First attempts at FO-29

Sat 05 July 2014

I had a good pass of FO-29 this morning so I figured I'd give it a try with my 2m/70cm loop antenna.  I wasn't expecting great things as this is not a gain antenna and I'm not sure how much of the signal is actually radiated up but I figured I'd give it a shot.  Turns out it does... okay.  I never heard the beacon but I was able to find myself on CW.  It's been years since I operated a satellite much less a transponder satellite so I was having a hard time tracking for Doppler. I'll have to hook up with my satellite Elmer, again, and make sure I'm tuning the correct side (do I try to stay in the same place on the satellite transponder by adjusting my uplink or do I try to chase my downlink through the transponder?).

Another observation is that the loop doesn't do very well.  I'm definitely getting into the satellite with ~10 watts but I'm not hearing the satellite that well.  A preamp might help here but I suspect getting some proper antennas would as well.

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Tags: FO-29 / Satellite Operations /