Bob,

Nice to hear you on the XW-2s this evening. They are all very good satellites, though they do suffer from polarity fades. There was quite a bit of activity on the later passes this evening. It was good to hear and there's always room for a few more!

73,

Paul, N8HM

On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 8:06 PM, Bob WB4SON@gmail.com wrote:

Hi all,

I had never tried the Chinese satellites until tonight. I managed to have a SSB QSO on each one. My thanks to N8HM, WI9I, and K4RGK for putting up with me as I got things dialed in.

All three birds had a very similar TX offset on my end, about 0.5 KHz high, and it was easy to find my signal in the downlink. All three had VERY strong signals, but suffered from S9 to in the noise deep/long fades. I'm guessing the fading is antenna shading, as the fades were fairly pronounced even at the point of closest approach.

Not many people on the birds, but they are three of the easiest to work.

Also glad to hear AO-7 still up and kicking tonight.

I don't think I've ever worked three new (to me) birds in one night before.

73, Bob, WB4SON _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb