[amsat-bb] Re: LEO's

[kc6uqh]

>From my perspective HEO's are much easier to work. The doppler and the 
antenna pointing go much slower. With a home brew antennas including a 10 
turn helix on a 6' stepladder I worked stations from UK to Japan and all 
parts in between on AO40. I used old radios and homebrew converters 
including a modified LNB.

A minmal setupI hung a 2M ht on a drop tap to read the signal strength of 
the beacon. Adjusted the PrimeStar dish for strongest signal and eyeballed 
the helix to be in line with the dish. I had many QSO's and one of the 
better signals on the bird.

You can't have a 20 minute QSO on a LEO.
Unless you have a computer controled station, you are spending most of your 
time making adjustments. This leaves little time to learn and the best part 
of it is the panic only lasts for 15 minutes.
The overhead part of the pass is crazy!
FM makes the doppler easy to handle, but any antenna with more than 6 dB of 
gain becomes a pointing nightmere.
Art,
KC6UQH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Geiger" <aa5jg at lcisp.com>
To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>; <w0dxz at aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:22 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: LEO's


> Hi Bob,
>
> I agree completely with what you say. Many people who don't think they 
> have
> the equipment for the satellites really do-like a dualband FM rig and a
> small yagi.  I wouldn't be on the sats either if I hadn't started on the 
> FM
> sats and found out how easy using them was.  Had a nice AO51 pass a few
> minutes ago also.
>
> 73s John AA5JG
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <w0dxz at aol.com>
> To: <amsat-bb at AMSAT.Org>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 11:32 AM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] LEO's
>
>
>> RE:? Usefullness of LEO's...
>>
>> I think there should always be at least one accessable LEO-FM bird... for
> the very reason that some (WB6LLO) think there should not be. It gets you
> started with satellites.
>>
>> If I had not gone to a hamfest and seen Patrick demo use of the FM birds,
> I would not now be active on not only FM birds, but? the all mode birds as
> well. Without the FM birds, the? imtimidation factor would have been too
> much, I never would have gotten started.
>>
>> Every hobby needs an easy entry level possibility... for many it is the
> LEO's, FM.
>>
>> When I bought my first Harley, a Sportster,,, many said oh, a beginners
> Harley, yeah, maybe, but I would never have? bought a motorcycle? if I had
> to buy a full dresser as my first bike.? And yes, my first gun was a .410,
> not a 12 gauge.? And I learned to snorkel before I learned to SCUBA.
>>
>> FM LEO's have a purpose, a use. Not everyone can? chase the other birds.
> Live and let live. That is the fun part of the ham radio hobbyt, there is
> something for everyone.
>> There may be complaints about LEO-FM birds that are justifiable, but? the
> fact that you can work one with a HT is not one of those arguments.
>> Bob W0DXZ DM33
>> _______________________________________________
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>
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