Hello all...I'm hoping someone here can guide me. After working SO-50 and ISS a few times I'm hooked! I have been using my Baofenf F8-Pro and an Arrow II. I ultimately really want to have a full duplex setup and be able to work sideband. In the mean time though, I am looking for a "proper" portable unit that I can use for Satellite work, VHF.UHF basic communications and take on the road, campouts for satellite work, etc. The FTM-500DR seems to be full duplex, but no one can really confirm if it works that way and would be good for satellite. Thoughts/experience?

Secondly...it is 5W, 25W or 50W. I am thinking here that 25W would be a BAD IDEA to use on any satellite, correct? Seems like a sweetspot of 5-10W would be nice?

Finally, if you can recommend any full-duplex radios in production (I won't buy used as I just am not savy enough to deal with any potential issues the first year of ownership) I would be so grateful. Trying to line up my "wish list" with hopes that there will be some great sales next week.

I currently have a HackRf and have just ordered a NooElec LaNA, though I'm now searching for an antenna and dish. Can anyone recommend? my budget is £500

DIY Moxon/Yagi Antenna for Ham Radio Satellite QSOs: Build One for Under $100! [Includes the radio] https://youtu.be/gJ2kgCTHqCo

I was updating the Keplerian elements in SatPC32 today and noticed that all of the Tevel satellites were removed from my favorites.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that Tevel-1-8 birds are no longer included in any of the Kep selections.

For example, missing from:
celestrak.org/norad/elements/amateur.txt

celestrak.org/norad/elements/gp.php?GROUP=amateur&FORMAT=tle
amsat.org/tle/daily-bulletin.txt

amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasabare.txt

amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasa.all

What gives?

I’m a middle aged man feeling like a little kid. Last night I made my first QSO on a satellite which happened to be the ISS repeater. Can’t wait to try again tonight. My curiosity at the moment is what is the ideal azimuth (or range) for making multiple contacts in a single pass? It went by pretty quickly last night. Part of me thinks maybe I should get up on the roof but that might not be a good move at night in the dark when my wife and children are asleep.

Many of you may have worked the 70cm digipeater on Greencube (IO-117). It was supposed to have been decommissioned in early February but it’s still operating normally.

I know Amsat-NA and Amsat-I (Italy) were working with S5Labs, the satellite owner, to get a stay of execution.

Does anyone have the latest news ?

There seem to be lots of places to find information about which satellites have VHF/UHF FM Repeaters on them, but it's very difficult to find which of those are active, outside of the OSCAR sats listed here. Also, that site doesn't specify the frequency or mode being used.

Does anyone have a way to easily maintain a list of active FM vhf/uhf repeater sats? Thanks!

I just received my Icom IC-2730. I also have RT Systems. Can anyone link me to a file that I can import into my radio?

I've been interested in Amsat for some time, I have acquired all of the needed equipment but never gotten started.

A friend came by last night and demonstrated as we had a decent pass and I realized it wasn't as tedious as I might have thought.

So long story short he has an iPhone and uses Gosatwatch, which is unavailableon Android. I am in the android ecosystem so what is a comparable or better app for android?

Thanks

Hi all,

I recently got my ham general license with the goal of doing ISS contacts with my kids. Given the info on the ARISS page, they use 2m and 70cm bands. I expect I'll need a Yagi antenna, probably handheld for quick and "easy" pointing (easier than programming a az/el unit to track) but that is a problem for future-me.

What does this sub recommend for a starter hand terminal (HT) for contacting the ISS? Cheaper is better, but could go as high as $400 for a really robust unit. I'm also looking for suggestions that are currently available retail, so I don't have to get lucky with ebay or other secondary market sites.

It seems like the key feature for satellite work is full duplex (Tx on one freq, Rx on another). Is that right? Being new, it's hard to be confident I'm reading the specs of the various radios correctly. Is the Yaesu FT-70DR workable? It can Tx/Rx on the needed frequencies, it seems, but maybe not duplex?

Maybe there is just a good website out there that has great filtering to find the product you need, like NewEgg used to have for computer components?

TIA

The telephone number on the website is disconnected and I haven't had any response to an email sent to info@arrowantennas.com.

Anyone heard anything?

Just made my first Amsat contact, via the international space station. It was a dodgy setup. My base station can't receive 70cm currently, so I had a handheld on a table outside set to the downlink and was transmitting on my 2m with a high gain omni on the roof. Made contact with someone in NSW and Victoria from Queensland. Pretty happy with how it worked. Only could hear the ISS once it was within 1000km across the ground.

Now I want to get a setup that'll let me do this from my handheld when I'm in remote places without mobile coverage.

