Speaker A
Uh, well, good evening, everybody. Uh, welcome to September's OAR talk. Uh, I am Mark Pentler 2 ZIG. I always forget to do that, so I'm doing it now. And, uh, we have a cracker for you this evening. Uh,
Explore the addictive world of amateur radio satellites with John Stringer, covering gear, operation, and personal achievements.
Key Takeaways
- Amateur radio satellites offer a rewarding and addictive hobby combining radio and space interests.
- Proper equipment and understanding of satellite operation techniques are essential for success.
- Operating etiquette and technical knowledge like Doppler shift and polarization improve contact quality.
- The amateur satellite community is active and supportive, with ongoing talks and resources.
- Personal dedication and experimentation can lead to notable achievements in satellite communications.
What the video covers
- Introduction to amateur radio satellites by John Stringer, M5 JFS.
- John's background in radio starting from childhood with a crystal set.
- Progression through Air Cadets and obtaining amateur radio licenses.
- Rekindling interest in radio during COVID lockdown with digital modes and meteor detection.
- Overview of necessary equipment and antennas for satellite operation.
- Explanation of operating etiquette, Doppler effect adjustments, and polarization.
- Discussion of different satellite types including FM and higher orbit satellites.
- Notable achievements and memorable contacts over six years of satellite chasing.
- Mention of upcoming OARC talks and community engagement.
- Encouragement for newcomers to get involved in amateur satellite radio.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Event Overview
- 03:00John Stringer's Early Radio Background
- 05:56Licensing and Early Amateur Radio Experience
- 09:17Getting Started with Satellite Radio Gear
- 15:22Antenna Design and Setup for Satellites
- 18:14Operating Techniques and Doppler Effect
- 27:44Satellite Types and Operating Experiences
- 37:24Notable Achievements and Closing Remarks
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
something which I enjoy doing and, um, which I'm really, uh, excited, uh, for the speaker that we've got to tell you all about it and get more of you into it. Um, before then, I'll just tell you, um, about
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the rest of the year. Uh, we do have a talk booked for next month which is Oark's very own Hibby, uh, creator of, uh, Hibian, the amateur radio focused Linux distribution, and he's going to be talking all about that next month. I
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don't as yet have anything confirmed for November, uh, but in December we are rounding off the year how we started it with Jonathan Naylor G4 KLX, uh, who will be, uh, talking about packet radio history, uh, with a particular focus, uh, on the UK.
Speaker A
Um, so, uh, hopefully I'll get something booked in for November and I will let you all know about it soon. Um, on to tonight though. Um, our speaker for this evening is, uh, John Stringer, M5 JFS.
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And, um, John, uh, as well as doing other things in amateur radio, is particularly interested in, uh, satellite operation.
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And is, uh, one of the people who's been particularly helpful in getting me going, uh, doing it and, uh, he's going to talk all about it to you now. Um, we will take Q&A at the end. If you have
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questions, pop them in the chat or if you're feeling brave later on, uh, you can pop your camera and mic on. Uh, but, uh, for now, I'm going to hand over to John.
Speaker A
Well, thank you very much, Mark. And, uh, good evening to everybody that's, uh, that's joined. Thank you for, uh, for joining. Let me just first of all, uh, share my screen if I can remember how to do that.
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and hit share. And can somebody just give me a nod so that they can see the, uh, the opening screen?
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That's fine, John. That's awesome stuff. Right. Okay. So, rather comical sort of title for the talk, Chasing Birds, the addictive world of amateur radio satellites. And it certainly has become an addictive thing, uh, for me. So, um, what am I going to be rambling on about
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for the next 40 or so minutes? Well, I'll do a little bit about my background in radio, uh, and how I got hooked on amateur satellites. Uh, we'll talk a bit about what's up there. Uh, what sort of
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gear do you need to get started to actually, uh, work, um, doing voice contacts through, uh, the satellites, little bit on operating etiquette, best practices, some dos and don'ts. Um, so that we all play nicely and everybody has good time.
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Um, we'll talk about some useful software tools, social networks, and bits and pieces. And then just to blow my own trumpet at the end, a few of my notable achievements over the last, uh, six years of chasing birds. So, uh, if you're all
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sitting comfortably, I shall begin. So, uh, my amateur radio background, it all started with this thing, a crystal set.
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Dad and I built this when I was probably about 11 years old, maybe 10, 10 or 11.
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Uh, I've still got it. In fact, I've took these photographs of it this morning. And, uh, that really sewed that seed of interest, uh, of, of, of radio in, uh, in those very early formative, uh, years.
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And it was not long after that. Didn't actually pick up much on it to be honest. Although I did hear some weird sounds that, uh, I've subsequently turned, uh, learned were SSB transmissions, but there you go. Um, but shortly after we
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built the crystal set, some friends of my grandmother, uh, heard that I was interested in radios and donated this old thing, which I've still got as well.
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Um, HMV1121, uh, short, medium, and longwave, uh, radio receiver. And I used that for a good, uh, two or three years, uh, listening to the shortwave bands. Again, just growing that, uh, uh, that interest. And then in my
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early teens, I joined the Aircadets and lo and behold, found the radio section and basically I was in heaven for the rest of my time as a cadet. Uh, playing with various, uh, interesting pieces of equipment. Starting off with
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uh, this monster on the left-hand side. It's about 5 foot tall. Um, the T1509.
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That's a 300 W AM transmitter. It was, uh, designed for the Air Force by Maronei.
