[amsat-bb] "Frustration" Solved!

[Michael Tondee]

Well, just got through listening to a pass of AO-51. As several have 
suggested, it was a pointing issue with the antenna.
I can't believe my memory has gotten to the point where I couldn't 
remember where North was the last time I had the antennas up.
 Thing is, I actually took a compass reading the other day and 
compensated for declination but I must have  misread something 
somewhere. I was only about 20 degrees off! Declination here is only 4 
degrees so it couldn't have been that. That's what I get for working on 
stuff at dusk I guess. I'm slightly embarrassed!
  BTW, I didn't mean to make anyone think that an 11 element yagi was 
too narrow for LEO's. It's fine if you point the dang thing right!  
Also, the reason why I went this route with the more complex antenna and 
AZ/EL system is that I already had the stuff on hand from my last foray 
into satellites. Only the preamp was new and I knew that everything had 
worked before. I can certainly appreciate the suggestions on 
simplification and I was about to do just that if I didn't have any 
success today.
 Now I just have to work out some of my cable issues and get something 
going for transmit. My 2 meter "cheap yagi" has seen better days. Once I 
get that, I'll raise the mast and get the antennas up to their normal 
height.
 I'm just using HT's right now but I hope to have a new TS-2000X 
sometime after the first of the year. I've been quite interested in the 
TS-2000 vs. IC910H thread. I know that Icom has discontinued the 910 
because of the 9100 but I was under the impression that Kenwood would 
release a new rig at Dayton this year and wonder if that will mean the 
demise of the TS-2000.
 Thanks everyone for the suggestions and also allowing me to "vent" a 
bit last night.I was getting pretty frustrated.
73,
Michael, W4HIJ