Re: [amsat-bb] FD AO-40 DK2ZF

["Frederick M. Spinner" <fspinner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

That makes me feel quite a bit better about my equipment.  I brought a 4' 
dish and patch feed, got a *very* good downlink.

But, with 22 elements RHCP and 100W at the antenna on u-band I could never 
hear my downlink on FD.  The generator was a bit noisy though, so it's 
possible the return was weak and I didn't hear it.
My headphones broke early on as well.  So I was on the speaker... Typical 
FD.

So no contacts.  No 100 point bonus, and probably about 10 hours of my time 
wasted.

The station did get a lot of interest from the other operators, the children 
hanging around, etc., so it was still somewhat worthwhile.  When the ops 
took "down" time from the HF station, they came over and listened.

Unfortunately it seems that everyone posting success and what their 
equipment was in the same message is: ">50W on L-band".

Except for bending the dish on the way back home (It bent back ok, but I 
think that reflector's Ku days are over) and losing a part of the trailer on 
the way back-- all the equipment survived.  At least I had time to trim the 
70cm antennas for best SWR, so at least I know all my equipment works and is 
now optimized.

Oh well.. I'm sticking to HF next year at FD.  I'm usually a big AO-40 
advocate, but from my experience this year trying to get on AO-40 at FD was 
a waste of time.

Flame me at will.

Fred W0FMS



>From: rolf.niefind@t-online.de (Rolf Niefind)
>To: amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org
>Subject: [amsat-bb] FD AO-40 DK2ZF
>Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 19:40:09 +0200
>
>
>  Hello All,
>
>  MISSION SUCCESS    wkd 33 stns from W/VE.
>
>  all u-bander quite weak l-bander much stronger.
>
>  Missing Alaska  ( Ed ???)
>
>  wkd with 60 watts 1m mesh dish W0LMD dual patch Kuhne preamp
>
>  73 DK2ZF
>
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