[amsat-bb] Re: Help for Humber College Students with ISS Contact

[Greg D.]

If you'd like, I expect there are more than a couple of us who wouldn't mind sending him a copy of our QSL cards from Mir and ISS, not to mention a few dozen other satellites far more difficult...  Better hope he has a large mailbox.

(only half kidding...)

Greg  KO6TH

> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:03:53 -0600
> From: kelly.lynn.martin at gmail.com
> To: n6kth at n6kth.com
> CC: amsat-bb at amsat.org; paul_je at hotmail.com
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Help for Humber College Students with ISS Contact
> 
> These are the people whose professor famously told the Toronto Star
> said that only professional radio engineers had the knowledge and
> competency to contact the ISS.  I wrote the professor a letter, but he
> never replied.
> 
> I suspect their main problem is that they're using an excessively
> high-gain antenna, which means it's extremely directional and thus the
> targeting has to be very precise.
> 
> Also, it might help if they listened on the DOWNLINK frequency instead
> of the UPLINK frequency.
> 
> Kelly
> 
> 
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 5:20 PM, Ken Owen <n6kth at n6kth.com> wrote:
> > Hi folks:
> >
> > A student from Humber College (Toronto) has asked me several questions
> > regarding contacting the ISS.  One has to do with receiving a beacon, and
> > the other has to do with antenna polarization.  I've urged him to join AMSAT
> > and get on the listserv, but in the mean time, I wonder if anyone can help
> > him out with his questions.
> >
> > Please reply directly to him (paul_je at hotmail.com) if you can help.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Ken, N6KTH
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Paul Je [mailto:paul_je at hotmail.com]
> > Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 1:17 PM
> > To: Ken Owen
> > Subject: RE: ISS contact
> >
> > Say Ken, we've set up our primary station just fine, but I was wondering if
> > I could ask for your advice.  Well, you see, we've tested the transceiver
> > that we have (the ICOM IC-V8000), and we can transmit and receive just fine
> > with it on our circular-polarized HyGain 2m antenna.  Also, we did a VSWR
> > test and our loss is minimal with the 75W transceiver that the ICOM
> > produces.  Ok, so here's the problem.  Even with all the proper testing
> > done, we still can't seem to pick up or hear the 166MHz beacon that the ISS
> > produces.
> >
> > My classmates and I are a bit worried/stressed out.  I mean, just on last
> > Friday, we did a test and someone drove at least 5km away from out college
> > and heard us fine with the handheld radio he had.  We had a signal strength
> > of 3+ out of 5.  He could've drove out even further, but we felt that we did
> > enough testing to know that any attenuation losses were very minimal.
> >
> > Well, do you know what the problem could be?  Have you heard the beacon?
> > What does it sound like?  Maybe we should delay or advance the rotor by a
> > few seconds?   We're using NOVA software, and it allows us to send our
> > transmission a few seconds ahead or behind.
> >
> > Ok, so we have a circular polarized HyGain antenna hooked up to our Yaesu
> > G5500.  Uhm, this might sound dumb but do you know whether we should be
> > right hand circular polarized or left hand circular polarized?  Is the ISS
> > right hand or left hand on 144.490MHz?
> >
> > I'm trying to research this, but I'm having the hardest time to find this
> > information out.  Oh, also, since our antenna is circular-polarized, does
> > the way we set our antenna have an effect on our transmission?  I know this
> > sounds confusing, but let me explain:
> >
> > If you looked at our antenna from the front so that you could see all the
> > dipoles/elements both vertically and horizontally to your view, well, should
> > they be perfectly aligned with one set horizontal and one vertical?  Both
> > the vertical and the horizontal are perfectly 90degrees to each other,
> > however, instead of being a perfect cross to your view, the elements are
> > more like an "X" to your point of view (even though both are perfectly
> > 90degrees to each other).
> >
> > Well, hope to hear back from you.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

_________________________________________________________________
Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail.
http://windowslive.com/Explore/Hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_access_112008