Re: [amsat-bb] uo-14 congestion

["Edward R. Cole" <al7eb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stayed home for Field Day {played in my own field!}:

My purpose was for more satellite operation, and to give support to the
Alaska Leo Society "5 x 5 Wilderness Expedition-AL7KK".  They opted to
canoe across Hidden Lake, a small lake a few miles off the highway on the
Kenai Peninsula about 40-50 miles east of me.  They operated HF-QRP and
satellite, and from reports on the repeater afterward had a great time in
the especially warm-sunny weekend {upper 70's}.

True to normal FD, my set up was fraught with mistakes and behind the
time-curve activity.  I attempted UO-14 operation on the first pass of FD,
but my QRP-5w was quickly buried in QRM, so just sat back and listened
while maybe two or three contacts were completed for the pass...what a
waste!  I looked ahead at upcoming AO-27 and UO-14 passes and saw that at
~2000 UTC the passes would cross Canada and Alaska proceeding into the
pacific missing the lower-48.  Ah Ha!

Well we had a great time and many contacts were made by VE's, AK's, a few
W7's and W6's finishing with my bagging WH6BIE for Hawaii on UO-14.  What a
nice difference.  Everyone took turns and nearly all made multi-contacts.
I ended up making six including AK, VE6, and WH6.  I could have muscled
into a couple more but instead let others made contacts.  Later I listened
to couple more lower-48 passes and pandemonium reigned.

In between satellite passes I operated HF-QRP=5w.  I tried a few ssb
contacts and was NEVER heard {of course lower-48 hams never turn their
antennas north so???}  Being QRP on HF-ssb for FD of course is the height
of absurdity!  I spent most of my time attempting to work psk-31 on 14.070
as most psk stations regularly run fairly low power.  Well I tried
valiantly, but made only four contacts.  At 5w I should use a monster beam
instead of a dipole :-)

I did string up a 10m dipole to try working RS-12.  I heard one pass with
only the cw-beacon...no stations.  I noticed significant fading as it came
over the pole {and me}, so suspect a lot of ionospheric absorption.  Ten
meters did not open up here at all as far as I can tell.  Only a few weak
15m stations at 1000utc 6/24.  

This morning I tried RS-12 again and quickly assembled the 2m portion of my
Arrow and climbed the step latter to c-clamp the antenna to next to my 432
AO-40 antenna.  I was hoping the additional uplink gain would get me into
the bird...it didn't.  I did hear some cw activity and a couple weak ssb
signals briefly.  I guess RS-12 is not a good QRP satellite ;-)  I also
listened to FO-29 and AO-10, but heard NO activity...probably everyone was
sleeping.  Without uplink power I did not attempt these two.

The 50w solar panel borrowed from work kept the marine battery charged and
operated the FT-847 and FT-817 fine.  My QRP HF/Sat FD operation was fun.
Got pictures to go with the log.  Score...70 points :-)

Next year mode-LS on AO-40...be there!

73, Ed
AL7EB BP40IQ 
FD class-1E [5w-solar power]
145=9 dB vertical
435=16.5 dB x-yagi
29.45=dipole at 25 feet
80/20m psk =dipoles at 35 feet.
AO-27=3
UO-14=3
20mpsk=4
arrl score=70
amsat score=2


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