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Uh, designed to operate 24/7 for ground-to-air communications. Um, uh, so we used to get to play on HF a lot, uh, which was absolutely brilliant fun and over, over the years we got slightly newer equipment still old but slightly newer
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moved from AM to SSB, uh, using stuff like the GR479, uh, from Redon and the Ray VRM 4156 which were particularly nice, uh, uh, synthesized, uh, radios. All good fun. Um then I went off to university and, uh, well after I
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graduated, um, decided I was going to take radio further and sat the RAE. So I did a course at Hybrid College my local college, uh, passed that and got my first license there that my B license, uh, G7WLR
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so that was in March 1996. um that, uh, lasted a few years. Uh, my first radio was, um, a little PI MX294. I had that in the car. Used to work a lot of, uh, repeaters and chat locally. Um and
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then, uh, the I think it was the was it the radio authority, um, introduced the AB license, uh, if you pass the five word per minute morse test. So, uh, in, uh, 2000 I duly did that passed it thanks to my experience
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as a cadet from a decade before and, uh, got my vanity call M5 JFS which obviously is the call that I hold today and is now obviously, uh, upgraded to, uh, to full license, uh, specification. So I had dreams of, you know, a shack at home,
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full licensed power you know and all that kind of stuff. Um but, uh, the later that year, uh, after having got my M5 call, uh, we got married and then following year, uh, our family started my first daughter was born and amateur radio
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proverbially got put on the back burner and there it sat for the best part of 20 years and then COVID lockdown occurred and as I think is a similar story for a lot of people, um, wanting to find something to
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do I thought I'd rekindle my radio interest. I bought a little FT70. We had a local C4 FM repeater. Um did a bit of stuff. Did a bit of stuff on there. Uh bought got a hotspot. Um a little P star
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thing. Chat to a few people a bit more further afield. Didn't really appeal to me that much though. Um the digital audio was the biggest problem. I couldn't stand it. Um so, uh I then combined, uh, radio with another interest of mine.
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In fact, these two little, uh, two little characters pretty much, uh, sum me up. We got radio and space. And I was quite interested in, um, I'd read about, uh, uh, meteor detection. There's a space radar in France that transmits a signal on VHF
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and you can pick it up, um, from the, uh, or pick up the echoes off of ionized meteor trails. So, uh, I built myself a a tape measure like many people do when they get started on these things.
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um hooked that up to an SDR and was able to, uh, pick up the pings, uh, from this from the, uh, the, uh, meteors and, uh, actually did a little project to map the, uh, the number of pings per hour, uh,
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during the Perceds meteor shower that year and, uh, produced a little heat map and you can see the yellow cells there that, uh, that showed the peak of the, uh, the meteor shower. So that was all good fun. Um but like most things I sort of
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want I'm I as soon as I get into something I want to move on do something else and I thought what else can I do? I obviously was aware of amateur a satellites. I thought maybe let's see if
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I can pick some up. So, uh, took that Yagi that I've made, hooked it up to the FT70 that I just bought and then started, uh, monitoring some, uh, some passes. And, uh, let's just see if I if I click this.
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Hopefully you'll hear the, uh, the audio from the first time I actually, uh, received some amateur satellites.
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John, we have no audio right now. No, it's just it's loading it from my Twitter account. So, I don't know whether this is going to work or not.
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Aha. If it does, I suspect the audio might not come over because you're sharing PowerPoint and not your browser. Uh, good point. Okay, I might just skip that then in the interests of, uh, if I can stop it.
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Minimize that. Okay, maybe I'll skip that. But anyway, so over a co
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really want to get into this. So, um it took me a little while to get myself uh together and ready to operate, but did a lot of research. Reached out to a lot of the people that I heard on the
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satellites um through Twitter and so on. um just searching their call signs in case they had a a Twitter account that had their call sign and lo and behold found a lot of the people I'd heard on the satellite through there and started
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to build up um a little network and uh and learn a little bit more about it and help got some guidance on how to get started. [gasps] So that's how I kind of got into it. Um so let's now talk about what's up there.
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So there's basically four different types of orbits. You've got low earth orbit, medium earth, you got the geostationary orbit, and then you've got the highly elliptical orbits. Pretty much every amateur satellite uh that's up there today is in low earth orbit. Uh
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we did have one in middle earth orbit um a couple of years ago, but sadly it's no longer active. Uh we do have a transponder on the S Hale 2 satellite Q100, which is in geostationary orbit.
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And um unfortunately, we don't have any in high earth orbit. Sorry, the elliptical orbits. Um there was one in particular AO10 back in the uh the 80s um which had a very very highly elliptical orbit and uh used to provide
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some excellent DX opportunities but we're pretty much restricted these days to uh to LEO satellites which are uh anywhere between say um 250 to 1,200 uh uh [clears throat] KS in orbit. So, here's a quick list. Um, not
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in any particular order other than the fact that I've put the FM satellites first and then the linear satellites uh lower down. And we'll talk about the difference between those two, but you can see there's various different uh
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orbital altitudes or or heights and uh the dates there just list when they uh were launched or became active. Um, and as a beginner, FM is definitely the way to go. It's it it requires the most simple equipment. Um operating is
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simpler. Uh it helps you to find your feet and then as you get further uh down the line build on your experience uh you can sort of build up to uh to more sophisticated gear and work the linear
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satellites. We'll talk about both of those uh in this presentation this evening. Oh, and uh just a mention there of the Q100 geostationary satellite, which I do also have a um a ground station for. Um it's fun building the station. I don't
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find it as interesting to operate as I as as the LEO satellites. Um the thing with Q100 is once it's once you've got your station working, you just switch it on and you talk and propagation's the same and it's yeah, it's it's a bit like
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picking up the phone and chatting to someone really. certainly got its place and I'll certainly work some uh some great DX right down into Antarctic and over into the Far East which is which is good fun. But LEO is the uh the bread
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and butter of my uh my operation. So I said um FM satellites where you really need to start if you're a beginner. So what gear do we need? Um to start with um you would either need uh a
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dualband radio 2 meters and 70s um that supports full duplex. Unfortunately they're as rare as uh rocking horse doodoo. [gasps] So a more common way to get started is with two radios using one for 2 m and one for 70 cm. But you'll
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also need to uh probably add some filtering uh to prevent uh desensing your receiver um as you're transmitting.
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And we'll cover that in a little bit. You'll need a dualband antenna. Um, typically a Yagi or a Lob periodic.
