[amsat-bb] Re: Logging with an Arrow

[Wayne N5WD]

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:13:57 -0400, WB2LLP wrote:
> The other day I made my first contacts using my IC-W32A and my
> "Cheap Yagii Arrow" antenna. Like many before me I found paper
> logging  to be impossible. 

It's not impossible - if you know a clever biogenetics guy that can homebrew you a couple of more arms/hands!

> There have been many clever solutions
> to this problem using a recorder documented, but I can not find any
> reference to them.  

I found a little digital recorder that had a built in time-reference clock... when you played back the recording, it was timestamped.  Took a split audio adapter from the FT-530's headset output and fed that to (a) the headset and (b) the digital recorder.  As the recorder had a mike input, had to pad down the audio from the speaker out so as to not overdrive it.  My next recorder will have to have a line input jack since the pad is the weak spot in this whole chain.

I parallelled a little mike at the input to the digital recorder to capture ambient noise a few db down from the radio output - thus I could hear myself directly, and the signal back from the satellite a few db higher.

This way, I not only knew who I was working, but the correct time, as well. 

That help any?
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   R. Wayne Day    N5WD    n5wd at charter.net
   IRLP Node 3997 -> Lake Worth, Texas
   Fort Worth, Texas  USA
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