[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 sometimes hard to access

[Andrew Glasbrenner]

Give it a while, there are probably 10x the users now as there will be in 3 months. 25w will seem excessive by then.

73, Drew KO4MA

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 25, 2013, at 5:55 PM, James Luhn <luhn at wt.net> wrote:
> 
> I have had the same experience as Perry with AO-73 with regards to signal problems.  I have an IC-910 transceiver and a  M2 2mcp14 (2 meters) and  M2 436CP30 antenna with a Yaesu G-5500.  I have the IC-910 set to about 25 watts on UHF.  I have made one contact on AO-73.  It has taken me forever to get the doppler correct as I usually cannot hear my signal.    Last night my returning signal was extremely strong for about 1 minute.  In comparison, the received signal from FO-29 is extremely strong so I am assuming that my UHF antenna is working fine.  Like Perry, I have never experienced this before.  At times AO-73 takes some very deep fades (telemetry). With such a small little cube, I would not think the satellite is blocking the antenna (although 4 inches is starting to get close to 435 wavelength.  The frequency offset confused me at first.  I just kept cranking up the frequency and there I was but very, very weak. I'm not gripping as I am having a blast.  Those of you with experience are probably getting a laugh at what I report.  I am a newbie to this satellite stuff and learning as I go and extremely excited to make even one contact.  Maybe the geese overhead are causing me some problems. :-)
> 
> 73,
> -james
> W5AOO
> ...a ham for 50+ years and enjoying every minute of it!
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