[amsat-bb] Re: Upcoming Scotland/Shetlands trip

[John Mock KD6PAG]

--- On Wed, 7/30/08, w7lrd at comcast.net <w7lrd at comcast.net> wrote:
> John-Will you be on AO-7?  It is possible to work CN87
> (Seattle).  Takes timing, planning and luck!.
> 73 Bob W7LRD

You're right, Seattle should not be hard on AO-7.  There's even some
theoretical overlap of 0.8 minutes from the Shetlands to Redding,
California (thus 49 states), but you'd better have good horizons and
a good receiving setup.  I'll be seeing if that much overlap might be
enough to make it to Alaska on AO-51 (as Iceland has been worked from
there without sked).

What it really came down to was size/weight and how to compensate for
doppler on the uplink, as the SSB rig that i've been offered doesn't 
have computer control.  Even if it did, there are too many software
issues to solve prior to travel and i'd need to take the docking
station (nearly doubling the computer's weight) if i needed a real
serial port.  But what it really comes down to is that don't want to
carry any more weight (that is assuming the rig[s] would even fit in 
my luggage), as it does not make sense to have a car for the third of 
the trip that we're in Edinburgh or Glasgow. So unless someone in the 
SF Bay Area (or Scotland) can offer a better idea, higher orbit LEO's 
won't happen this trip.  

> "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it"

Yeah, maybe next trip i'll have access to suitable equipment.  I've been
talking to another local ham about a small dsPIC-based SSB transmitter 
and/or receiver.  But even if hardware existed a month ago, it's unlikely
the software issues would have been solved in time...  It's too bad that
Yubileiny doesn't have mode J-FM.  Maybe someday someone else can put up
something more useful into that kind of an orbit.

				-- KD6PAG