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Um, ideally headphones because obviously if you're monitoring your down link, you're going to get the audio feeding back. Um, and as I operate portable style with radios hung around my neck, an antenna in my hand, uh, microphone in the other,
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um, you'll need an audio recorder if you actually want to, uh, to log your contacts as well, play them back afterwards, so that you can put them in your logging app. And you'll need a prediction app of some sort, whether
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it's PC based or on a mobile phone to tell you what the upcoming satellite passes are, uh, which, um, where they are in the sky, you where they'll rise, how high they'll be, and so on. So you can, uh, follow the satellite with your
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antenna as you, uh, as you go through the pass. As I said, I operate uh, portable style. Everything's handheld.
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Everything's manually operated. Obviously, you can go the whole hog and get rotators and um PC controls for your your radio to handle the tuning and all the rest of it, but uh I I like to operate uh like this. It's it's low it's
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low cost. It's low footprint. Um keeps the wife happy cuz I haven't got a huge great big tower full of aerials in the back garden. Um I can just get the gear out, work a pass, put it away again, and
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then get on with the chores that she wants me to do. So, happy days.
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So, let's go through what we need. Um, so we need two radios. So, when I started out, obviously I bought the FT70 um for something to do to get me out of COVID boredom. Obviously, I was going to
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work satellites. I needed another radio cuz this is only um half duplex. Yeah, you can only transmit or receive one or the other at any time. So, uh I had an old um 2 meter handy from uh years years
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ago. I bought this back in the '9s when I was uh first licensed little uh standard uh radio 5 watts output. I thought, "Oh, great. Well, I can use these two uh to work satellites. One for transmit, one for receive." So then
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I started to think about antennas. Well, I had the tape measure Yagi I built for the uh French space radar for the meteor pings that's tuned for 143 megs, close enough to 2 m. So we thought that would
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work. And I did have an old um 70 sem antenna. It was a Tona uh lightweight 70s antenna languishing in the loft unused. So I dug that out as well. So I thought there we go. That's the dual
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band antenna. Literally zip tied the booms of the two antennas together with the elements cross polarized and it was a bit of a monster. It was fairly hefty.
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So it did have to live on a tripod. Even I'm not Jeff Capes. didn't have the uh the muscles to hold that thing for for the duration of a satellite pass. So that that was mounted on the uh on the
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tripod and then I had one radio connected to the t- meter antenna, one to the uh 77s antenna and obviously the audio recorder um hooked up to the receiver as well and then the headphones plugged into that so I could actually
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hear what was going on. And I did talk about uh um filtering and you'll you'll see a little uh diplexer there. We'll cover that in a bit more detail in a moment. And obviously the tracking app and I I chose
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um ISS Detector Pro um for Android. It was the first one I found and it works uh really really well. Uh gives you a list of all the passes. Click on the one you want. It shows you the uh the screen
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there um with the arrow pointing to give you the azimuth and the uh the dotted line shows you the uh the track. Um so that was a a fairly low pass uh starting in the uh uh southeast and gradually
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rising as it passes through east to northeast and then setting in the uh in the in the north. So I had all the basic equipment together.
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Um oops sorry. So I had all the basic equipment together but before I actually went uv I spent a lot of time monitoring. Uh I spent probably about a month, month and a half uh listening to passes, getting to grips with just learning the
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protocols, the QSO format, the the general etiquette. Um one, um and talking about etiquette, let's just talk about a few of the dos and don'ts. The the FM satellites are basically flying repeaters just like a terrestrial repeater. Um unlike a normal
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terrestrial repeater where you transmit and while you're transmitting you can't hear the output and when you lift the PTT then obviously you hear the output.
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Um satellites um operating is done full duplex. So you should be monitoring your down link as you're transmitting which is great. um you can work them half duplex, but it's strongly discouraged.
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Um because if you're transmitting and you're not hearing the down link, you could be transmitting over someone else and not be aware that you're doing so.
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Um also, it's a good indication that you're getting into the satellite because you can actually hear yourself coming back.
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If you're only working half duplex, you transmit. Unless somebody actually comes back to you, you don't even know whether you've hit the satellites or not. So full duplex is the standard way of operating and uh any and half duplex is strongly
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discouraged. Um as I say if you don't hear the satellite don't transmit. Okay. Uh it might sound obvious but if you can't hear it uh and you transmit you're not going to be able to hear yourself and you're not going to hear if
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you're trampling over somebody else. um you might not be hearing the satellite because you've got a problem with your receive antenna, for example. Um but and believe me, there are plenty of people who transmit over and over and over
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again. Long CQ calls, they're clearly not hearing themselves because they're interrupting QSOs that are in progress.
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Um so, uh if you don't hear the satellite, don't transmit. Definitely another one of the uh major important operating principles.
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5 watts is enough. Yeah, you don't need QR QRO power to work satellites. If you've got a directional antenna with modest gain like the um antennas that I've been using, um you've got a clear line of sight. There's nothing between
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you and the satellite. It's just free space um path loss, which is negligible. Um you can easily work satellites on 5 watts, no trouble at all. My best DX from the UK was Colorado um uh using no more than a three element
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Yagi for transmit and five watts of power. So even though the satellite was goodness knows how many hundreds or a thousand or so miles away um absolutely no trouble working it with just 5 watts.
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And the last one, don't be tempted to use a white stick vertical antenna. Their radiation pattern isn't designed for it. Yeah, they're designed for terrestrial communications. the vast majority of their power and sensitivity is obviously out towards the horizon.
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Um, if a satellite's higher up in angle, um, it's going to be going through huge nulls and, uh, you won't receive it very well. A lot of people who use white sticks operate QRO to compensate for the fact that their antenna isn't suitable.
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Um, so definitely a big no no there. So don't use white stick antennas. Talked about filtering. Uh if you are using two radios um all of the amateur satellites that are active at the moment uh use 2 meter uplink and 70s down link.
