[amsat-bb] Re: AO-51 Signal Strength Post Flip

[B J]

--- On Tue, 2/9/10, John Papay <john at papays.com> wrote:

> From: John Papay <john at papays.com>
> Subject: [amsat-bb]  AO-51 Signal Strength Post Flip
> To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
> Received: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 8:47 AM
> It  has been about a month now
> since AO-51 was commanded back to
> its normal orientation.  But many are reporting that
> they are having more
> trouble hearing it now than they did before the first
> re-orientation.
> 
> It does seem to me that some stations that usually hear
> very well are not
> hearing that well now.  This morning's pass (9Feb2010
> 1045z) of AO-51
> seemed to bear that out.  AF6RF, KB1RVT, KE3LB, WD0X?,
> KJ4CBC,
> K5QXJ, WB2IOL and YF6BFE were on the pass and with a few
> exceptions, all were not able to hear at some point during
> the pass.
> There are also a few noisy uplink transmissions as well.
> 
> The recording can be downloaded at:
> http://www.papays.com/AO-51_09Feb2010_104452za.mp3
> (there are no signals in the first minute of the
> recording)
> 
> Is anyone else having trouble hearing AO-51 as well as they
> heard it before
> the flip experiment?

<snip>

In the past few weeks, I've often had problems hearing AO-51 here in DO33.  A year ago, signals of at least S3 on my FT-817ND were common.  Now they are weaker.

As well, I get the impression that the signal polarity has changed.  Formerly, I could hold my Arrow dual-band Yagi with the 2 m elements nearly horizontal and still hear the satellite.  Now, I have to turn it nearly 90 degrees, sometimes changing the orientation more than once during a pass.

Some of that I might attribute to my operating a portable station within a  residential area in the city, but I definitely noticed a significant difference between what I hear from AO-51 now and what it was before the satellite was flipped.

73s

Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL



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