[amsat-bb] AO-51 @ 0520 over DM65

["Freeman P. Pascal IV" <pascal@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Only caught one pass of AO-51 in mode V/s tonight.  This is the first 
time I have been able to test my mode S gear and I'm very happy to say 
it worked.  I was able to hear several stations (W7JPI, N5UXT, AA6RR, 
and KL7QR) all chatting.  There were some very deep fades with the 
signal varying between S5 and S9+40.  The fades seem to have a six to 
eight second period, probably due to the tumbling of AO-51.  I found 
that software tracking for the radio and antenna was a must, but was 
rock solid.

My equipment is a 1m BBQ Wifi dish that has been modified to have a 
complete circular shape and has been layered with hardware cloth, 5.5 
turn helix, Khune MKU 24 OSCAR 2.4G to 2M down converter, 47ft of 
LMR-400 into my Kenwood TS-2000X.

I wasn't able to transmit yet due to my current relay switching 
configuration  I am a bit worried that I will transmit through my down 
converter.  I also had problems with my custom version of WispDDE.  For 
some reason it kept setting the uplink frequency to ~432.129MHz.  I 
confirmed that I had the uplink frequency set correctly in the 
configuration.

I'm looking forward to getting on to mode V/s soon.  Barring that, I 
plan to get my L band loop yagi up on the mast so I can participate in 
mode L/s next week.


-Freeman, N5FPP
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