Thanks, Drew. I didn't realize AO-27's status, and I wasn't really looking forward to getting up in the middle of the night anyway :-) (although SO-50 has an excellent pass around 330 am :-) )
I did play around with AO-27 and SO-50 most of the day Wednesday, but yeah, I haven't really been active on the sats since a 1993 AO-13 DXpedition to VP2M. The reason I'm planning on using the HT and Arrow is to show them the (nearly) minimum equipment that can be used to work a sat - that they don't have to have a fancy radio (IC 910, IC-9100, TS-2000) and a big antenna array to work the birds. (I do have switchable CP yagis on 2M and 440 at home, with an az/el rotor, but transporting all that would be too much logistically AND I thought it would be overkill and too intimidating for an audience whom you're trying to attract into ham radio.) But yeah, I'd much rather have full-duplex like I did on AO-13. Philip On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 10:36 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner < [email protected]> wrote: > > > > - > >I'm leaning towards AO-27 for listen only, as I know the bird will be jam > >packed with ops that weekend (although I do have a decent pass at 230 am > >local Sunday, and an even better one at 4 am) and actually trying to make > a > >contact on SO-50, although I'm sure it will be busy too. > > Let me save you some sleep. AO-27 is only on for the ascending passes in > the afternoon, and only for 7 minutes starting at about 30 degrees > latitude. This means the first several minutes of the afternoon pass will > be silent from your QTH, and all of the overnight passes. > > > Definitely AO-7 for my linear choice, as I know the linear birds won't > be > >as busy as the FM ones. FO-29 is my next choice. > > FO-29 and VO-52 will work better on FD, as AO-7 tends to get overloaded > easily. > > > > >I'm planning on using the Arrow antenna with my VX5-R for the FM birds, > and > >I have an M-Squared 2M/440 (same boom, but offset 90 degrees) with an > >"armstrong" az/el control for the linear ones with my TS-2000X. > > Why give up full duplex and the TS-2000 to use the VX5 on FM? Half-duplex > is a poor choice for satellite on normal days, let alone Field Day. If it's > because of the birdie, use the TS2000 as the transmitter and the VX5 for > receive only. > > Good luck. If you aren't a regular satellite user, try some passes outside > of Field Day to improve your chances of success. > > 73, Drew KO4MA > > > _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
