[amsat-bb] Re: Use of ICOM 910 for AO-51 L-Band BBS Uplink?

[Greg D.]

Hi Jim,

I have a Yaesu 736R, which is also blessed with 10 watts on L-band, though I think it's got a little more spunk than that.  I run about 20m of 1/2" hardline with about 2-3m of RG8-ish cable (RG-213 or 214, I forget what it is) at each end for rotor flex and shack entry.  There's also a Polyphaser lightning arrestor thingy in there too, which claims to be good to 1000mHz (close enough?), and all the associated connectors to put it all together.  I've probably got at least as much loss as you are predicting.  At the business end is a homemade 18 turn RHCP Helix.  With this setup I have no trouble getting into AO-51 to within a few degrees of the horizon on the phone modes.  (I don't have any 9.6k packet equipment for L-band, so I don't know how well the digital modes would work.)

The biggest problem for me isn't power, it's the trees around my house, which make the southerly parts of a pass hard to hit.  It's not quite as bad as receiving on 2.4 ghz, but I definitely notice the effect.

Reading other's reports, your results may be different.  The only sure way to find out is to try it!

Good luck,

Greg  KO6TH


> From: jimlist at milnet.uk.net
> To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:05:30 +0100
> Subject: [amsat-bb]  Use of ICOM 910 for AO-51 L-Band BBS Uplink?
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
>   I would be interested to know if anyone is using an ICOM 910 with the L-Band
> module for Ao-51 uplink on the BBS? (The optional L-Band unit for the 910 runs 10
> watts according to the book).
> 
>   I am particularly interested to know what type/gain of antenna I would need to get
> a reliable up link. I am planning to use about 20 metres of Ecoflex 10, which will
> introduce a loss of something like 3 Dbs.
> 
>   I know that the LBand/Digital up link is currently off, just gettting ready for
> the next 'on' period!
> 
> 73s
> 
> Jim G3WGM
> 
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