[amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record

Wed Feb 17 13:59:17 UTC 2016

Steve, at this side
RX: Funcube pro plus + SDR# V.1430 (with great NB capabilities) + Yagi-Uda 11el CP + Mirage KP-2 pre-amp.
TX: TS-2000x + Yagi-Uda 20el CPTracked by Satellite Tracking embedded into SDR-RADIO V2 software suite + GS-232/G-5400
Coax: RFS RGC213 15mts longAnd a clear view to my N / NW bound which allows to hear a little after sat LOS most of times.
Put together again an old P3 sat setup sitting in storage for many years, just added the SDR fun to it.

Tks & 73
Eduardo PY2RN

      From: Stephen E. Belter <seb at wintek.com>
 To: Eduardo PY2RN <py2rn at arrl.net>; Dave Swanson <dave at druidnetworks.com>; "amsat-bb at amsat.org" <amsat-bb at amsat.org> 
 Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 12:44 AM
 Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record

Gentlemen:

Congratulations!  

Would you describe your stations?  Radios, antennas, coax, preamps,
software?

Thanks!

73, Steve N9IP
--
Steve Belter, seb at wintek.com

On 2/16/16, 8:46 PM, "AMSAT-BB on behalf of Eduardo PY2RN"
<amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org on behalf of py2rn at arrl.net> wrote:

>Thanks Dave for the QSO and well done with all the persistence.
>
>It is always good to double check even when everything is saying that it
>wouldn't be possible, even the computer shouting "satellite is not
>visible!" over your signal :o)
>73s
>Eduardo  PY2RN
>
>      From: Dave Swanson <dave at druidnetworks.com>
> To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:14 PM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record
>  
>Satellite Friends and Colleagues,
>
>I wanted to share with everyone that on February 10th, at 2009UTC I made
>a scheduled contact with Eduardo, PY2RN, using AO-7 Mode B, from
>'Shinnal Mountain' just west of Little Rock, Arkansas.  My 10 digit grid
>locator for the contact was EM34ST20SC, and Eduardo's station is located
>at GG66LW77JQ in Vinhedo/SP, Brazil.  Using the
>http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website for reference, this equates
>to 8030.895 km which we believe to be a new record for AO-7 Mode B. I've
>been extremely busy this past week, but I had a few folks request that I
>share a little background behind the contact, so here we go.
>
>Back on January 24th, I was on an AO-7(B) pass looking for Gustavo,
>PT9BM. While not a record distance, Gustavo's QTH is just shy of 7500km
>away from me, so I was up on my mountain, specifically in a spot with
>great a great southeastern view of the Horizon. As the bird came into
>view, while scanning the passband, I heard Eduardo, PY2RN, calling CQ. I
>tried to answer him, but his signal disappeared quickly after that, and
>I went ahead and had a great QSO with Gustavo, and didn't think anything
>else of it until later that night when I decided to look up the station
>I had heard. To my astonishment, Eduardo was 8030km away, which was way
>beyond the theoretical range AO-7, even with elevation assistance. I
>promptly emailed Eduardo and we both agreed to try and make a contact,
>even though the math said it shouldn't be possible.
>
>At this point the random luck that had let me hear Eduardo on the 24th
>seemed to elude us. We attempted contacts on the 26th, 28th, and 30th
>all to no avail. After recalculating windows, our next shot was on
>February 8th. WinListen (from Sat32pc) calculated a 3 second window on
>the 8th, followed by 5 seconds on the 10th. The day of the 8th came, and
>we prepared for the attempt. Murphy once again seemed to haunt us
>though, as we successfully heard the calls and grids of each other, but
>strong CW QRM was hitting the bird so hard that the intelligibility was
>low and, more importantly, neither of us had a camera running. We
>decided to not count the QSO due to these reasons. The good news was
>though, we both heard each other (the first time that had happened) and
>our frequency coordination was spot on. We knew it could be done, we
>just needed a little luck.
>
>Finally, on February 10th, we got a bit of a break. We had already
>determined that 5 seconds was simply not enough time to do a proper "QSL
>thanks for the grid, have a great day" type of chat, so we both agreed
>to simply repeat 'your call / my call / grid / report' rapidly, much in
>the same way a digital or contest contact is made. At 2009UTC, both
>stations cleanly heard the others call and grid, completing the
>contact.  It was extremely rapid, and very weak, but clear.  Eduardo's
>side of the QSO turned out way better than mine did, and he has uploaded
>a recording of it to youtube here: https://youtu.be/pTGSlaY7K7A
>
>After all my work towards low-elevation contacts from mountain-tops, I
>think this is approaching the limits of what can be done on AO-7. This
>was by far the hardest sked I've ever attempted, and with the contact
>window measured in mere seconds, it leaves absolutely no room for error.
>Had I not heard Eduardo's call at random on the attempt with Gustavo, I
>doubt I would have even pursued this as something that was possible.
>That said, wow.. what a rush
>
>Big thanks to Eduardo, PY2RN, for humoring my obsession with making
>ultra long-distance QSOs on the birds, and for sticking with it until we
>finally made it work. Good DX my friend. Also thanks to Gustavo (PT9BM)
>for persuading me to point my arrow to the South, and Drew (KO4MA) for
>acting as a spotter during one of the passes to see just how far apart
>we were from each other. Appreciate it guys.
>
>If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to field them. Until
>then, catch you on the birds! 73!
>
>-Dave, KG5CCI
>_______________________________________________
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>
>  
>_______________________________________________
>Sent via AMSAT-BB at amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
>to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
>Opinions expressed
>are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
>AMSAT-NA.
>Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
>Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb