SO50 and other ham satellites

[wbswetnam]

To my knowledge, only the SO-50 satellite (Saudi Sat 1c) allows for FM repeater use. All of the others are digital modes or SSB. Why is this? Also, among the amateur radio satellites, which are the most commonly used for SSB?

 

[DaveNF2G]

There are several other satellites in orbit that were designed for FM mode. Unfortunately, SO-50 is the only one that is still working. Replacements will probably be launched, but it takes a long time to plan, design, and get a launch opportunity for a new hamsat.

 

[wa2chj]

I believe duty cycle is the reason. FM is nearly 100% duty cycle when keyed while Digital, etc. are much lower. Power management is very important because it affects the weight, and therefore the cost, of a satellite. Higher duty cycle (power) demands make for larger solar panels and bigger storage batteries.

 

[K5MPH]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Check out the website amsat.com there's a lot of info there check out the section on the fox sat that's going up in around nov.2014 it will be a full fm repeater....

 

[K5MPH]

the web site i wrote was wrong it is amsat.org and not dot com sorry.......

 

[wbswetnam]

I recently made a hand-held satellite chaser for FM amateur radio satellites following these plans [http://youtu.be/Hy_XwvMmIro], the only difference between mine and Dave's is that I made mine a bit longer and added a "belly brace pad" and a handle. It sure is hard to get on the SO-50 as it is passing by. Although I've heard plenty of activity during passes, it is hard to get a call in (the so-called "pile up" is the term here too), but I'll keep trying. I hope they are successful with the new Fox satellite later this year. Maybe it will be less congested if there's two buzzing by in the sky instead of one.

 

[wbswetnam]

Here's a photo I took of it... I'm pleased with it. And if I ever decide to give up on using it for satellite chasing, I can turn it vertically and.... taa-daa! I have a portable yagi for 2m / 70cm.

 

[wbswetnam]

1st contact via SO50 today

Hoorey! I made my first contact via the SO50 satellite today! It took probably 20+ tries but I finally succeeded at making a contact today with K8YSE/7 in Mesa, AZ from my location in Arkansas.

 

[WX9RLT]

AWESOME!

I am going to try it here in about 20 min when it passes over. Wish me luck

Hoorey! I made my first contact via the SO50 satellite today! It took probably 20+ tries but I finally succeeded at making a contact today with K8YSE/7 in Mesa, AZ from my location in Arkansas.

 

[KD8DVR]

Hoorey! I made my first contact via the SO50 satellite today! It took probably 20+ tries but I finally succeeded at making a contact today with K8YSE/7 in Mesa, AZ from my location in Arkansas.

K8YSE is on another of his satellite expeditions That guy just can't stay put. I got a few QSLs from him on his Canada Satellite expedition a couple years back

 

[wd9ewk]

K8YSE is on another of his satellite expeditions That guy just can't stay put. I got a few QSLs from him on his Canada Satellite expedition a couple years back

In the past several months, K8YSE built a satellite station at his second home in the Phoenix area, with an IC-910 and a couple of Arrow dual-band Yagis and azimuth/elevation rotator, operating it as K8YSE/7. Like his station at his Cleveland home, he has full remote-control access of the Arizona station. There are times he will work some passes using both stations, which confuses some who hear K8YSE from EN91 (Cleveland) and K8YSE/7 from DM43 (Arizona).

John is also occasionally active from other locations. He was on from DM41 in southern Arizona a month ago, but hasn't done a large grid expedition since his trip around Lake Superior and as far as he could go in northwestern Ontario as he could get his pickup truck in 2010.

73!




Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK