[amsat-bb] Re: Frustrated--not hearing ARRISat

[Dee]

Burns,
First of all, I also have an eggbeater on 144 and it does work,
however, it is a poor antenna and my preamp for this one is in the
shack.  I have always advised that anyone that wants to do LEO
satellites, needs to put their money into their antenna system-  Good
coax, good preamp with a directional antenna.  Tonites pass at 7:20
local here in NJ was clearly heard by many since it was about 55
degrees.  I was just on the local AMSAT net and many heard it. I would
take your handheld outside and use the rubber duck to listen  Next
pass is in about 10 minutes at 22 degrees.
Listen on 145.950 +- Doppler and you should hear  the voice
announcements and the SSTV sigs.
Good luck... When it is in eclipse, it is in low power mode.
73,
Dee, NB2F


-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org]
On Behalf Of Burns Fisher
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 8:04 PM
To: AMSAT BB
Subject: [amsat-bb] Frustrated--not hearing ARRISat

Hi everyone,

Ok, I'm getting very frustrated and I think I need some Elmering.  I
have
not heard ANYTHING from ARRISat-1, at least nothing intelligible.  I'm
a
pretty new ham, so I'm getting into it one piece of equipment at a
time.
 Figured I'd play a bit with a handheld, and then figure out what I
needed
next step by step.  It's been several steps so far with nothing to
show for
it except some pretty hardware and a smaller bank account.  I know a
few
more things I can do, but I'd really like to know if I have some major
problem here.  I'll tell you what I'm trying, and I'd like to know if
anyone
has had success with anything similar.

First, I have an M2 2-meter eggbeater antenna.  It is inside the house
(my
shack is on the 2nd floor, sadly).  It has an SSB 2-meter pre-amp,
followed
immediately by a Diamond 2m/70cm duplexer into a 25-foot feed line.
At that
point it is connected via an adapter to my Kenwood F6A handheld.  I
also
have an FCD, but with its poor 2-meter filtering, I wanted to
eliminate one
problem.

A few minutes ago, there was a nice pass from ARRISat-1 here in FN42
(southern NH ); it was in sunlight and had been for some time, should
have
been up over 50 degrees elevation.  Turned everything on, (oh, yes
including
a 13.8V power supply for the preamp, fed separately).  My radio tunes
in
.005MHz increments, so I started out at 145.955 and tweaked around up
and
down, shifting to 145.950 and 145.945 as the sat reached and passed
max
elevation.   I *may* have heard vaguely down in the static a voice.  I
*may*
have heard vaguely down in the static some data that might have been
SSTV.
 I may have imagined it.

I *know* I would get better reception outside; I know I would be
better off
with a directional antenna that had more gain.  I can see improving
things
that way, but is NOTHING a reasonable expectation with this setup?  I
can
receive the NOAA weather station on 162ish MHz (outside the pre-amp's
curve
but I still get it);  I have received the ISS without the preamp (I
know
that is a lot more power than the sat).  So I don't think something is
wildly broken.  So my question to you is:  Have any of you been able
to read
the sat with anything similar?  An eggbeater?  I thought I remembered
someone receiving on a handheld with a rubber ducky?  BTW, someone
previous
mentioned that I should try listening to some of the other lower-power
sats;
many of them are 70cm downlink and I have not gotten a 70cm antenna
yet.

Thanks for any advice or comparisons.

Burns
W2BFJ
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