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We call that mode VU VHF stroke UHF. Um and the problem with that is if you're transmitting on 2 meters um harmonic energy will desensitize your 77s receiver. So either use a diplexer, which is how I started out, just a
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little diplexer there with the uh radio and the antenna connected to the common and the 2 meter ports. Um and then laterally I actually bought a proper lowass filter to block any uh harmonic energy from the uh from the 2 meter
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transmitter. And uh all because you're transmitting with 5 watts, the satellite is down linking with perhaps only a couple of hundred mills um something like that. Um so if you if you are suffering from desense it's quite possible that as you transmit you won't
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be able to hear um the satellite down link. So it's really annoying um not being able to hear yourself because you can't tell if you're getting in or not.
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So filtering is definitely a must with a diplexer or a lowass uh low pass filter.
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So having got the equipment together and learned the rules if you like of operating uh the other thing that you have to get to grips with before you can actually get going is Doppler shift. As the satellite is approaching you the
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down link frequency is shifted high in frequency. As it gets closer to you um its rate of approach decreases until it's overhead at which point the Doppler shift is zero. And then as it starts to head away from you, the do the down link
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frequency is shifted uh uh down in frequency um um and then progressively more so until it reaches the uh the far horizon. So just on this uh screen here, we've got an example of the SO50 satellite. Um the nominal frequency for
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the down link is 436.795 megs. So at acquisition of signal as it appears over the horizon um the down link could be shifted positively by about uh 10 kHz um and that shift decreases gradually until it's at the
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point of closest approach where you'll actually receive the down link frequency on its nominal uh value and then as it passes further away uh that frequency continues to shift uh negatively down to about minus 10 kHz. So when you start
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the pass, you need your receiver tuned 10 kHz um high and then as the pass progresses, you then tune down step by step in small increments um until you get to the end of the pass. Uh I've always done it with a VFO, just
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literally clicking down 5 kHz at a time. As the audio starts to get a bit distorted, just click the tuning and it comes back in nice and clear. and just work your way through the pass uh like that. Some people like to program uh
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memories. Um it's makes no odds really. Um I like to do everything manually. It also saves me having to remember how to program the memories in the radio in the first place.
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So just like the siren on a vehic high high frequency shift on approach, low frequency shift on uh um departure.
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Uh the VHF uplink also is subject to Doppler shift as well. Um but you have to think about it the other way round.
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You're transmitting to the satellite. So you're transmitting on the uplink frequency which on VHF is um 145.850.
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Um as the satellite is approaching you, your uplink signal is shifted high um due to the Doppler effect. So, what you need to do is actually transmit slightly lower than the nominal frequency so that you're hitting the satellite at the
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correct frequency. Um, and as the satellite passes you and starts to head away, you then need to transmit slightly high to compensate again for the fact that the satellite is now receiving your signal shifted slightly low. Now, fortunately with the FM satellites uh on
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2 meters, the the Doppler shift isn't as significant as it is on on 70s. And with the bandwidth of the uh um the the FM channel, you can get away with not actually uh altering your tuning. So, you can stick your transmitter on 145
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850 in the case of SO50 and leave it on there for the duration of the pass and it'll be absolutely fine. when you're working um the linear satellites on SSB which we'll come to then your uplink tuning is also a bit more critical.
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So FM satellites they are just basically like flying repeaters. So they only support one transmission at a time. So it's not good practice to monopolize or hog the satellite if it's busy. You give everybody a chance. Typical pass will
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only last about 12 minutes. So, uh, it's, um, it's not a good practice to, uh, to hog the satellite and make, uh, contact after contact after contact. Um, if it's busy, just call a station that you've heard directly. For example, at
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Echo Alpha 3, Tango Alpha, this is Mike 5, Juliet Fox Trot, Sierra, and hopefully he'll come back to you. If it's quiet, you can do a general call.
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Um, but nothing lengthy. Um, just CQAT, Mike 5, Juliet Fox, Sierra would be more than sufficient. Um, QSO exchanges are literally signal report and your maiden head grid locator. Either four or six characters, doesn't really matter. Um, don't spend time chatting unless it's
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quiet. Okay. As say the pass is only relatively short duration. If you got a lot of people on, if it's an evening or a weekend in particular, um, lots of people will be wanting to make contact.
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So if you if you're sat there rag chewing with a friend that you've spoken to five time five five times already this week on the same satellite um it's a bit uh it's a bit of a bad show and
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also give priority to portable stations. Um they could be you know if they're roving um you know they they've made the effort to go out somewhere perhaps to activate a rare grid square. Uh what you don't want is the satellite being
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monopolized by people calling their mates who they've spoken to time and time again and uh yeah and basically blocking them out. So uh so give them a give them a chance.
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So you're ready for your first QSO. You've got your equipment together. You've figured out how Doppler shift works and what you need to do. So it's time to pluck up the courage. And that that happened for me in September of
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2000. Um, I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. So, expected it to go wrong. Um, you're juggling a radio, microphone, your antenna. You're obviously twist. Of course, the other problem is you're having to not just point the antenna at
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the satellite as it passes over. You're also having to rotate it or twist it to match the polarization. All the satellites are linear polarized. Um, use linear polarized antennas for transmit and receive for up link and down link.
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So you're constantly as the past progresses matching their pol the polarization. So you're doing all of this um and you pluck up the courage. You go on the air for the first time. And it was Simon G0ero TRT who's I don't I don't think
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he's on tonight, but he's uh he was one of my very early mentors uh to help me get going on the satellites. And um I'm going to try and play our very first uh my very first satellite QSO, which was
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with Simon. for November unifor. Go tango tango. Roger. John 5 9 India Oscar H1 Vex.
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And there we go. So, it was it was a bit sketchy. We got trampled on by a couple of other stations which didn't make things easy and I [snorts] was starting to lose the satellite a little bit on my
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final transmission as well. But, uh, I felt pretty elated after that, even though it was absolute chaos. I wish I actually had a video of me doing that.
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Actually, I'm probably glad I haven't got a video of me doing it cuz it probably would have looked absolutely ridiculous. Um, it's like like driving a car for the first time. I didn't really know what I was doing even though I'd
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kind of like psyched myself up for the moment. But, uh, but it was good. Uh it was a good feeling to get that first Q or so under my belt and um the rest as they say is history. So I spent the next
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few weeks operating like that um with this behemoth antenna on a tripod. Uh I decided pretty early on that that was something that needed to be sorted out.
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So, I actually took the tape measure Yagi off and um just put some aluminium rods onto the toner uh antenna uh to make uh a four element 2 m uh beam. Um very very simple. I just put the rods
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into little chalky block connectors and zip tied those onto the boom. That made tuning really easy actually because I could slide them up and down and uh just use a little Dremel to grind the ends off the elements until I got it tuned
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just right. And uh that was good. I could I could operate that thing handheld. It wasn't particularly comfortable and it was still a little bit weighty, but uh but it did the job.
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Um and then the next thing I did was I bought a Yazu FT817. Uh, one thing I'd learned from the satellite community was that a pair of 817s was kind of like the the de facto standard for portable
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operating. So, I started the ball rolling. I bought one and uh just used that in conjunction with the the FT70 and laterally with the Balfang and uh yeah, that was good. Um, there's a picture of me there looking like a
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complete wally in a a field next to a public car park up on the local hill uh working a pass. I think I had the lead acid battery in my pocket, the FT817 around me neck, and the uh the Balfang
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handy obviously in my uh right hand uh with the uh audio recorder probably in my other pocket and headphones on my ears. And uh that worked very well until the point where I managed to get some more money and find another wellpriced
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817. And uh then I put the two together in a nice little bag so I could uh carry them around and uh wear them around my neck when operating. And probably the biggest game changer actually was getting rid of
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that homebrew antenna and buying an Arrow 2, which is pretty much the de facto standard antenna uh for for satellite operations as well. Made for a very nice easy portable uh setup. Um I operated say portable style in the back
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garden but then could go out to other locations. I activated a few uh other grid squares while I either on holiday uh or made special trips to some rarer squares that people didn't have um because there's just nobody active in
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them uh to uh to give those grid squares away. So FM satellites I can't remember how long I stayed on FM. Probably for about 18 months I think. Then I' say I've got my second 817. So now I could go and
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work the linear sats. So to work the linear sats you need two radios that are SSB capable. Uh or if you've got a radio like an 847 or TS2000 uh they can do full duplex on uh on 2N70. Um but the 817s are a really nice
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uh portable solution. So linear satellites unlike FM where FM is just a single channel linear satellites have a band of frequencies.
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So you've got an uplink band um a low end and a high end and then you've got a down link band that corresponds and all of the linear sats that we've got in low earth orbit are what we call inverting
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transponders. So the high end of the uplink band is translated to the lowest frequency in the down link band and vice versa and consequently it swaps the side bands as well. So it's kind of it's called a bent pipe. It's kind of like a
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nickname. Uh so it flips the uh the signal round as it translates it to the uh to the down link frequencies.
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So the great thing with having a band of frequencies that covers several kilhertz is you can have more than one conversation going on at the same time.
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So operating on the linear sats generally is a lot more laidback. You're not all fighting to be heard over each other um to get that QSO. Um you can spend some more time chatting with with people. Uh so it's not just a the 59
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Italy Oscar 90. Thank you very much. Move on to the next one. So yeah, I mean some passes I've I've spent on an evening just chatting to a friend for 20 minutes. Um RS44 is a in a higher orbit
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than uh the FM satellites. So it's passes last longer and actually you can have quite a nice uh quite a nice little chat. So multiple QSOs at the same time and also being higher in orbit um than the FM satellites there are better DX
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opportunities as well. As I said earlier, my best ex I think on low earth orbit satellites is to Colorado. So that was pretty impressive. The only thing is with linearats having gone through the whole learning curve of FM satellites
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working linearats becomes another step more tricky because you've got to you now do have to think about tuning your uplink. Although a lot of people will operate with a fixed uplink frequency.
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Um it's just a little bit more tricky that you've got to constantly adjust the uh the down link frequency on your receiver um because the dot effect is obviously continuous. Doesn't affect FM in the same way. So, you're busy
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twiddling uh knobs constantly unless you've got um software that's controlling your radio and uh and doing all of the uh tuning for you, which is obviously a next step less practical in the field, but um there are some quite
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little portable uh solutions for that as well. So um talking about software and things like that uh to know where the satellites are um software like SAT PC32 or Oscaratch. Oscar Watch is a is a new piece of software developed by Peter
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Mike Mike 9 Sugar Queen Lemur formerly 2 uh 2 ZSQL sorry 2M zeros SQL um designed to be if you like a modern version of SAT PC32 which still works fine and and does CAT control and it can control your
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rotator and everything else as well but it's a little bit cranky a little bit legacy um so Peter's developed Oscar watch which is absolutely fantastic and it's got some additional features uh over and above SAP PC32 and it's under
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constant development. Uh really really good piece of software. Uh mobiles um I use SAT uh ISS detector. I've also got look for SAT as well which is just another piece of software does exactly the same thing. Just gives you a list of
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what satellite passes are coming up and then allows you to track them um as the pass is progressing so you know where to point your antenna and so on. There's also a couple of websites that are worth uh looking at. MSAT.org/status.
