[amsat-bb] AO-85 question

[Fernando Ramirez]

Steve, AO-85 can be a bit harder to work with an HT but it's doable. I
started making QSOs with a UV-5R half duplex and an Arrow antenna. IMHO the
best chances are on descending passes or after the first quarter of an
ascending pass. Passes above 20° work the best.

My longest distance on AO-85 was 5282 km with FG8OJ in Guadeloupe using a
UV-B5 to transmit and a FT-817 as the receiver. I was using the Arrow
during that 2° pass.

Try twisting the antenna to match the satellite RX polarization.
Figuratively speaking, of course :-)

Best of luck!

Fernando
NP4JV

On Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 7:19 AM <skristof at etczone.com wrote:

> Lately, I've been trying other FM satellites besides SO-50. I have made
> contacts on AO-92, but I can't get anything from AO-85.
>
> On AO-85 I can hear the voice ID of the satellite plain as day, but I
> never hear any other hams trying to make contacts and I can't seem to
> get into the satellite.
>
> My set up is two Baofeng handhelds and an Arrow antenna. This set up
> works fine on SO-50 and AO-92 so I know that it works.
>
> For AO-85 I'm using 435.170 for the uplink and 145.980 for the downlink.
> I have the uplink sending the 67.0 Hz tone.
>
> So, what am I missing? Constructive tips would be very much appreciated.
>
>
> Steve AI9IN
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