[amsat-bb] First XW-1 transponder pass over the US

[Andrew Glasbrenner]

That was some really exciting stuff! I recorded the pass on my 
SDR-IQ/R7000, and had the receive antenna split off to my normal station 
as well. Right after turn on, K8YSE responded to my CQ, and we had a few 
brief exchanges. About that time I realized the middle of the pass band 
was going to be a bad place to be and moved up to the high end of the 
passband.

After moving up out of the mess, I worked W4DFU at the University of 
Florida, with Jay and Jimmy at the helm, then HK4MKE, Andrew in 
Columbia. Signals were good until the end of the pass when I think I was 
having some polarity fades on my fixed LHCP antenna. 1 to 5 watts was 
PLENTY on the uplink, even when crowded. I use a 10 element horizontal 
only yagi for the uplink.

http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/radio/?action=view&current=xw-112-20-20092-29-35Z.jpg 
is a screenshot of from Spectravue before TCA. Notice the lost ditter 
almost twice as strong as everyone else. There are also at least 9 
separate SSB signals in that screengrab, and the beacon is at the far 
right. The whole file is about 680 Mb. If anyone wants it, please 
contact me. We can exchange it over Skype, or I'll burn it to your 
CD/DVD with an SASE. Spectravue is a free download, and well worth 
trying even if you don't have an SDR.

73, Drew KO4MA