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This is a live web page updated by people as they work satellite passes uh if they choose to. So if you've worked a pass, uh you can go on to here and say, "Yep, I just worked the ISS FM um
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transponder. Uh my my grid locator was this. The time I worked it was this." and then it will appear on the uh on the on the page um in a in a blue cell to show that that uh satellite is has been
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reported as active. So it's a really good way of knowing whether a satellite is on. Sometimes the FM transponder on the sat on the ISS is turned off if there's spacew walks or other activities going on docking and undocking. Um so
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it's useful to check this page before you plan to do a pass just to make sure the satellite is actually alive. Um, SO50, which I've talked about a lot, is is on 24/7, super reliable, no problem at all. AO123, which is one of the more
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recent FM satellites, um, is generally activated, uh, at weekends, uh, rather than, uh, operating continuously. Um, AO7 blesser launched in 1974 and still working. I think the oldest satellite in orbit, full stop, that is still operational. Um, and that's not just
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amateur. That's, you know, all of all satellites. Um, it's a little bit temperamental. Sometimes it's not working, sometimes it is. Um, it also has two modes. Um, it's got a UV mode where you uplink on 70s and it down
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links on two. It's also got a VA mode where you up link on two and it down links on 10 mters. Um, and it if it's in continuous sunlight, it flips between the two modes every 12 hours in theory.
Speaker A
Um, but uh sometimes it doesn't always uh doesn't always do that. But so checking that page is always a good uh good place to start to check uh if the satellite you want to work is reported active.
Speaker A
There's also n2yo.com which is a brilliant site. Uh it doesn't just have amateur satellites, it's got pretty much everything up there. Um but that will show you uh a list of uh past predictions for your location and and so
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on and so forth as well as a lot of good information about the satellites themselves.
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social networks, great way to uh learn from other people, get advice, guidance. Obviously is the OARC Discord. Um there are groups on WhatsApp and Telegram. Uh the International Amster Ops groups, I'm in I'm a member of both of those. And
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obviously then platforms like X, Blue Sky, and Masttodons. I say X is where I really started. Um, that's where I reached out to people that I'd heard on on those satellites when I started out and gradually built up my uh my network
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uh through there. I've got uh goodness knows how many thousand a thousand followers now, most of which are just amateur radio operators. Um, and I follow a similar number and uh yeah, it's been a really good uh a good way to
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develop my knowledge and experience. So, uh we are about 20 to eight. I'm just going to share a few of my milestone achievements, blow my own trumpet. Um, so in the sort of six years that I've been operating, uh, it was
Speaker A
about 18 months after I got operational that, uh, I managed to make my first transatlantic QSO, which was, uh, which was quite something. This was on the AO91 satellite. Sadly, uh, we think it's now pretty much dead. It's been limping
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around for the last few years on and off and exhibiting some strange behavior. But uh when I started out it was still a very very solid and reliable bird. Um so I'll just play you my uh QSO with John
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Victor Echo1 Charlie Whiskey Juliet. My first uh transatlantic saci julier victor echo1 charlie whiskey Juliet box November 85 QSL.
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Yeah QSL QSL. Thanks very much for the contact. Thanks Victor Echo1 Charlie Whiskey Juliet from Mike 5 JF straight portable your 59. It's the Oscar 90 kilo uniform. First time KSO. Woohoo. Well done. Q Italy Oscar 90. Thanks very much
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73. So there we go. As you can tell, I was a little bit uh little bit chuffed with that. Um November 1 Alpha India Alpha called me uh straight after. Um but unfortunately the satellite switched off midway through the QSO, so that one
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didn't complete. But that was my first transatlantic QSO. Um the other cool thing is the ISS um obviously has its crossband repeater on it and if any of the astronauts uh are licensed and have some free time and are that way
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inclined, they can pick up the microphone and make contacts with uh with us guys on and I was very very fortunate to make uh two contacts um with the ISS. uh first of all in uh July 2022 with Chill Lingren and then in 2023
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with uh Woody Hoberg. Um so I'll just play you these QSOs. I did get a bit tongue tied and a bit starruck if you'll forgive the pun. Um cuz it's not like it's an everyday occurrence when you get
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to talk to a real life astronaut in space. Sierra Julia Fox Sierra Mike 5 Julia Fox Sierra. This is November Alpha 1 Sierra Sierra. Welcome aboard the International Space Station.
Speaker A
Thank you very much indeed. Fantastic to speak to you and good up there 73.
Speaker A
Wonderful chatting with you as well. And uh 73s. This is Mike Romeo 5 Juliet Fox.
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Mike Romeo 5 Juliet Fox Sierra. Welcome aboard. Thank you very much Woody. Uh, great signal from you and great to work with you this evening. Greetings from England 73.
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Yeah, great talking with you. 73. So, there we go. And, uh, and I've got the QSO QSL cards for, uh, for both those contacts as well, which is, uh, quite a nice thing to have.
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And then finally, um, we're a bit like stamp collectors. Um, we like to collect grid squares and DXC entities. Um, which pretty much applies in a lot of aspects of the hobby. Um, but so far in the six
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years that I've been operating, uh, I've managed to, uh, achieve my satellite VUCC 500. So, I've actually, I think I'm on about 519 grid squares now. And I've got my, uh, satellite DXC um, as well.
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Uh so I've worked over a 100 uh DXC entities and probably about well I think it's about 5,200 uh QSOs on satellite in those uh in those six years. So as you can tell I'm completely hooked. Uh in the meantime I
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also built a Q100 ground station. Um but I mean that's a a whole different topic for for another different day. Um but yeah it's great fun. Uh absolutely love it. the satellite community are really really close and really really friendly.
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Uh you get to know obviously the regulars in your part of the world. Um made a lot of really good uh good friendships with with operators uh around Europe and across the pond as well. There's there's one guy Jerry uh
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WHLR. Uh he goes I've got a whole area of the US um just sort of south of uh um well we're sort of in the well sort of south of Chicago um around sort of Kentucky area um literally all those
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grid squares are thanks to Jerry that he's uh activated on uh on his travels.
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Um, so yeah, great guy and uh yeah, it's uh it's it's really good fun and say it keeps me uh keeps me occupied and uh but it's one of those things. Yeah, you can just pop out, work a pass and then uh
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and then pack away again. Yeah, very very uh very very convenient. So that pretty much wraps up my talk. I don't know whether I've given you enough information to get yourself started, but we'll uh throw it open uh Mark for
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questions and we'll uh see what happens. Thank you, John. I'm I'm sure these rep probates will have plenty of questions for you. Just to say, I know there were a few people who joined partway through that. The talk will be put on YouTube
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either today or tomorrow. We do record all of our talks. And also, I did put together my Arrow Yagi as well while you were uh you were running. So, maybe I'll get out tomorrow and do something.
