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Copyright © 2008 Ben Jackson. All rights reserved.
There are 21 articles with this tag.
Just some recordings from the past few days of AO-51. Not the best quality, as on the 22nd I had a snow plow clearing the parking lot around me, and on the 25th, it was a low pass to the west.
I'm coming to the conclusion that I can work lower elevations on eastern passes then I can on western passes, I assume it's because the main thing to the east of my QTH is the Atlantic, while to the west is the rest of the US. At least that's my current guess. I could just be talking out of my ass again.
Some more passes for your listening enjoyment:
The AO-51 command crew has decided to shut off the 2 meter uplink and turned on the 1.2GHz uplink between Tuesdays and Thursdays during the month of February. This gives me a break from my addiction, which I guess is a good thing.
I've started to set up an online logbook. Which is a bit buggy and spartan, but a start. It's also handy to keep statistics. :)
I had a nice blog entry describing all the saturday passes I worked, but Pants ate it. :|
Here are the recordings, I'll type them up later.
This came in the mail this week. I've been meaning to post it. KI4YZI's QSL beat out K7WIN's QSL by about two days, making it my first satellite QSL card:
I printed out some QSL cards on my printer so I can send return cards until I get my first batch in from the printers. They're the same design and same size, so there really should be much difference besides the quality of the cardboard stock I think. :)
I was delayed slightly this morning leaving the house which made it impossible to catch the train. This was OK, as I could drive up to the subway in Quincy and enjoy a relatively high pass of AO-51.
As the pass neared I was driving up Rt. 24. What worried me was I wanted to make sure I would be in one grid square during the pass, so I had to get past a certain latitude in order to move from FN41 to FN42. Thankfully, I was well into FN42 by the time of the pass. I patiently listened to the radio waiting for the satellite to come overhead...
Nothing. No sound. I could tell something was there as the squelch had died down, but there was no voices. The rule of thumb for satellite operation is that you shouldn't transmit until you hear the satellite. This is usually easy on evening passes because there are tons of people exchanging contacts; not so much this morning. I decided to thrown caution into the wind and tossed out my callsign, despite me not sure if I was "hearing" the satellite...
... and I was promptly greeting by AA4FL in Florida. We exchanged grid squares and we had a lovely conversation regarding the lack of people on the satellite, the upcoming Super Bowl, and the pass the Tuesday night previous. We were very surprised it was just us and paused for other stations to come in if they were waiting. In short order though, I was going down a hill and was losing the signal. I signed off with him, and continued listening another 4-land station work him, but I couldn't make out his or her callsign and the satellite was definitely too low for me to work.
That was an enjoyable QSO. It would have been fun to get a few more people on the satellite, but I was very happy to have some kind of conversation with someone over it and not have to worry about squeezing in between other stations in an attempt to be heard.
Stations Worked:
Stations Worked:
Stations Worked:
Stations Half-Worked:
Well, this was unexpected. During my commute this morning, after being delayed by a schoolbus, I was approaching the train station when my squelch breaks on my radio. Nothing big, but my ears did pick up because it didn't sound like a regular repeater. A large booming signal, I heard him chatting with someone. I looked down at my radio and saw "435.305" as the receive frequency. At first I thought it was someone accidently transmitting on the downlink frequency, but then my pre-coffee neurons starting firing and remembered that there was a 7:10AM EST pass of AO-51.
Of course... I jumped at the chance to work some morning satellite, despite my train leaving in under 10 minutes.
I managed to contact one station and heard N1AIA again very weakly into the satellite. The end of the pass was frustrating, as just when I was pulling into my space, a YV6 (Venezuela) station popped in. But I could tell it would have been near impossible to work him, and it would have made me miss the train.
But... I did consider it...
No recording this time, as I would have likely killed myself driving.
Stations Worked:
It was a good night tonight. AO-51 came into contact at about 7:03PM, and I managed to make 2 QSOs, and 2 "half QSOs". I call them half QSOs because I was unable to get a Grid Square . I don't think they "count" as it were. I can tell that my Mag Mount radiates more outward and upward, as I had an easier time getting into the satellite during it's rise and fall rather then it was directly overhead. This makes sense I guess.
The Handi-Tenna continues to work like a champ, and I still find it amazing that I'm bouncing a signal off of a satellite in space. I did have one complaint, and I guess it seems to be somewhat common in satellite operation, is that people don't seem to listen before transmitting. I'm sure that some of it can't be helped, and I'm sure I do it on occasion, but I do lay off transmitting when I hear a QSO going on. I've seen the term "alligators" use for these folks, as their "ears" are much smaller then their "mouths." Quite a good description I think. The two "half QSOs" were stepped on by an "alligator" and we just never connected again. Oh well, water under the bridge. If you listen, you can guess who I'm peeved at, though.
But... There will be other passes...
Stations Worked:
Stations Half-Worked:
