[amsat-bb] "Walking and chewing gum at the same time"

[David Reinhart]

I put together an HEO station on the cheap. I even contributed an 
article to the Journal on how I did it. If you take your time, shop 
around, pick up some used gear, and do some work on your own, it doesn't 
have to cost an arm and a leg.

One problem is we keep talking HEO vs LEO and we forget what used to be 
in between. The RS birds were very easy to work. They had a much lower 
Doppler shift than the FM birds and didn't even need a VHF antenna that 
was steerable in elevation, just azimuth; or even an egg beater with 
enough power. I used a G5RV and an ARR preamp in the shack along with my 
HF transceiver for receive.

When I got my WAS OSCAR I worked my last state on an RS bird during a <1 
minute pass! When I submitted my application for the award, I did some 
analysis and figured out that over 50% of contacts were on RS birds, 
mostly RS-10.

At a couple of the Symposia I brought up the idea of a VHF/10m satellite 
built from two sets of multiple cubes, separated by the HF antenna made 
of spring steel, like measuring tape, with the VHF antennas at the end 
of one stack. The 10M transmitter in one stack, 2M receiver and control 
in the other, batteries in both, solar cells all over. Nobody was 
interested.

If you walk to talk price barriers, list price on a new MFJ 2M SSB 
transceiver is $359, and a CW module is available, too. I used a used 
Kenwood 2M multimode rig to start with.

I didn't contribute a fortune to AO-40, but I put in all I could afford 
a bit more besides. Not only was I terribly disappointed when it died, I 
was even more disappointed when everything but LEO seemed to vanish from 
our goals. Whoever is on the board, I want to see that back!

David Reinhart, W4DSR (ex-WA6ILT)