Hi!

The HO-68 (XW-1) transponder was full of activity once again this evening over North America. For me, this was a better pass with maximum elevation of 25 degrees compared to Saturday's pass at 13 degrees maximum elevation. The pass cut through center of the USA, a nice pass for the entire continent. I saw K8YSE has made available his recording from tonight's pass, and I'll listen to that tomorrow to see what else was on that I may not have heard.

Out in the (dark, cool, quiet) city park at DM33xp/DM43ap here in Phoenix, I made another 3 QSOs during the pass. Thanks to Glenn AA5PK, Tim N3TL, and Jeff K7WIN for hearing me and the nice signal reports for my portable all-mode station (two FT-817NDs, Elk Antennas handheld 2m/70cm log periodic, 5W transmit power). Many other stations were on when I tuned through the passband. Compared to the relatively few QSOs made when the satellite was in the FM/packet configuration earlier this week (none were logged by WD9EWK), SSB seems to be a huge success!

Before HO-68 passed by this evening, I worked a pair of AO-7 passes with this same setup. When I'm on HO-68 or AO-7 in SSB or other satellites like VO-52 and (when operational) FO-29, this is the station I'm using. I can't turn up the power any more than 5W, and - until we get satellites with orbits much higher than AO-7 - this power level seems to work fine.

I'm looking forward to more HO-68 passes with the linear transponder. :-) Thanks again to Alan BA1DU and CAMSAT for a great new satellite!

Merry Christmas, Happy 2010, and 73 to all from the desert!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - Phoenix, Arizona USA http://www.wd9ewk.net/