Well it’s that time of year again, I’m dusting off the portable satellite gear and making sure it’s working. I had just updated the clock, and TLEs, when I noticed that UKube was above the horizon. I quickly turned on the Dashboard and immediately started decoding data packets.
Since it is in daylight, the transponder is off, but it was fun to pick up 46 packets. This is one of the satellites that will be possible to use on WFD.
At this point I know the control between my PC and IC9100 is working as well as the soundcard interface. Now to wait for some transponder passes for FO-29, AO-7, SO-50, AO-73, etc.
QSOs were made with the following:
- On XW-2A, N4IQV, Uplink Calibration was spot on
- On AO-73, KD2BVM and N4IQV, Uplink Calibration was KHz high, but drifting about 1 KHz lower per minute. VERY hard tuning a CW station
- On AO-85, N1AIA & KF4FC — VERY hard to key transponder
- On FO-29, nary a soul was heard, on either CW or SSB although my downlink was fine. The pass was mid-Atlantic, so favoring Europe & Africa
- The later pass around 0325 UTC on FO-29 was more fruitful. Worked K8YSE, N8RO, HI8KW, and W4CVV.
- On BY70-1, A new FM satellite for me. I heard myself quite well in the downlink, better that SO-50 or AO-85, but nobody answered despite 5 minutes of calling CQ. The delay on the downlink does catch your attention (maybe 100ms).
- The later pass around 03:45 UTC of BY70-1 was more successful. Worked N8HM and AA5PK.
