Author Archives: Bob Beatty

Surprise From VP8PJ – Early LotW Confirmations

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I had a nice surprise this morning when I checked LotW; three confirmations from VP8PJ.  Still hoping to work them on some additional bands.

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VP8PJ FT8 Success 18.095 MHz

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Bob Beatty

It took slightly less than 30 minutes to work VP8PJ on FT8 this morning around 9:30 AM local time (14:30 UTC).  There pretty much was a wall of EU stations (understandable), but despite occasional deep fades, eventually I got through … Continue reading →

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Use Propagation Tools but check outside times too!

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Just worked VP8PJ on 10.105 MHz at 21:45 UTC.  Propagation chart says very small chance of working them now.  That said, their signal is 3 to 4 S-units above the noise floor.  I worked them with 100 watts on CW. … Continue reading →

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Some Tweaking for HuskySat-1

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Despite having the specified 435799.7 KHz frequency at the satellite for the Beacon Downlink in my Doppler.SQF file, I still wasn’t able to automatically decode the satellite telemetry using FoxTelem. I did a bit of thinking, and am guessing that … Continue reading →

Posted in FoxTelem, HuskySat-1, IC-9700, SatPC32 | Leave a comment

Configuring SatPC32 for an Icom IC-9700

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Bob Beatty

After ensuring that the latest Icom USB drivers have been installed (before plugging the radio into the computer), the following are the basic steps for configuring the radio and a new installation of SatPC32: On the 9700 – Menu/Set/Connectors/CI-V.  As … Continue reading →

Posted in AMSAT, HuskySat-1, IC-9700, SatPC32 | 2 Comments

First Decodes of HuskySat-1

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Bob Beatty

A new satellite, HuskySat-1, was launched this past Friday, from a departing Cygnus Supply Vehicle.  After leaving the ISS, the Cygnus was boosted into a higher orbit, then the 3U HuskySat-1 was launched.  Basic details are: HuskySat-1 ———- Uplink:    … Continue reading →

Posted in AMSAT, FoxTelem, HuskySat-1, IC-9700, SatPC32 | 2 Comments

Getting Ready for WFD/Satellite

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Bob Beatty

I don’t have the stamina of my youth, and especially don’t push things in New England Winters.  That said, this coming weekend is Winter Field Day.  I’ve participated the past five years with my club, W1SYE Newport County Radio Club.  … Continue reading →

Posted in AO-7, AO-91, AO-92, CAS-4B, Satellite, SO-50, WFD, XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2F | Tagged | Leave a comment

Just so nice to have FT4 logging working

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Today I had a chance to pop onto 20m FT4 for a bit and worked a couple of stations just to see that FT4 logging was working end-to-end.  Sure enough the correct modes was entered into LotW, and it confirmed … Continue reading →

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Using a TYT MD-430 with a pi-star Gateway

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Bob Beatty

*** Updated 19:15 UTC Jan 21 *** My thanks to KB1YSK, Stan, who was the first station that I heard on NA TalkGroup 93.  We had a nice contact, confirming that my first guess at a CodePlug for the MD-430 … Continue reading →

Posted in DMR, Gear | Tagged | 5 Comments

DX Labs working with WSJT-X

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Bob Beatty

Between acting as the Pilot Station for W1SYE’s Florida Islands Activation, I managed to install DXLabs and now have it controlling my K3s, and have pulled in all the log entries from my old HRD log.  LotW/tQSL have been configured … Continue reading →

Posted in DXLabs, HRD, LotW | Leave a comment