RE: [amsat-bb] World's smallest satellite station?

[Tony Langdon <tlangdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> As anyone knows who's tried it, UO-14 is extremely sensitive 
> on the uplink 

Indeed, very sensitive here.

> and quite strong on the downlink.  I, and many others, have 
> made numerous 
> QSOs through it with nothing more than a handheld radio and its 
> standard-issue "rubber duck" antenna.

I don't know so much about the "strong downlink".  It's workable with a
rubber duck, with a bit of patience and attention to alignment. :-)

> with nothing more than a Diamond SRH805, which is a so-called 
> "bullet" 
> antenna, 1 1/2 inches (38 cm) long excluding the gold-plated 
> SMA connector at 
> its base.  It covers the 144, 430 and 1200 MHz bands.

Not aware of that antenna.  I use the bigger Diamond (SRH999) for
terrestrial work, and use a beam for the birds, myself.
 
> One thing led to another, and I've now worked four stations 
> through UO-14 
> using only the Diamond SRH805, my Yaesu FT-50R handheld with a 2-watt 
> battery, and a speaker-mike to keep the bullet antenna away 
> from my face.  
> They include KK5DO (twice), N8DEU, N3ZLL and W5BTS (KK5DO's 
> daughter, Mahana).
> 
> I wouldn't even try to estimate the eirp precisely, but an 
> optimist would say 
> that it may be on the order of 100 mW.

Hmm, we might have to get the field strength meters out here.  My lowest
uplink power was 250 mW into a 2m 5/8, which gave practically a full
quieting signal.  Again, that was on an overhead pass.

> A RealAudio recording of my QSOs with KK5DO (the second one) 
> and W5BTS, made 
> by Bruce, appears on his Houston AMSAT Net web page, 
www.amsatnet.com, which 
is linked to the AMSAT-NA site, www.amsat.org.

I will have to have a listen. :)

I now put this forward as my latest contender for the title of world's 
smallest working satellite station.  The credit really goes to the gang at 
UoS, for building such a user-friendly satellite.  If a 2W handheld and a 1 
1/2 inch antenna can make four QSOs in as many passes, there's really no 
excuse for anyone not giving UO-14 a try!

Hmm, I can see a new contest here.  Let's see how low power we can use for
UO-14. :-)  Time to hook up the foxhunting attenuator in line for the uplink
methinks. :-)
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