Summary of FD birding suggestions

["Scott A. Kingsley" <wb1f@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Hello Friends,
>
>Very recently, I requested help in setting up a Satellite Station for FD.
>The response has been exceptional - Thank you all so much! 
>
>The responses were so helpful, I thought I would share this summary, hope
>nobody minds the QRN!
>
>We will be running a Kenwood 790 2/440 50w all mode, Logsat Traking
>Software w/rotor control, 2 Cushcraft RHCP 2m/70cm beams up 10' (Thanks to
>Cushcraft for getting these to our dealer, HRO this week!). We are so
>excited we may even spring for a Yaesu Az/El rotor. After all, FD '99 is
>sooooo far away......
>
>We will be operating from Endicott Park in Danvers MA. 
>
>Looking forward to hearing you all in space!
>
>73,
>de WB1F
>Scott
>
>
>From: "Phil Weber GUM" <philw@netpci.com>:
>
>We at the Marianna's Amateur Radio Club (AH2G) on Guam island will have a
>Mode B station for Field Day on AO-10. The passes are not that good here so
>using RS-12 (VHF up/10M down) and FO-20/29 are our only hopes for QSOs. This
>year we will have a Yaesu rotor for both az/el instead of two manually
>postioned U-105 TV rotaters. The rig is a new FT847 with a Timewave DSP-9
>outboard sig processing unit. The antennas are a pair of Cushcraft Dual Band
>yagis vertically polarized that I have been using successfully for years
>here on island. so as you can see, a very modest station is all that's
>needed.
>
>Best of Luck and Hope to CUon the Birds....
>73's    Phil Weber KH2EI
>
>From: kc5amq@juno.com (Phillip Cox):
>
>Scott,
>We have the same concerns as you. Would it be too much to ask for you to
>forward a responce that you get, of your choice? It would be a great help
>since you have already asked the question on the reflector.
>
>Phillip Cox
>kc5amq@juno.com
>Proud to be a Ham!
>
>From: Rick Meuse <n1hid@mediaone.net>:
>You well need Headphones remember the headphones don't worry about the
>polarity and keep everything a far distance away from the generator.
>
>Rick
>
>From: "William Erhardt" <erhardt@mt.net>:
>
>Howdy Scott -  Try  http://www.amsat.org   for the wisp program. I use it
>all the time here in Montana and is a great little program. Also download
>the kep elements.
>
>I recommend rs-12  2 meters up and 10 meters down.  We are going to use
>horizontal  2 meter beam and dipole for down link on 10 meters. I use it at
>home and works fine on cw or voice.  Since you have the ts790 there fo-29  2
>meters up and 440 down is another great bird.  Have fun and look for  W7TCK
>on rs-12 from here in Helena, Montana Scott.
>
>Bill KA7YAO
>
>From: JOppen6115@aol.com:
>
>Hi Scott,
>I am glad to hear you're going to be on the sats on FD!  I too will be
>attempting that goal.  On 2M and 440, your best bets are AO-10 (up to 8 hour
>window) and FO-20 and 29 (4 to 6 15 minute windows each per day).  AO-10 is
>435MHz up and 2M down.  the FO birds are just the opposite.  On both you
>transmit LSB and receive on USB.  If you can scrounge up a 10M receiver you
>can also try RS-12 and RS-15.  For them transmit on USB, however.
>
>You could try AO-27, but it's a zoo on a regular weekend, so I don't hold out
>much hope for field day.  That's why I prefer the transponder birds, rather
>than the single channel FM ones.
>
>As for polarity, if you don't have a remote switch you don't even wanna think
>abot switching polarity.  The reason is that the difficulty in getting
precise
>phasing between two long leads of coax is nearly impossible.  Just fix
them in
>RHCP at the antenna and leave them.  Lacking that, leave them linear.  I will
>be running all linear antennas, but if you've got circular you may as well
run
>them.  Switching polarity's nice, but you'll make plenty of QSOs without it.
>
>73,
>John, KJ6HZ
>
>From: Morsesat@aol.com:
>
>Scott,
>You're on the right track with what you have.  Yes, polarity IS important and
>if you have difficulty with one, switch to the other.  Field day is supposed
>to be a time to experiment and actually PHYSICALLY switching polarity might
>teach all that watch something.
