[amsat-bb] My first Y2K contact on satellite

["Eric A. Cottrell" <eac@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Well I had an interesting time at Dayton.  I picked up one of those Arrow
dual-band antennas with the duplexer.  I was thinking about doing some
portable stuff on the FM birds.  The demos by KK5YY at Dayton gave me some
ideas on how to operate.  I seem to remember working UO-14 during the late
1900s as a digital BBS.  It was in the late 1900s when I last worked
satellite.

I dug out my IT Version 1.0b and grabbed keps.  Setup for a UO-14 pass around
0200 yesterday and did not hear anything.  Maybe IT was wrong.  It
predicted a pass at 12:07 (lunchtime) so I figured I should hear something
around 10:30 and I did!  I was mobile at the time using the D700A so I did
not transmit.

At noon I had a quick lunch and went out to the parking lot at work to
"build" the antenna.  I only had to put on the three 2 meter elements
and I connected it up to Kenwood D7.  I was in business!  The first
half of the pass I had difficulty due to obstructions and getting use to
the tuning, etc. It was better the second half.  I heard KK5YY on the
sat so I went after him for a QSO and success!  So KK5YY was the first
Y2K satellite contact (and first on analog UO-14).

I took a tip from KK5YY and used a tape recorder for logging.  I unfortunely
was only doing half duplex for the first attempt.  I had to refer to the D7 
manual to program full duplex and also get the buttons programmed on the
speaker mike.  I also was able to dig up a speaker and cable to plug into the
speaker mike so I can reduce feedback and still record into the recorder
(no line in).  So I am still setting up and trying stuff.

I also tried to get UO22/KO-25 tonight and could hear the 9600 baud signal
with decent strength.  This was a test to see if I could get on the digital
birds using small beams up on the roof.

73 Eric eac@shore.net
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