[amsat-bb] AO-40 Pass #310 Report

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

Well I didn't hold out much hope to receive AO-40 tonight as it rose at
az=90 which looks right into solid forrest [for eight miles].  But I
decided to preset the antenna {getting a pretty good feel for where that is
now}, and tune around.  The satellite is fairly close to apogee so I knew
doppler would be less [frequency higher than previous two passes].

AOS time was 034754 utc.  I was just about to quit for the night after not
finding any signal, but I decided to take one last look higher in frequency
and found the signal at 0535 utc at IF=123.316.6-->F=2410.321.6 [MA: 88.8;
SQ: 90.4; Rng 59,667 km, az=108.4, el=10*].  Signal not strong enough to
keep sync locked but I actually accumulated 17 bad CRC blocks.  The S-meter
was running up to S-5 which was just discernably above the noise floor
[S-4.5].  This is obviously the limit of my system.  *Note this elevation
takes my antenna just above the tree tops.

Ed

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