I fell in love with HAM radio (2021) and have been enjoying satellite contacts, including those with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). Im having a great time with my RU-vid channel, where I share videos of my satellite contacts, global conversations, and instructional information about the equipment I use. Promoting HAM radio through my channel is a fantastic way to inspire others and spread awareness about the hobby.
I encourage you to enjoy sharing my passion and knowledge with others through my RU-vid channel. It's a great platform to connect with fellow HAM radio enthusiasts and engage with a wider audience who might be interested in learning more about the hobby.
If you have any specific questions or need assistance with anything related to HAM radio or my RU-vid channel, feel free to ask, and I'll be happy to help!
You can do it with a smaller setup then what I have. Watch my new video with the Armature Radio Association of Lake County later and see what they used.
cq cq cq cq cq 20 cq cq 20 cq cqcq cq cq cq cq20 20 20 cqcqcq SHUT UP!!!!!!!! lol take a breath and allow people to come back to you. Calling CQ for 5 mins before he finally breaks so someone can try and reach him.. LOL:) Hate folks that do that. At least he took a breath so you could break in there. Software sounds amazing.
Well done to you sir on working through the satellite from a ham who's 1st contact came through OSCAR 6 + a couple of the Russian satellites which used HF. I used to rum a pair of KLM's a 9 el on 2 and 11 on 432 really liked mode "B"! I had a Mutek front end in my Icom 271H along with GASfet pre-amp on the 432 antenna. AZ-EL rotors were as expensive then as they are now....
That what happens when you know it's sketchy but instead of waiting and getting the right parts, you think eh it still should work lol I do that all the time! Good video!
Mike, you miss the point of the green cube antenna. I asked Arrow to make it for me back in December. The point of the antenna is that it can be broken down into three smaller sections for easy transport in a vehicle for rovers. There are very few portable antennas that have enough gain for Green Cube and the ones that are available are often sold out for months at a time.
You doing okay Mike? Seems like you're getting upset with other operators rather easily. You went from saying "Peter David Italy" to telling others to stick to NATO phonetics in the course of a single pass. This is a hobby and not everyone may wish to operate the same way as you do...and that's okay. If someone is calling CQ and you don't like the way they are saying their callsign, you can spin the dial. As you say, there's 30,000hz.
Using other words to suit your style isn't how it works. I use the NATO Alphabet because that's the standard, at some point if a person isn't getting it I use the Peter David Italy because if you put that together with Papa Delta India between the two it makes it easier to figure it out. This guy was using Kilowatt and Zansabar as his main way of giving his call sign. It's a personal pet peeve of mine, it's like fingernails on a blackboard. I was once excoriated by a HAM for not sticking to the NATA Alphabet and also just saying ko4pdi instead of Kilo Oscar 4 Papa Delta India. When he explained it to me it made perfect sense. Imagine someone who doesn't speak English in the first place trying to figure out people's personal alphabet. There is a reason we have standards. We don't have to stick to them as a law, but hey you have to start somewhere. The closer to the standard we stay the better it is for everyone. Thank you for your input Eric, keep it up.
I was on that Saturday pass of IO-117 and made 49 QSOs from the EN63/EN64 gridline, you can see me making QSOs in your livestream. The bird was working fine. Over the last two weeks, I've activated six different grid squares on IO-117 and made more than 500 QSOs with my 10-element Alaskan Arrow antenna.
I was on that pass of SO-50 and you were keying up over everyone. There were many people on the pass, including a rover in a grid corner. You likely couldn't hear the satellite because of your fixed linear polarization, but it heard you because you were pushing 100w.
I have noticed sometimes I get into the sat but I don't decode the digipeat confirmation. It appears that I didn't get in but then people respond to me. So I never know for sure if I digipeat or not. That means I repeat stuff without knowing it and may upset others. I use homemade TPM2 antennas, similar to eggbeaters but slightly directional. They are fixed at 30 degrees on a rotator in my ATTIC aiming through shingles. Also, my ic-9700 is the Japan model with less watts. I have alot going against my setup. I usually make 6-12 contacts on a pass due to the signal fading in/out. I bet your trouble is the high directionality of your 70cm antenna. You hear enough to decode but it's like aiming a spotlight at something very far away. You can be slightly off and miss the sat. I get into it with a very broad angle and 25w. My antenna is literally square driver loops with reflectors under them, circular polarity even drops the gain some. It makes about a 40 degree angle and seldomly needs rotated to keep up with the pass.
June 12th 2024 is a Wednesday, it was a Monday in 2023...the website hasn't been updated in almost a year. One of the biggest reasons that I can see why you have struggled with Green Cube and other satellites is because you have fixed polarization. I mentioned this to you when you asked for help in the GreenCube Facebook group before you rage quit and said IO-117 was a waste of time. Callum didn't say polarization was irrelevant on satellites, he didn't even talk about satellites. He said it was irrelevant on long distance HF...HF antennas are too big to use circular polarization so there's no point in worrying about it there. He did mention that FM radio stations use circularly polarized antennas because it would ensure that listeners could pick up the signal no matter how their linearly polarized RX antennas are positioned. There's a maximum of 3db loss when going between linear and circular. When you are vertical polarized and the other station is horizontal, you are looking at 20db of loss. With GC in MEO and putting out very little power, you cannot afford 20db loss. You can look at the SatNOGS telemetry data and see that GreenCube is not tumbling through space at a rapid rate. It's slowly rotating, meaning that you may have several minutes (or even most of a pass) where polarization is not changing much. You can see the effects of this in many of your videos were the signal is strong for a while and then fades out. This happens on the FM birds as well. There are several videos from other satellite ops where you can hear you send out your callsign (often stepping on other stations) and then not hearing the multiple people calling you back. The fact that the satellites are 'tumbling' doesn't make polarization irrelevant, it's the exact opposite. It makes the use of circularly polarized antennas (or have the ability to adjust polarization on a linear antenna) very important.
THANK YOU for having a picture of your antenna system in the corner. I'm looking at getting into sats after I get back on HF (2020 did a number on all of us didn't it?) and I've been reading all about sat antennas. Either it's stuff about portable yagis with handhelds (not my style at all) or it's people who say you need thousands upon thousands of dollars in antennas. Good to know I can aim for an achievable antenna system and still have fun making contacts.
On the top of the screen when you click radar on the selected Sat you get the view from the camera with the dotted circle to track the bird. Try itand get back to me see if it worked.I have version 2.9.1
Sorry i missed the live Mike but glad you continued. Fighting ISS plus propagation and elevation angles... it's a feat worthy of a hat tip in my book when you even get heard. God bless your adventures and may He keep MagicalMike's shack Magic Smoke free lol.
