[amsat-bb] Re: SO-50 under-utilized over North America

[Tony Langdon]

At 09:24 AM 11/9/2006, Martin Gillen wrote:
>Hi, John.
>
>I'm in Ottawa, and I'm new to satellites.
>
>SO-50 is one of the sats that I am going to try out because all I have
>is an FM handie-talkie.  I've built an (admittedly heavy!) antenna
>which is a 6 element 70cm beam and a 4 element 2m beam joined
>together, but I'm not sure if it will have enough gain for SO-50, my
>H/T will only do about 4W max, and if possible I'd like to run it at
>0.5 or 1.5W to extend the battery life.
>
>I noticed your signature line "Satellite QRPer" so I thought you might
>know if I ought to be able to transmit only 1/2W and have a reliable
>QSO.

Well, I have worked satellites in the past (specifically UO-14, when 
it was active) with 0.25W and a 2 element Yagi.  When the uplink is 
quiet, your 0.5W will work fine.  However, both contention from hams 
and foreign QRM will increase the uplink requirements 
considerably.  In any case, give it a whirl! :-)

73 de VK3JED
http://vkradio.com