[amsat-bb] Been A While

[jbblack68@gmail.com]

It's been quite a while since I have been on this BB. I got out of the  
hobby for about four years but I am working my way back in. I used to be  
KS4AW then K2SAT. Now I'm W4JBB. I don't even know if some of the folks who  
were involved in AMSAT are even still around. I do searches on their  
webpages and either get nothing or no updates in years - I don't dive past  
the first search results page. These are a few I remember:

K5OE
K6YK
KF4FDJ
N7SFI
N8DEU
WB6LLO

There were many others too.

I am getting my equipment slowly out of storage (I have it stored all over  
the house apparently). I had a FODtrack interface and found a partial build  
of the G6LVB tracker. I cannot remember if I finished the LVB tracker or  
not. I have a cutout for and LCD display, but no display in it. My dad has  
my '847, but he's not using it and I'll get it back in the next week. I  
left my tower up with my 2m/70cm antennas and the G5400 rotor. Feedline is  
still there too... partially. I guess my only question about gear is what  
should I use for auto-tracking with a Vista box? Like I said, I *had* a  
FODtrack interface, but I cannot find it. I also have a partially built LVB  
tracker. I have a parallel PCI card I can install in the Vista machine but  
I wonder if anyone has had any luck with that setup... I'm not opposed to  
booting up into Linux either.

I have looked at the AMSAT homepage and there is only a small fraction of  
satellites still available. I have renewed my membership and am really  
looking forward to getting back on the birds. I think I have rambled enough.

73,
Joel, W4JBB