? Out of your shack?
All good information from Gus however I note as an exception that you can work ISS Unproto Packet on 145.825 with a Single band FM radio and single antenna...There are directions somewhere for an EZ homemade beam that another might be able to pull out the link for.
Roger WA1KAT
On 10/10/2012 8:30 PM, Gus 8P6SM wrote:
I have a 2-meter band VHF transceiver handheld radio, and has 5 watt for the output power. Can I use the radio to communicate with any satellites that support VHF?
participants (4)
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Andrew Glasbrenner -
Gus 8P6SM -
Roger -
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