Program Idea: Satellite

[KC9ONY]

I'd like to see someone working a satellite.    I believe there is someone in
the club that has that ability.   Not sure if that is best on a Wed night or not.

[KC9ZNR]

I'd like to see this too. If/when I build an external antenna for an HT I might try to listen in on a satellite. Some tracking info here: http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=18. 

[KC9ONY]

Thanks for the link Zach, and welcome to the club and this forum!

I've seen some of those Arrow antennas for sale on QRZ.com from time to time.
There are also some sites, which you are probably aware of, to build your own antenna.
So much to do in this hobby.

73,
Tom KC9ONY

[KC9ZNR]

I tried to receive FO-29 (Fuji-OSCAR-29) on 435.900-435.800 during its 1958 CST 20/Sep/2013 pass, but only managed to tune in unintelligible static around the max elevation. Enough to know that something was transmitting, but that was it. I was using my Baofeng UV-5R+ HT with a Nagoya NA-701 antenna. I suppose I need to expedite the construction of an external Yagi for 2m/70cm. I'll try again with AO-07 (AMSAT-OSCAR 7) tomorrow but expect similar results without a high-gain antenna.

[KC9ZNR]

Success! I was able to hear QSOs on Saudi-OSCAR-50 as it passed overhead around 2350 this evening (25/Sep/2013). The 8-element Yagi I built is really crude - it's literally held together by duct tape and rubber bands. Only cost ~$5 and a couple hours to build, though. Since the transceiver only allows me to manually adjust one band at a time for doppler, I'll have to stick to listening for now. I'm impressed that the antenna actually worked, and will play around with it some more as time permits.

[KC9ZNR]

I've been able to hear the CW beacons on several satellites, but been frustrated by the inability to copy the CW. I realized tonight the problem is that the FM handheld I'm using picks up the CW as "silence" and that the morse code "dits" and "dahs" are the silent beats between static, so I'm effectively hearing the opposite of normal Morse code. I was able to record some of the telemetry data from HO-68 as an audio file. Using Audacity, I copied and inverted the waveform to a separate track, then cut out the CW tone on one track and rendered both together to cancel the static. With the judicious application of filters and normalization, I can hear the CW and copy it proper: BJ1SA XW XW AAA TTT AUE TNT TTT... and so forth. This is obviously not an ideal way to listen to a CW beacon, and I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good portable 70 cm CW receiver for listening to the birds? My goal is to demonstrate to family/friends how easily these satellites can be heard. Tinfoil hat jokes aside…

[KC9ONY]

Zach, I applaud you for jumping right in and trying to learn this satellite stuff. 
One of the other boards I read has a clapping emoticon, but I can't find that here  just now.
 
I'm more the type to sit back and observe for a while, which isn't always a good thing.   You are
learning by doing which is great.

I wonder if we should start a separate section for your Satellite adventures, but I'll leave that
up to Brian to decide.