[amsat-bb] Re: ISS Voice Contacts

[Ted]

Hi Rick, good question....I can't help you on the radio part, but thought a
bit about this part of your question:
" I've tried to transmit in breaks but how do I know if I'm hitting the
station or not? I'm guessing I'm not getting in since I haven't gotten a
response. Or worse, causing QRM to another station? I hope not and if so,
apologies."

Personally, I am not going to worry a lot about being 'duplex' into NA1SS.
There seems to be kind of an obsession with sat operators about being
'duplex' all the time. I think it's nice if one can but there are many, many
operators that making sat contacts with HT's that are not duplex. Think
about the local repeater...not really duplex unless you are constantly
playing with your reverse button. How about a DX pile up?  No one is waiting
around to be duplex on that situation !!!

For me, I would exercise common courtesy, but we gotta keep calling and
hopefully get an answer. There will be some inherent 'doubles' or 'qrm'
(small q) but with the volume of operators attempting, I think that is just
part of the thrill and skill of finally making the contact. At the end of
the day, the space station is just kind of the ultimate DX contact, and
perhaps the toughest.

Good Luck in the contest !!

73, Ted, K7TRK 

-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
Behalf Of Rick Tejera
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 2:53 PM
To: 'amsat-bb'
Subject: [amsat-bb] ISS Voice Contacts

All,

A little help here. Not quite sure if I'm working at getting NA1SS in the
log from the right angle. 

First a description of my station: I'm using a Kenwood TH7-DA with a home
brew Dual band yagi, mounted on an old telescope mount for tracking. I've
programmed a split frequency into the memory set to receive on 145.800 and
Transmit on 144.490. So far so good. 

Now the TH7-DA is a full duplex unit, but that only is available when
working cross band (If I'm wrong here, some one please clue me in how to get
that to work). Given this I can't hear myself on the downlink, which is kind
of moot anyway since the ISS is essentially a simplex system. During the
passes I've tried to work I hear the ISS responding to Earth stations. I've
tried to transmit in breaks but how do I know if I'm hitting the station or
not? I'm guessing I'm not getting in since I haven't gotten a response. Or
worse, causing QRM to another station? I hope not and if so, apologies.

I'm quite willing to be schooled on this, any suggestions would be most
appreciated.

73  

Clear Skies

Rick Tejera
Editor SACnews,
Public Outreach Coordinator
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
www.saguaroastro.org <http://www.saguaroastro.org/> saguaroastro at cox.net
K7TEJ, AMSAT 38452