Re: Satellite choices on Field Day
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I'm leaning towards AO-27 for listen only, as I know the bird will be jam packed with ops that weekend (although I do have a decent pass at 230 am local Sunday, and an even better one at 4 am) and actually trying to make a contact on SO-50, although I'm sure it will be busy too.
Let me save you some sleep. AO-27 is only on for the ascending passes in the afternoon, and only for 7 minutes starting at about 30 degrees latitude. This means the first several minutes of the afternoon pass will be silent from your QTH, and all of the overnight passes.
Definitely AO-7 for my linear choice, as I know the linear birds won't be as busy as the FM ones. FO-29 is my next choice.
FO-29 and VO-52 will work better on FD, as AO-7 tends to get overloaded easily.
I'm planning on using the Arrow antenna with my VX5-R for the FM birds, and I have an M-Squared 2M/440 (same boom, but offset 90 degrees) with an "armstrong" az/el control for the linear ones with my TS-2000X.
Why give up full duplex and the TS-2000 to use the VX5 on FM? Half-duplex is a poor choice for satellite on normal days, let alone Field Day. If it's because of the birdie, use the TS2000 as the transmitter and the VX5 for receive only.
Good luck. If you aren't a regular satellite user, try some passes outside of Field Day to improve your chances of success.
73, Drew KO4MA
Thanks, Drew. I didn't realize AO-27's status, and I wasn't really looking forward to getting up in the middle of the night anyway :-) (although SO-50 has an excellent pass around 330 am :-) )
I did play around with AO-27 and SO-50 most of the day Wednesday, but yeah, I haven't really been active on the sats since a 1993 AO-13 DXpedition to VP2M.
The reason I'm planning on using the HT and Arrow is to show them the (nearly) minimum equipment that can be used to work a sat - that they don't have to have a fancy radio (IC 910, IC-9100, TS-2000) and a big antenna array to work the birds. (I do have switchable CP yagis on 2M and 440 at home, with an az/el rotor, but transporting all that would be too much logistically AND I thought it would be overkill and too intimidating for an audience whom you're trying to attract into ham radio.) But yeah, I'd much rather have full-duplex like I did on AO-13.
Philip
On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 10:36 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner < glasbrenner@mindspring.com> wrote:
I'm leaning towards AO-27 for listen only, as I know the bird will be jam packed with ops that weekend (although I do have a decent pass at 230 am local Sunday, and an even better one at 4 am) and actually trying to make
a
contact on SO-50, although I'm sure it will be busy too.
Let me save you some sleep. AO-27 is only on for the ascending passes in the afternoon, and only for 7 minutes starting at about 30 degrees latitude. This means the first several minutes of the afternoon pass will be silent from your QTH, and all of the overnight passes.
Definitely AO-7 for my linear choice, as I know the linear birds won't
be
as busy as the FM ones. FO-29 is my next choice.
FO-29 and VO-52 will work better on FD, as AO-7 tends to get overloaded easily.
I'm planning on using the Arrow antenna with my VX5-R for the FM birds,
and
I have an M-Squared 2M/440 (same boom, but offset 90 degrees) with an "armstrong" az/el control for the linear ones with my TS-2000X.
Why give up full duplex and the TS-2000 to use the VX5 on FM? Half-duplex is a poor choice for satellite on normal days, let alone Field Day. If it's because of the birdie, use the TS2000 as the transmitter and the VX5 for receive only.
Good luck. If you aren't a regular satellite user, try some passes outside of Field Day to improve your chances of success.
73, Drew KO4MA
participants (2)
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Andrew Glasbrenner -
Philip Jenkins