Speaker A
I can see that we have a hand up straight away from Chris MM0HR. So I don't know if you want to bring yourself in Chris.
Speaker A
Hello. H it was an excellent talk. Thank you very much. My origin story of trying to work satellites was actually doing in Orcne because I didn't have HF back then.
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Uhhuh. And I found satellites coming in from the northwest tended to be very quiet.
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And you said if you can't hear if you can't hear don't transmit. And this was a thing I I assumed from the start. And it's like how do you get started if no one's on it already? Well, a quick a
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quick little transmission wouldn't go a miss, but just don't just don't sit there going CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ forever, you know, but a quick call wouldn't be would wouldn't be a problem because obviously if they're coming from the northwest,
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they're coming over the pond, aren't they? And there's probably very little traffic. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, a quick call would be fine, but just just don't sit there cqing add infinite item. [laughter] Yeah.
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What's what's your grid square up there, by the way? Oh, I'm no longer up there.
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Uh, that's a shame because I'm down in Edinburgh now. Oh, right. Okay. So, you're in IO 85 now. That's a shame.
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Yeah. I'm not sure. Smelled blood there, didn't I? I did. Yeah. That's right. Always looking for a new grid square.
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Next time back up, I'll give you a show. Yeah. Awesome. That'd be amazing. Yeah.
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I'm actually going to Spain in October and there's there's two or three squares that um there's there's a site called gridmaster.fr FR which people can upload their logs to and you can see how many people have who use it have got each of
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the grid squares and there's a couple in uh there's two or three in France which are quite rare. They're not activated very often.
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So my wife's going horse riding on a holiday. I've tagged along and I'm going to take the satellite gear and I'm actually going to activate those grid squares uh to to give people some uh some uh some really good worse.
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Thank you Chris. Does anybody else have uh any other questions at all? Either in the chat, feel free to pop them in there if you don't want to unmute yourself and uh and talk or you're more than welcome
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to uh to unmute yourself if you want to. Um, one thing I will say as somebody who uh does not only weather satellite stuff but also uh sorry um amateur satellite but also weather satellite stuff. I find it quite useful to rehearse a task
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before the satellite arrives to the extent where literally I I will physically force myself to you know to run through that arc just so I understand where I don't know if you do that but I find that quite
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helpful. I I do find that as you know you get you obviously know your compass bearings from where you are and you you exactly you can look at the phone screen and you can see you kind of you you know
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what 20° feels like what 30° feels like and actually I mean you can tell whether you're on the satellite or not because you you'll lose the signal a little bit anyway. So you can once you've got it you can pretty much do it by feel.
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Um unless you're a half duplexer like I still am and then it's very difficult.
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It is. Yes, that's right. you know, and and of course then you can take it to real extremes, and I've done this before as well, is I've worked with a whip antenna on a Handy.
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Um, yes, I have seen it done. I've never done it myself, and I'm It sounds fun. I We had a school trip to France last year, so I took uh I took the the Kenwood Handy, which is full duplex and
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the uh the the whip antenna, and uh made made a few QSOs over there while was good. Um, do we have anybody uh in the group who perhaps has tried to do this and uh maybe hasn't had any success or
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anybody who's thinking of of doing it soon? Uh Clint has uh his sign up. Hi there, Clint. Fire away, sir.
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Good day. Well, I when I first started out, I had a compass. I had an inclinometer. I had printouts. I had back then a palm trio. You get to the point with the FM birds, you get to the
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point where they're suns synchronous, so they're going north to south or south to north and you'll just you you won't even go out in the backyard with your with your your iPad. You will know it's going to be either to your east or to your
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west and about how high it's going to be off the horizon. And it's not a minute stressful movement of your antenna. I think the technical word, the technical word, I think you might understand this in England, the technical word is slop.
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There's a lot of slop. Uh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got a lot of play.
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Yeah definitely. Yeah. Even with your Even with the tape measure beam, so Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Inclinometer is now gone. The compass is now gone uh for the FM for the FM birds. But man, I' I've been addicted for 20 years. It's
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it's just it's just a phenomenal aspect of our wonderful hobby. Absolutely. Great show. Great show. Good job.
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Thank you. Thank you, Glenn. Much appreciated. Um any anybody else have uh any other questions at all? Uh we are light on questions this evening. I guess one thing we should probably mention is you know let's go through that list of rare dual
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uh full duplex handhelds. Uh maybe you know if people want to look on eBay for secondhand things probably a good idea.
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean the Kenwood THD7 and THD72 are the two that are full duplex. Don't be tempted to buy a 74 or a 75, which are the newer models, because they are not full duplex. Only the two older ones
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are. There was an Alinko handheld that I knew of. Um, I don't remember the model number off the top of me head, but that was full duplex.
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Neither can I, but I know the one you mean. Yeah. And there are quenchings or Yeah.
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Wooangs or whatever which are full duplex but beware the filtering is rubbish and if you're uplinking on two and down receiving on 70 they they they desense themselves and uh you hear yourself properly. Um when we had AO 91
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and 92 which were UHF uplink 2 meter down link it wasn't an issue but we with two 2 m desensing 70 um yeah all the satellites up there at the moment are 2 m up link so don't go for a
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cheap Chinese one they uh very much very much false economy unfortunately so I mean it took me a long time to find the Kenwood THD7 um yeah I was looking for 18 months to two years before I finally found one and
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it was a good price. I only paid 100 quid for it. That's remarkable. So yeah, I mean, you know, it can be difficult to get into in that way. I would say I would say it's worth trying it half
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duplex if all you have is one handheld available. It's I would say it's better to try and do something than than not do it at all. I have had some success. Um, I tend to listen a hell of a lot more
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than I transmit because you need to wait for those gaps and, you know, be um, kind of confident that there's not going to be somebody jumping in on that gap and hoping to it.
