[amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record

Dave Swanson dave at druidnetworks.com
Wed Feb 17 19:24:42 UTC 2016


Steve,

I'm using my "Alaskan" Arrow ( 4 elements on 2m, 10 elements on 70cm) 
held by hand running 10' pieces of LMR-240 into an Icom 821h, manually 
tuned.

Everything is run from a LiFePo4 battery, and I pretty much exclusively 
operate portable mountain-top with unobstructed horizon views in the 
direction I'm planning to work.

73!

Dave, KG5CCI



On 2/17/2016 7:59 AM, Eduardo PY2RN wrote:
> 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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>>    
>> _______________________________________________
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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!
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