Re: [amsat-bb] AO-51 reception with Handy Tranceiver

[Jason Hitesman <jradio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

asao ishizuka wrote:

> Hi !  Was anyone able to receive good signal of AO-51 on 435.300 with a handy tranceiver ?
> I tried several times but with no luck.
> 
> I did this in the evening. Should it be during daytime ?

I'm new at this (never had an interest in sats until a few weeks ago 
when a local Elmer brought them up...now I'm afraid of what his 
suggestion will do to my bank account!) but I managed to pick up two 
passes last night using just my Alinco DJ-C5t and it's joke of an 
antenna from Yuma AZ (DM22qq).

(my only other UHF rig is an old Kenwood TW-4000A which won't go lower 
than 440.00 :( )

I didn't really think the DJ had a chance but I was bored and had 
nothing better to do so I went outside and gave it a go.  Couldn't 
believe it when I started hearing voices in the static and then suddenly 
could make them out very clearly for a few seconds.  On the first pass 
(around 2200 local time) I didn't catch any callsigns but I did hear 
someone talking to "Howard" who came across very clear for about 5 
seconds but I lost the signal before I got his call.  On the second pass 
(around midnight) I clearly heard  w7ec up in Puyallup Wa and a few 
others but didn't have pen and paper handy to write down the calls.

Oh just to make this a tiny bit more impressive.  Not only was this the 
stock toothpick of an antenna on the DJ-C5 but it's also a broken 
antenna!  It pulled out of it's base and is currently held together with 
a bit of Duct tape while I await a replacement :)

Pulling a signal out of space with that marginal of equipment has me 
very excited....so now I'm looking for a better UHF rig, and starting to 
plan on building some antennas next weekend.  Hope I can find a deal on 
a rig and have enough left over to pick up a pre-amp as well :D

----
Jason
----
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