WD9EWK's first time on AO-51 V/S tonight
Hi!
I've had an AIDC 3731 downconverter, one converted by K5GNA, for just over a year. I haven't used it until tonight, when I had some free time in the evening. I took it and a bunch of stuff to my stepson's Boy Scout meeting (a church in grid DM43ap, northeast Phoenix), and hoped to work an AO-51 pass while he was in his meeting.
After a storm blew through Phoenix (it kept me off an SO-50 pass around 0220 UTC), the skies cleared enough to make a try at the AO-51 pass around 0320 UTC. I set up my station, and waited for the satellite.
TX was my IC-W32A HT at 5W, turning off the 70cm side of the radio, into my Arrow Antennas 2m/70cm handheld Yagi. RX was with the downconverter into a Yaesu VX-2R (I could disable TX on this radio, to protect the downconverter - plus it had an attenuator). I had a 6dB attenuator in the coax line, along with the VX-2R's attenuator function, so the S-meter wasn't moving much until I heard the satellite. Once I found the downlink, it wasn't hard to keep up with it through the pass. I let the downconverter with its dipole and corner reflector sit on the car's roof, and had a splitter from the VX-2R's speaker-mic jack to feed an earpiece and my Sony digital recorder.
I heard one QSO finish up, then I made a call. Angelo N5UXT in New Orleans heard me and I worked him first, then I was called by WA4EWV. I heard a W9HT toward the end of the pass, but could not work that station. I could follow the Doppler on the RX signal well enough, and every so often the signal would take a dip and then come back up. If I held the downconverter and twisted it, I could get the signal back up, but most of the time I just set it on the roof in the general direction of AO-51 and held the Yagi in one hand and a speaker-mic into my IC-W32A with the other hand. I really wish I had a small camera or camcorder with me, to get a photo of my "station", but at least I have an audio recording of the pass with my 2 contacts.
I am impressed with how well the downconverter worked, and with AO-51 in this V/S configuration. This was the first time I did anything that used a ham frequency above 23cm. I'm hoping to have some time Friday morning to work an AO-51 pass and try this again, but if that's not possible I want to work some passes this weekend before the mode change. This was fun!
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - Phoenix, Arizona USA http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Well done, Patrick! Lots of folks with much fancier stations do not have as much success.
Perhaps you could borrow a camera and perhaps write a short article for the AMSAT Journal? Always useful to inspire people to get on when they see how easy it is.
Alan WA4SCA
Hi Alan!
Well done, Patrick! Lots of folks with much fancier stations do not have as much success.
Thanks!
I tried it this morning (1710-1720 UTC, a pass going to the west), and made 3 more contacts. It was a little easier to follow the satellite this time, since it wasn't the first time trying this out. :-) Any time I wasn't transmitting, I had my hand with the speaker-mic going to the VX-2R's VFO knob to adjust the receive frequency and occasionally move the downconverter so I could keep it pointing toward AO-51 (more or less).
Perhaps you could borrow a camera and perhaps write a short article for the AMSAT Journal? Always useful to inspire people to get on when they see how easy it is.
I don't have any "action photos" of me working the satellite, but I brought a small digital camera with me and took photos of my equipment on the roof of my car. I'll download those photos to my computer later tonight or over the weekend. As for writing an article... hmmm..... something to think about.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Hi Patrick,
Reading your story I set out this morning in my backyard trying to make a mode V/S QSO on AO-51 using my portable setup. I already tried receiving AO-51 mode S some time ago and that went very well but never tried uplinking.
The first pass this morning at 0805 UTC was not very good as the trajectory of the satellite was blocked several times by houses of neighbors and trees. I managed to copy myself once though. The second pass, 0945 UTC, was much better. I didn't hear many stations but managed my first V/S QSO with ON5SA :)
I used a K5GNA downconverter with a homebrew hybrid quad antenna connected to a Icom IC-R20 all-mode receiver. The hybrid quad antenna with the downconverter were mounted on a tripod. Uplink was a FT817ND (5W) using VOX with a headset with mic. Uplink antenna was an hand-held Arrow.
I think that it's better to mount the Arrow on the tripod and hold the K5GNA in my hand as it is much easier changing polarisation that way. Something for next time ;) Also, my backyard is not ideal for mode V/S experiments as much of the lower elevation sky is blocked by plants/trees or buildings.
Anyway, a great way to start the weekend!
73,
Andre PH7AT www.ph7at.net
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) wrote:
Hi Alan!
Well done, Patrick! Lots of folks with much fancier stations do not have as much success.
Thanks!
I tried it this morning (1710-1720 UTC, a pass going to the west), and made 3 more contacts. It was a little easier to follow the satellite this time, since it wasn't the first time trying this out. :-) Any time I wasn't transmitting, I had my hand with the speaker-mic going to the VX-2R's VFO knob to adjust the receive frequency and occasionally move the downconverter so I could keep it pointing toward AO-51 (more or less).
Perhaps you could borrow a camera and perhaps write a short article for the AMSAT Journal? Always useful to inspire people to get on when they see how easy it is.
I don't have any "action photos" of me working the satellite, but I brought a small digital camera with me and took photos of my equipment on the roof of my car. I'll download those photos to my computer later tonight or over the weekend. As for writing an article... hmmm..... something to think about.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Good morning, Andre!
Reading your story I set out this morning in my backyard trying to make a mode V/S QSO on AO-51 using my portable setup. I already tried receiving AO-51 mode S some time ago and that went very well but never tried uplinking.
The first pass this morning at 0805 UTC was not very good as the trajectory of the satellite was blocked several times by houses of neighbors and trees. I managed to copy myself once though. The second pass, 0945 UTC, was much better. I didn't hear many stations but managed my first V/S QSO with ON5SA :)
Congratulations! The uplink part for V/S is easy, as it is the same thing as V/U except there is no PL currently required. I had no worries I could do that, but needed to get the downlink and all those issues sorted out when I tried it for the first time.
I used a K5GNA downconverter with a homebrew hybrid quad antenna connected to a Icom IC-R20 all-mode receiver. The hybrid quad antenna with the downconverter were mounted on a tripod. Uplink was a FT817ND (5W) using VOX with a headset with mic. Uplink antenna was an hand-held Arrow.
I could use my FT-817ND in the same role, but I decided to stick with HTs as my TX and RX radios since I had already used them for more satellite work than the 817.
I think that it's better to mount the Arrow on the tripod and hold the K5GNA in my hand as it is much easier changing polarisation that way. Something for next time ;)
Or if the downconverter and its antenna were mounted on the Arrow, so it is a V/S antenna and then maybe the tripod. I saw pictures of someone who put an S-band downconverter on their Arrow antenna, and that would have been very helpful. Could I stand outside and hold the V/S Arrow for an entire pass while transmitting and keeping up with the receive Doppler? Not sure, but something to think about.
Also, my backyard is not ideal for mode V/S experiments as much of the lower elevation sky is blocked by plants/trees or buildings.
My home QTH has mountains about 2-3 miles (3-5km) to the south and southwest. Not very good for those directions, even for V/U. Outside my office near downtown Phoenix and at a park near my house, I can do better and work lower passes without many problems. My backyard is also not a great place for satellite experiments; the front yard is a little better except those mountains are still there.
I have other 2.4 GHz antennas, including some for WiFi stuff, that I might try. I've probably run out of time for much S-band experimentation for this week, but now that I've made some QSOs I will try for more the next time V/S returns to the AO-51 schedule. Or try to improve my L-band setup so I can make some L/S and L/U QSOs from a portable/temporary setup.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
participants (3)
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Alan P. Biddle -
Andre PH7AT -
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)