>As far as what sats to use, the mode J birds will be full of activity.  Get
>near to the edges and stay there and call CQ FD.  You'll get plenty of
>responses.  Don't forget OSCAR 10 ! ! !  It is on the air and may have some
>deep nulls but it will be usable.  With short runs and 9913 you should
have no
>problem hearing activity.  OSCAR 27 in FM mode will be packed as you only
have
>"ONE" freq pair and a lot of Dual BAnd radios trying to make it through the
>noise!!
>
>Good Luck and have fun !!
>
>73,
>Dee, NB2F
>NJ AMSAT area co-ordinator
>
>From: Amsat-NA Phase 3D Spacecraft Integration Facility
<p3dlab@magicnet.net>:
>
>Call Martha at AMSAT H.Q. she will be glad to send you all the info you need.
>The number is (301) 589-6062 voice (301) 608-3410 fax.
>
>Lou McFadin
>W5DID
>
>From: David <kb5ylg@gte.net>:
>
> Good set of questions.  Our club had a satellite station last year, but
>the operator has to skip field day this year, so we are scrambling to get
>someone else up to speed.  If you get any useful replies by direct email,
>I'd appreciate if you would forward them onto the reflector or to me direct! 
>
>Here's what I can tell you from my miniscule experience.  We did operate
>Oscar 27, and a couple of the RS satellites.  In addition to the Oscar
>antennas, we used a Lindenblad which is easy to assemble from pvc, rulers,
>and coat hangers.  Also, just a magmount 2meter vertical. 
>
>A good program to have in the field to predict passes of the different
>satellites is WIN ORBIT (though there are others);  WIN ORBIT runs under
>Windows 3.x or 95/NT.  In addition to the software, you need the latest
>keplerian elements and sat frequencies. 
>You can get these several places...I recommend the AMSAT page www.amsat.org
>or the ARRL page www.arrl.com.  You import the latest keps into your orbit
>tracker's database to get the best predictions.  It would help to go ahead
>and get the lat/long coordinates of your Field Day site for the most
>accurate predictions.  You can also put you Lat/long info into some web
>sites that predict orbits, to get a reasonably accurate projection Friday
>night or Saturday morning.  Ther are links to these sites from the Amsat
>site. 
>
>I hope this information is helpful, and that we get to operate with you on
>the "birds".  We'll be operating as WC5C.  Good luck! 
>
>David Johnson KB5YLG 
><http://www.qsl.net/tcarc-ntx/index.html>Tri-County Amateur Radio Club
>http://www.qsl.net/tcarc-ntx/ 
>
>From: ted@hawaii.edu (ted Brattstrom):
>
>Aloha Scott -
>
>A quick suggestion, see if you can get it all together before FD so you can
>get a few QSOs practice :-) it will help a lot!!!! (I lost a couple of
>contacts a couple of FDs ago from not practicing on a satellite I hadn't
>used before :-( )
>
>Also, build a cheat sheet of standard Uplink and downlink frequencies to
>know where to start off on each bird. Inverting transponders mean that when
>you change the TX one way, you have to change the RX the other way!
>
>Use headphones... turn it up enough to hear yourself to adjust for doppler
>(change the highest frequency you are using) then turn it down when you
>talk so the echo doesn't confuse you on AO10.... new     satellite      ops
>talk     like      this.... :-) :-)   it is fun watching an HF DXER
>type making their first full duplex contact via a satellite....
>
>more below.
>
>
>Well, your choices are AO10 (mode B) - FO20 and FO29 (Mode JA) - RS12 (Mode
>K and A if you have a 10M receiver)
>
>short runs of coax and/or preamps are good.
>
>If you set it up for RHCP (Right Hand Circular Polarization) that is the
>best, but if you are armstronging it anyway, you can always armstrong the
>rotation sense for AO10 - the other ones are going by quick enough that it
>possibly wont matter.
>
>I plan on using linear polarization for the 2M side of things - probably
>vertical.... the 70cm side is CP. I do it that way mostly due to the ease
>of transportation and setup.
>
>Listen for NH6YK or WH6CZB on the birds for FD. If you are in the 1st call
>area, most likely AO10 will be the way to work us in Hawaii.
>
>73 and aloha - ted - nh6yk
>
>From: kc5amq@juno.com (Phillip Cox):
>
>Thank you for your help in field day preperations. I think that if I do
>anything, I bring the IC-211 and the 13-2B (Hand held) and just borow an
>HF receiver for the RS birds. 
>
>Thanks for the help again,
>Phillip Cox
>kc5amq@juno.com
>Proud to be a Ham!
>