I plan on using my Flex 6600 with a couple of Q5 transponders to do some satellite/ISS work. I have a small Arrow cross beam, I've used to listen to some birds and ISS, but I'll probably invest or build a couple of good 2M & 70CM beams for the purpose.

But, I'm hung up on a decent rotator. I don't have the means for some of the homebrew or 3d printed projects out there. I was thinking of the Yaesu 550, but it has not been getting very good reviews lately. I'm looking at the SPID RAS from RF-Hamdesign. Has anyone tried them - good, bad, fair, partly cloudy?

I'll be using the EA4TX USB controller, unless someone knows of as better one.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks for this subreddit - I have learned a lot.

sorry for the poor quality and my current set up

LilacSat-2 seems to usually sound like hot garbage, I suspect the lack of tone-in and the uplink being outside the old satellite band plan mean lots of stray 2m emissions get picked up, but I have read that some people have better luck on LilacSat-2 with narrow-deviation FM than with wide FM.

Anyone have experience with narrow FM on CAS3H?

Thank you in advance for your patience, I am very new to satellite operation. I had my first pass of the ISS tonight..lSomething I couldn’t figure out, I was switching back and forth between the crews vhf contact frequency (145.8\144.49) and the crossband repeater (145.99/437.8)… it seems NA1SS was calling on the crossband (UHF) and not the standard “crew” VHF frequency? I thought the crossband frequencies were for “earth to earth” contacts… Or maybe I was just getting the ISS modes confused… Thanks again for your insight! 73

Hey there! I’m quite new to amateur radio (working on licensing!) and I want to start with satellites. I don’t know what power is required, but by reading the top pinned post, 5W is acceptable. This baofeng (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MAULSOK/ref=emc_b_5_mob_t) has 8W I believe, and looks to be fairly good. However, finding a good directional antenna seems to be an issue. Any ideas on cheap(er) directional antenna and/or radios? I don’t want to be spending too much money on top-of-the-line equipment right now, as like I said, I’m quite new. Thanks for the help in advance!

Everything you wanted to know about ARRL Field Day 2022 but were afraid to ask: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaeWWrlbvgA

==ARRL Field Day 2022 Tips==

=Classes=

(Class A) portable - Club or (non-club with 3) or more

(Class A - Battery) portable - Club or 3 or more

(Class B) portable - 1 or 2

(Class B - Battery) - 1 or 2

(Class C) Mobile

(Class D) Home stations

(Class E) Home stations - Emergency power

(Class F) Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

=Sections=

- US & Canada, others are "DX"

=Exchange Example=

1 transmitter at home in San Diego

- Phone (SSB/FM): One Delta San Diego

- CW: "1D SDG"

=Entry Form=

- class, power source, multiplier, bonus, info/help

=Cabrillo QSO File=

- Cabrillo Online Tool (WA7BNM/Bruce Horn)

=Links=

- ARRL Field Day 2022: http://field-day.arrl.org/

- ARRL Field Day Locator: http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator

- ARRL Field Day 2022 Rules: https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/Field-Day-Rules.pdf

- ARRL/RAC Section List: https://contests.arrl.org/contestmultipliers.php?a=wve

- Field Day Entry/Upload: https://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php

- Cabrillo Online Tool (WA7BNM): http://www.b4h.net/cabforms/arrlfd_cab3.php

- ARRL Submitting an Electronic Contest Log: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20-%20General/Tutorials/Submitting%20An%20Electronic%20Contest%20Log.pdf

- Cabrillo Specification: https://wwrof.org/cabrillo/

#ARRLFD

#ARRL #HamRadio #AmateurRadio

I've been away from satellites for a while, and it seems the repeater on the ISS is the only one I can hear. I'm in DM04 if that helps.

73 DE KM6MCH

It's my understanding that some people record satellite QSOs to later get the information they need to upload to LoTW. My question, to those who record, what setup are you using? I have a digital recorder but not sure what else I need. Thank you for reading and thank you again for any advice given.

I know the name OSCAR, Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio.

Most designations of _O tell where the OSCAR was from, right? (AO = American OSCAR, SO = Saudi OSCAR, JO = Jordan OSCAR, NO is Navy OSCAR, PO = Phillippines OSCAR)
What about G, H, I, L, M? Who oversees this naming convention?

And then, why do we also see these alternate names? Is the former not authoritative?
Why do we see XW, CAS, and HO names all used for the same bird? What do those other letters mean? (Is CAS = Chinese Amateur Satellite?)

The naming all seems rather chaotic and hard to sift through when learning/teaching others.