On 7 Feb, the CCARC was joined by Chris, NY9X, via Zoom as he lives up North. Chris presented an excellent brief on working the LEO Satellites and some ‘basics’ to ensure success.
Chris covered areas such as:
– What type of equipment do I need?
– How to find and track the sattys
– What is Kepler Data
– The up/down links
– FM vs SSB
– What is Doppler
His recommended site is amsat.org, which is a great place to get all the latest info on the various satellites up there.
He also noted that in operations, it is almost a three handed process, so there was the recommendation to have a small recorder, so you can record your contacts and then go back afterwards to replay and do your logging.
It was noted that the cost is $ to $$ to $$$ with the recommendation to spend as little as possible to get started as you may already have most of the equipment needed and then move on to bigger and better if you enjoy this aspect of the hobby and want to add more to your set up.
Chris also used his personal experience to note some of the errors a newbie may have, such as not having the antenna connected or the wrong antenna connected, the frequency pairs reversed (sending on 2m when it is a 440 uplink as an example), or even having the side-bands not set up properly (LSB vs USB).
He did recommend that an FM satellite be the first attempt to work another station but noted the one issue is that the FM repeater only allows 1 signal at a time. You’ll hear a lot of activity, but jump in and start transmitting.
He offered to provide any assistance he could via email if you start to delve into satellite comms and he can be contacted at ny9x@ny9x.com