[amsat-bb] AO-40 S1 Operations

[Jesse Morris <w4mvb@xxxxxxxx>]

Good Morning Folks,

Well, AO-40 had it's real coming out party last night when the S1
transmitter was turned on.  And as the song goes, "what a swell party it
was".  At the moment the S1 transmitter was turned on the downlink
passband sounded like 20 meters!  I had about a dozen QSO's and they were
all actual QSO's.  I could have easily worked a hundred stations if I had
been working contest or LEO style.  As luck would have it I had put up a
new version of the helix antenna yesterday which had my modified 3733
hooked to it.  The new antenna did not work very well so I was using my
original 21 turn helix with a conventional (more or less) feed and a 3733
with only the stub clipped out.  When the XYL made me quit last night
(she has always been a party pooper!) the satellite was at 50K range and
the squint was 7.5 degrees.  I was receiving the EB at 6 to 8 db above
the noise and passband signals were 4 to 6 db above the noise.  I could
produce about 6 db above the noise with my DEM transverter (about 20
watts at the antenna) and a pair of 22 element K1FO style yagis.  What a
difference 8 to 10 db can make!

My favorite contact of the night was with Jean Louis, F6AGR.  I remember
vividly, Jean Louis' description of his struggle to make his first AO-40
contact on CW.  It described my experience exactly (except Jean Louis is
a CW operator and I'm a CW Lid!).  Last night we had a delightful and
casual conversation with our simple setups.  It was after 1AM in Paris at
the time and Jean Louis had be up at 5AM this morning. That's real
dedication!

Good luck top all and hope to CU on AO-40.

73's de Jess - W4MVB
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