[amsat-bb] Re: Two Questions

[Michael Schulz]

On Sep 23, 2011, at 11:18 AM, Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) wrote:

> I hope you are able to be on VO-52 on Saturday, 22 October, when I am doing
> demonstrations on FM and SSB satellites from a hamfest in Tucson AZ that
> morning.  If there are FM passes available that morning, I will be on them -
> as well as the VO-52 passes.  At the hamfests I have operated from, the SSB
> demonstrations usually attract the larger crowds.  When they see it does not
> take much more equipment to work SSB than FM via satellite, that turns out
> to be a pleasant surprise for the audiences.
In the morning should be a 9:40ish am pass local time for me. So I might be on it 
sipping my coffee :). The big difference that you can show is, that the linear birds 
are not like a zoo at times (except for the 5 am passes during the weekends on AO-51)
and you can have a real QSO for the entire length of the pass. Granted you may only
collect one grid and you may already have that one but it's simply an addition.

> I use a pair of FT-817NDs (or sometimes I substitute a TH-F6A in place of the
> FT-817ND I use to receive the downlinks) and a "store bought antenna" (an
> Elk log periodic) for my all-mode satellite station.  This station, except for
> the Elk, fits in an old laptop bag that has seen tens of thousands of miles
> of travel in the past couple of years around North America and - recently -
> Australia.
My current antenna setup is a AR-22 TV rotor with a 5 ele 2M and a 10 ele 70cm at 
30 deg fixed elevation both horizontal polarized. Total cost approx. $200 plus cables.
Next project will be to build a 2nd IOio and phase them together 90 deg off to see if 
that will help with the fading issue (mostly on FO-29) vs buying or building a complex
RHCP/LHCP switchable setup.

My IOio beats your Arrow or Elk in terms of price by leaps :). But then again it doesn't look
as nice.

73 Mike K5TRI