Re: [amsat-bb] RS-15

[Mike Gilchrist <kf4fdj@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:59 PM 2/22/2004, Keith wrote:

>Bob,
>A few years back i ran all the uplink i could muster and could just make
>out my carrier on the downlink.  From what i understand if you have a 
>sensitive
>Receiver and Full Legal Limit you can use the bird , barely.  But you may 
>end up
>talking to yourself cause no one else can do it.

 From my experience, it takes some finesse to work RS-15.  First, you need 
to have a good 10 meter receive antenna.  I built 2 different ones which 
seemed to work OK.  The first was a 10 meter turnstile, designed by K5VAS, 
Paul.  I mounted it about 10 feet off the ground, and seemed to work 
through some of the deep fades.  The second antenna I tried, was a pair of 
hustler 10 meter elements mounted dipole fashion between my 70 cm and 2 m 
OSCAR antennas.  As the KCT tracked the bird through the sky, the elements 
were always pointed, along with the 2 m antenna, at the bird.  The most 
critical thing in working RS-15, is the ability to switch polarity on your 
uplink.  The satellite goes into very deep QSB which can be lessened by 
"riding" the polarity switchers.  Full legal power is not needed, but 110 
watts into a 22 element circularly polarized antenna does the trick.

I hope this helps.

73, Mike kf4fdj 

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