[HamSat] Hello from a newbie?

larry fields [email protected]
Sun, 2 Jun 2002 23:48:56 -0700 (PDT) 

  Hello again, and thanks again for the returnsss.I
was on watch when you returned my emails...I was
thinking about one of the old hygai,or cushcraft
antennas..that were polarized and was thinking of the
possiblity of using this antenna for my system..
  To answer the question I have only the Mk2 not the g
model, but since I been riding ships in Japan, I been
thinking of going to akihabara, and getting either the
g or gm models..the later is similar to g but  lower
transmits.
   will look into both ideas..about the location for
the program you mentioned before, I had a subscription
a few times to the Heavens above system, but before I
could react to it, the pass was already done. Now my
grid <according to du1ms qsl card> is pk0411 I think
as I don't have the card here, but will this give me
the info you mentioned..
 

   Larry, n6hpx/du1
   maritime mobile..
--- George Humphrey <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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
> >
> >
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> 
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