[amsat-bb] AO-85 report from the 2019-06-16 - 0028 UTC pass

[Jeff Johns]

KB4PML

Jeffrey Alan Johns WE4B 

> On Jun 16, 2019, at 9:45 PM, John Brier via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I made five QSOs on this 47 degree pass from FM05. I was using my
> Kenwood TM-V71 radio at 50 watts and an Alaskan Arrow II antenna with
> the last third boom section removed.
> 
> I didn't hear the bird for the first couple minutes of the pass and
> couldn't get it to come on myself. Eventually it came on and I heard
> Clayton W5PFG not long after that so I assume he turned the
> transponder on. In the first half of the pass it was difficult to get
> a solid signal into the sat. Other stations had the same problems.
> Audio was sometimes really low, great other times, and distorted at
> times as well.
> 
> The last part of the pass was not bad though. I was able to
> consistently get a signal into the bird, even at 10 or 5 watts. I had
> a conversation with Roy K3RLD about this as we were both having the
> same good luck. This reminded me of past AO-85 behavior where it is
> easier to get in in the last part of the pass. I was actually on top
> of a landfill park in my town so I had a perfect view of the horizon
> and was able to get in all the way to LOS, albeit with some picket
> fencing effects on the downlink.
> 
> Stations contacted:
> 
> W5PFG
> W5HRH
> N9XCO *
> N0RC
> K3RLD
> Also heard ???PML
> 
> * This was Richard N9XCO's first sat QSO. He just finished setting up
> a IC-9700/G-5500/SatPC32 station
> 
> One odd thing I noticed is at the end of the pass I believe I was at
> 145.970 MHz, 10 KHz down from the center frequency of 145.980. It
> looked so weird I did a double take and doubted I was really at that
> frequency. I don't know if the bird was off frequency or if it was
> something on my end.
> 
> My audio recording is here:
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1xduj3had9gicm/2019-06-16_0028_UTC_AO-85_KG4AKV_FM05.WAV?dl=0
> 
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
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