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From: Ronald Nutter rnutter@networkref.com Sent: Mar 31, 2008 11:47 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Question about Frequencies to use on VO-52

I am trying to learn how to use the SSB birds. What are the "starting" frequencies that most use for uplink and downlink ? If I understand this correctly, you will leave the uplink set and then only tweak the downlink ?

Thanks,

Ron KA4KYI

The convention on the linear birds is that the lower half of the downlink passband is for CW, and the upper half is SSB. So, you should pick an uplink frequency that will place your downlink in the appropriate half of the passband, and then adjust the higher of the two for doppler. In the case of VO-52, that means picking a frequency in the LOWER half (435.2200 - 435.2500) of the uplink passband in order to appear in the UPPER half (145.9000 - 145.9300) of the downlink passband (VO-52 uses an inverting transponder), and adjust only your uplink to keep your downlink frequency constant. And it's LSB on the uplink to give USB on the downlink.

The ideal situation, if you have a radio that is CAT ready, is to use something like SatPC32 that will adjust BOTH your uplink and downlink for doppler, as well as automatically setting the uplink frequency that corresponds to your chosen downlink.

Enjoy! VO-52 is an awesome satellite!

George, KA3HSW