Re: [amsat-bb] AO-40 Station - How and How much

["John Stephensen, KD6OZH" <kd6ozh@xxxxxxx>]

You will need a 70 cm all-mode transceiver for the uplink. There are
probably used IC-471's available for a few hundred dollars. Alternatively
you can purchase an old dual band all-mode satellite transceiver like the
IC-821 for about $1000 or the newest model for about $1600.

The 2 m rig will work with an S-band downconverter. I haven't tried any of
the surplus converters, but use Down East Microwave
(www.downeastmicrowave.com) converter and LNA that I purchased several years
ago. Their current prices are:

13ULNA Preamp - $45 for PCB kit to $120 assembled in weatherproof box
2400-144R Coverter - $120 PCB kit to $200 assembled

RG-58 coax should work for the connection to the 2 m receiver if it is not
more than 50 feet long.

You will need a 2 foot diameter dish ($40 from Down East), a mounting
bracket and a feed. A suitable feed is described in "A 60 cm S-Band Dish
Antenna" which can be downloaded from
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/articles/g3ruh/g3ruh-index.html.

The uplink antenna can be any yagi with a gain of 12 dBi or more. M2
(http://www.m2inc.com/) sells their model 420-50-11 for $103. Use Belden
9913F or Times LMR-400 coax for this antenna. It costs about $0.70 per foot.

An antenna rotator is useful. As far as I know, the Yaesu G-5500 is the only
product available and costs about $600.

I hope that this helps.

73,

John
KD6OZH

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim" <Tim@teammca.org>
To: "'amsat-bb@amsat.org'" <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Friday, 01 June 2001 20:58 UTC
Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-40 Station - How and How much


> As a relativly new ham, I would like to know what I will need (be
specific)
> and how much it will cost to get on AO 40.  All I have right now is a beat
> up old packard bell P1 133 computer, 2 HTs and a borrowed 2 m all mode
>
> thanks
>
> TIM
>
> ----
> Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
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>

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