[amsat-bb] AO-40 Reception

[Jesse Morris <w4mvb@xxxxxxxx>]

Good Evening to all,

I heard zip out of AO-40 today and I'm not sure why.  I don't think it
was my receive setup because I heard both UO-11 and AO-16 this weekend
for the first time and the AO-16 reception was just a couple of hours
before I tried AO-40.  Maybe I got a bad set of keps but the pass seemed
reasonable - I listened from 1715Z (MA240) until the IT predicted LOS of
1814Z (MA253) but I did not hear a peep.

Incidentally, since I put the Drake converter on the mast I have been
getting some of the impulse type noise that has previously been described
here.  I first thought it was interference but I now believe it is
internally generated.  In my case however, I am using a grounded feed
helix and I have a SM inductor across the input connector of the
converter. The noise is not continuous but seems to come and go.  It
appears to be somewhat related to the elevation drive but I can't connect
it with movement.  It sounds like static type impulse noise but the noise
blanker does nothing to it so it must have a wide pulse width.  Sounds
somewhat like rain static but the weather has been clear when I have
heard it.  I'm thinking in terms of running a ground wire from the
antenna/converter to the rotor and mast and see what that does.  I'll
keep you posted.

Hope lots of people heard the signal and I just made some sort of stupid
mistake.  Windows 95 (bless it's heart) did adjust the GMT time on my
computer for daylight savings but I got that fixed before the pass.

I have not completely mastered the IT ALON/ALAT concept.  I assume that
since ALAT is currently zero there isn't any reason to change the sign of
zero!  I added 180 to 170 and used 0/350 as the input for IT.  Of course
that wont make any difference in actually hearing the satellite.


73 de Jess - W4MVB
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