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Certainly do it on Certainly do it on a quieter pass. Yeah. When it's very much so. Very much so.
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Especially Especially not on a pass when there's a rover that's everybody's trying to work as well. [laughter] Indeed. Uh, right. We have a couple of questions in. Thank you, Torren. Thank you, Rodrigo. We'll take them in order.
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Uh Torin asked for ISS. What down link and uplink bands are they and what tips do you have?
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Okay, so ISS just like all the other satellites, it's 2 meter uplink and 70s down link. Um the ISS down link is very strong because it's not a a cubat with a millwatt transmitter. It's uh you know so it's very easy to receive.
Speaker A
Unfortunately, it can be a bugger of a job to get into. Um yes, a lot of people operating on it because it's easy to receive. A lot of people are using white stick verticals.
Speaker A
Um, yeah. And also running quite a lot of power and obviously with FM capture effects, you know, the strongest signal is the one that gets picked up.
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I I have noticed this with the ISS specifically, it tends to be people really want to make a contact through there. So I I do when I have, you know, worked things, which is a couple of years ago now, it did seem like people
Speaker A
were were cranking the power up for the ISS. You would also assume that the the easiest passes to work are the highest ones because obviously when it's high up, it's closer to you than on one of the ones that's skirting the horizon.
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Yeah, absolutely. However, I found that I think the the structure of the space station itself gets in the way of the antenna on those very high passes and I had much more success on a low pass that perhaps
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doesn't get higher than 20° where you're coming at it more from the where you're coming at it more side on. And um I I find those are generally more reliable and uh and easier to work.
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That's a good um but yeah, so it's it's it's up on two, down on 70, uh 144, 9990 up, and 437.8 down. There you go. It shows up nearly.
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I love that those are just there. Absolutely. I say I I never use memories on my radios. I always do everything manually. So there you go.
Speaker A
Because I can't learn how to program them. [laughter] Uh got a couple of last questions. I want to try and get those in before before we wrap up. Uh Rodrigo asks, "Which satellite should I try for my first contact?"
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Right. Given that ISS can be a bit of a a bare pit, um indeed.
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SO50 is a good one. Um it's got a very sensitive receiver, so you will get into it no problem. It's down link is quite weak though, so you need to make sure you've got your your gear working well.
Speaker A
Um, but try it on an evening in the week when it's quieter because at weekends the I mean the standard of operating on that satellite is shocking. I I've got a recording I could have played it. It's three minutes
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of squawks and wobbles and blurs and snippets of people's voices and no QSOs actually being excellent.
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It's absolute hell on there sometimes. Um, AO123, which is on at weekends generally, is a lot is a bit quieter.
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It's modern. It's easier to get into. It's got a pretty strong down link. Um, so yeah, SO50 if you want something that's on all the time. Uh, AO123 if you want something that's probably easier to work because it's quieter and there's
Speaker A
less people acting like idiots on there. Fantastic. And last question this evening goes to uh, uh, Derek, OK9 SGC.
Speaker A
Have you tried any QSOs via store and forward digers? There might be more of those across various small satellites than there are conventional. I haven't done a haven't really done much on data although as I say I did use
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green cube. You did green cube, didn't you? Yes, I did. I17 um which was good fun. Um you could do store and forward but it would but [clears throat] it was generally used live as it were. So you were literally
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just responding and qsoing live with people. Um, that was brilliant because it was however many thousand miles up, massive footprints. Uh, you I worked South America and Mexico all the way across to China on that satellite. That was amazing. Um, but with only five
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watts, even though I had a 15 element beam for for 70s, I still found myself being trampled over by lots of stronger signals. Um yeah, I did buy a linear um to try and overcome that and get in a
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little bit more reliably, but never actually by the time I got myself ready to use it. The satellite had died unfortunately and that but uh but that was that was a really amazing satellite. Um, it'd be great to
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have another one like that possibly even with a linear transponder on as well so you can actually talk to people cuz And uh, last very quick word this evening from Chris MM0HR uh, who mentions that the uh, the Watson KG UV9K
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is full duplex but can deafen itself. Yes, there you go. That was the one I was thinking of. Yeah, it's there's a good extra little last thing to pop in there. Donate to AMSAT.
Speaker A
Absolutely. Yes. Or become a member. Yeah, I've I mean I joined up as soon as I uh really knew I was into satellites and um yeah, it's definitely worth donating and uh hopefully there'll be some new birds going up. I know the MSET in
Speaker A
corporation in the States are working on a couple of projects. There's I think something happening in Europe as well.
Speaker A
So, uh, yeah, I mean, we a lot of universities are throwing these birds up with their own primary missions, but they've got transponders on as well, so they can use our frequencies basically, but it does mean we do get other
Speaker A
satellites to play with, but they tend not to be 24/7, you know. So, yeah, absolutely. Okie dokie. Um, John, we'll leave it there. Thank you for that. I hope uh you've inspired some people to go and try something uh that
Speaker A
they haven't done before. Yeah, if anybody wants to to know anything, yeah, just reach out to me either on um uh on on the Discord or you can find me if you search me up on on X, that's my main platform. Uh M5 JFS is my
Speaker A
uh um Twitter ID or X ID. So, fantastic. Um thank you very much, Don.
Speaker A
A fantastic talk and uh a great way to uh to round off there. Um don't forget uh we do have rubber duck pub coming up in a couple of minutes. Uh uh landlord Paul would be very happy to see you all
Speaker A
for that on Discord. And uh we will be back here in October, he says, glancing at his whiteboard for uh Hibian Linux uh the Linux ham radio distribution. And uh Hibby will be talking all about his creation there. Uh until then, thank you
Speaker A
very much everybody and uh we'll see you again. Thank you so much.
Topics:amateur radiosatellitesM5 JFSOARC Talksradio operationsatellite communicationham radioDoppler effectantennameteor detection
