[HamSat] Hello from a newbie?

[George Humphrey]

Larry,

Good deal on the 706MKII, is that the G model with 440MHz? If so I can 
provide more data. First if you can get a copy of the June QST magazine, 
read the article on pages 40-43. After reading that article I wanted a 
little more information on how to set up the 706 so I wrote the author an 
e-mail. I have enclosed it below. It is rather lengthy but worth the read. 
Again, if you are using 2M and/or 440MHz, I would still recommend the Arrow 
hand held unless you can carry the az-el rotators and nifty circular 
polarized antennas with you. Good luck, George KC5WBV

George,
Thanks for writing and letting me know you enjoyed the article! It's
always good to hear nice, thoughtful comments from folks knowledgeable in
this business.
 > If you could just tell me a
 > little more detail about the setup and working I would have it made,
maybe.
 From your background, I'm going to assume you've read page 29 of your
instruction manual ("Split frequency operation") and have gotten that
working as advertised. The bottom line here is that, when you hit the PTT
switch, the readout shifts to 145.950 MHz LSB and, when you let up, it
returns to 435.850 MHz USB. I'm also assuming we're using FO-20 or FO-29
for this exercise, thus those frequencies.
Start by leaving the 145.950 MHz LSB frequency alone for ALL of this;
the unwritten transmit "convention" is to meet people at the middle of the
transponder's bandpass. The second convention is to only vary the higher
frequency of the satellite's pair, i.e., the one most impacted by Doppler
shifting, so any following will be done on the 435 MHz downlink frequency.
I'm assuming you're using one of the satellite tracking programs that
gives you the Doppler offset between you and the satellite (I use WinOrbit;
it does this, it's free, and available somewhere on the www.amsat.org site)
so, as the pass begins, note the Doppler shift the program calculates and
ADD that number of KHz to 435.850 to provide the neighborhood to start
looking for signals (e.g., if the Doppler shift reads out as "+5329," you'd
tune to 435.853.29 or thereabouts on the display [you don't have to spend a
lot of time and effort being exact; once you're in the ballpark, you'll
know]). Chances are you'll begin hearing stations right away and, if you
do, try a contact. If you don't hear anyone, transmit your CQ on the
unchanged 2-meter LSB uplink frequency and keep tuning the receive side
around the Doppler-offsetted neighborhood, looking for an answer.
This is easy, once you get the hang of it. I do it while also nudging
my rotator heading and watching the computer screen to follow the beam
azimuth and keeping track of how the Doppler offset changes. Keep in mind
that, as the satellite approaches its "abeam" point (i.e., when its path is
exactly perpendicular to you), the Doppler shift passes through zero and
then goes negative; from there on, you have to subtract the offset from
435.850. As I recall, this offset usually varies from about + to - 8 kHz on
a typical pass and you'll definitely hear it affecting the downlinked
voices. Remember too that, if you hit your "TS" button while in the USB or
LSB mode, your frequency readout will shift in whole KHz increments so you
can speed up your searching, and then hit the "TS" button again to zero in,
once you find a signal.
Try this too with UO-14. Here, you leave your transmit frequency alone
at 145.975 MHz FM and watch the Doppler shift as the pass begins. You'll
likely have to go up from 435.070 MHz FM to 435.080 or .085 to find the QSOs
going on (remember that your 706 will only tune in 5 kHz increments in the
FM mode) and, as the pass progresses, you'll have to follow the signals down
through 435.070 to perhaps even .060 (and sometimes even lower).
AO-27 is operational but a little hard to work because the transponders
don't spend a lot of time in the "on" state due to efforts by ground
controllers to conserve the batteries. Your best bet is focusing on FO-20,
FO-29, and UO-14 right now.
I hope this helps in answering your questions. Let me know if I can
provide any further information.
Thanks again for writing and letting me know you liked the piece!
Dave
N6TST



At 06:33 PM 6/2/02 -0700, you wrote:
>   I am starting to learn a little bit more here and
>appreciate the help from one's like George,and
>hopefully others in the group.
>   Being a traveler and civilian for the Navy, I try to
>stay on top of the internet emails but sometimes its
>rather harder than other times to do so..before they
>introduced internet on the ships I had to wait for the
>next port to do so..like Singapore,Guam,Japan and
>Thailand..Now I have access on board some of the
>ships..
>    Lost connections to ones that were usually
>everyday,like dx-qsl and its amazing that all of a
>sudden I will see 30 or 40 posting to that group..but
>last night sent a test posting and it bounced..
>    I am at sea and will start trying to use the FM
>satellites as soon as possible,and between jobs,but my
>main plan is to setup my Icom 706mk2 for some
>satellite ops,although It don't have the 430 ssb ops.
>But again there are other places to operate too.
>    I will be here listening and as soon as possible be
>telling my 2 cents..
>    Larry,n6hpx/du1
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
>http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
>_______________________________________________
>HamSat mailing list
>HamSat@mailman.qth.net
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/hamsat