[amsat-bb] Indoor reception of AO-16

[Bruce Robertson]

We should get the word out to all those folks with all-mode, all-band
radios: AO-16 may be the easiest voice-repeating satellite they'll
ever hear.

I've just finished listening to the 20:40UTC pass on a *really* crummy
144/440 mag-mount antenna. Fed with 6' of RG-174! Without a low noise
preamp! Indoors! With the bird setting on the other side of the
house!! Granted, it wasn't perfect copy, but I could have easily made
many QSOs.

You can hear an mp3 of this at
http://heml.mta.ca/Amsat/ao16_cheap_vertical_indoors_30deg_to_10deg_23_01_2008_2045.mp3

I undertook the experiment because of half-broken outdoor equipment.
My 435MHz antenna has an intermittent fault: it works properly when
flipped over by the elevation rotor, but when under 90 deg. elevation,
it is open. I don't dare drop the wooden mast I'm using until the
weather improves (read, May), so I'm stuck. As the rotor flipped to
track this bird, strangely I could still hear it. Either the antenna
situation was improved, or the bird booms. SWR still awful: its the
bird! That's basically just a piece of open coax with a preamp that's
outside. So I quickly disconnected it, and connected the mini
mag-mount that was at my station. I could hear QSOs even better.
Amazing.

If I have a chance, tomorrow I'm going to go outside with a FT-817 and
see how we do with Crummy Antennas for Satellites :-)

73, Bruce
VE9QRP