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 using that during FD.
I had a QSO on SO-50 where the 436.795 downlink seemed wrong — had to shift it lower by about 3 KHz to get decent audio. 436.792. Some publications suggest SO-50 shifts 5 KHz lower from time to time.
I was able to calibrate AO-7 on CW today and heard my downlink loud and clear. Called CQ for the entire pass (~18:30 UTC) with no responses. Calibration was also verified on XW-2A (CW) and XW-2F (CW and SSB) but with similar results.
I made a single SSB contact, and verified the CW and SSB uplink calibration on XW-2C.
Attempts to raise AO-85 even at point of closest approach were frustrating today. Even with the youthful male voice identifying “Fox 1” booming in at S9, things were spotty. Every once in awhile I would get into the bird but there were no responses. I think I’ve read something about the subtone being hard to trigger.
Finally I added several hundred more data packets to the AO-73 warehouse.
