Author Archives: robert

A Bit More Satellite DX

Posted on May 19, 2016 by robert

During a FO-29 pass over the Atlantic I worked two European stations:  Francisco EA1JM in Spain, and Graham, G3VKV in England.

Posted in DX, FO-29, Satellite | Leave a comment

Another Great Satellite Day

Posted on May 18, 2016 by robert

I’m feeling guilty for neglecting DX, but I’ve been having a bunch of fun with satellites recently. Several QSOs on FO-29 with calibration of both SSB and CW uplink performed.  Not much CW action on these days, but I’ll be … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-7, AO-73, AO-85, FO-29, Satellite, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2C, XW-2F | Leave a comment

Worked Ireland via FO-29

Posted on May 17, 2016 by robert

Well this is RARE DX for me.  I’ve only worked stations in the USA and Canada before, but FO-29 has a much larger footprint than more recent LEO satellites.  I worked George, MI6GTY, on CW from his location in Northern … Continue reading →

Posted in DX, FO-29, Satellite | Leave a comment

Setup Funcube Dashboard Again

Posted on May 17, 2016 by robert

I was getting ready for a decent AO-73 pass, when it dawned on me that it was daylight, and therefore the bird was in the Telemetry mode.  Rather than call it quits, I quickly installed a copy of Funcube Dashboard … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-73, Satellite | Leave a comment

TX Adjusted for XW-2A and XW-2F – 2 more QSOs

Posted on May 15, 2016 by robert

XW-2A had a pass around 22:25 UTC.  I found my uplink to be about 0.5 KHz high again, so I applied the corresponding offset to my SatPC32 doppler.sqf file, and had a good tx/rx relationship for the pass. At 22:29:06, … Continue reading →

Posted in XW-2A, XW-2F | Leave a comment

An Old Friend and Some New Ones

Posted on May 15, 2016 by robert

I used GPredict to plan my day and produced the following “Sky at a glance” chart: So about 5:15 PM Local Time (21:15 UTC), a decent pass of AO-7 was overhead.  I heard several CW signals (K4RGK was one of them), … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-7, Satellite, XW-2C, XW-2F | Leave a comment

And a Pair for FO-29

Posted on May 15, 2016 by robert

I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to work FO-29 — stable frequencies, great signal levels, and lots of activity.  But today I was a bit stymied by some QRM noise bursts on the 70 cm receive.  Two stations … Continue reading →

Posted in FO-29, Satellite | Leave a comment

A pair of QSOs on SO-50

Posted on May 14, 2016 by robert

Another good day for satellite action, with a pair of QSOs via SO-50.  K8TL, Tom in EM89 (Ohio) at 16:46:39 and Eric, KB1KMF, in FN56 (Maine) at 16:48:55. Lots of other stations on the bird.  

Posted in Satellite, SO-50 | Leave a comment

First AO-85 Contact

Posted on May 13, 2016 by robert

While I’ve copied the DUV (Data Under Voice) Telemetry (a bit of challenge on an IC-9100 due to low-frequency roll-off of the internal soundcard — necessitating the use of an external soundcard to the 9600 baud interface), I’ve never made an … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-85, Satellite | Leave a comment

ARISS Contact Wild Success!

Posted on May 8, 2016 by robert

For tiny Rhode Island, the International Space Station contact with students from All Saints Academy (Middletown, RI) and other schools on May 6 was BIG news.  Perhaps because it was good news, or maybe because of a statewide heightened interest … Continue reading →

Posted in ARISS, ISS, Satellite | Leave a comment