[amsat-bb] AO-40 Reception

[Jesse Morris <w4mvb@xxxxxxxx>]

Good Morning to All,

I finally got one ot the helix antennas up in the air yesterday and was
able to hear a little bit of the AO-40 TLM beacon last night.  It was not
very strong and there was considerable QSB but at least I was able to
copy it.  I put up a 21 turn antenna along with a Drake converter with
all the G0MRF mods.  I acquired the beacon at horizon break at 0244Z and
held it until 0302Z when it was just at the noise leve.  The beacon was
not as strong as I had heard it back in January with the antenna on the
ground and a stock Drake converter but I believe that was mostly because
of the difference in pointing angle.  I'm not sure what the pointing
angle was last night.  I did not expect to get an antenna up this soon so
I have not been keeping up with the attitude of the satellite.  Did
anyone on the east coast copy the beacon last night?  If so what was the
signal strength and how long did you copy it?

New subject - Will the FT-847 run full duplex on 122mhz receive and
435mhz transmit?  I'm sure you can see where I am going with this.  If
the FT-847 (or the other satellite rigs) will do this it may be possible
to work AO-40 with just the addition of a Drake (or other) converter
without a crystal change and a 2.4ghz antenna.  Just a thought.

Thanks for the bandwidth.

73 de Jess - W4MVB
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