I have been trying for the past week to work an FM satellite and have yet to succeed. I have tried about a dozen times and can not get a response. I was hoping someone would be willing to listen to my recording (attached) and give me a evaluation of how I may improve. This one is an AO-27 pass from 02/23/2012 at 19:15z.
I have an Elk antenna with a VX-6 handheld. I know having two radios would help a lot, but I am not there right now. Also, I have double checked all my rx/tx frequencies and PL tones and I really think everything is set up correct. For AO-27 I am transmitting on 145.850 and receiving on 436.805-785.
You can hear the bird... that is a HUGE step in the right direction.
I just got into the birds late last year and have made about 150 contacts to date. On every pass I have worked I listened for callsigns that were making contacts and then called one of them directly. I've never heard anybody do very well just calling CQ or throwing their call out like you did (I listened for your first few calls only). Once you complete a QSO, other guys start calling you back... I always write down the callsigns as I'm going, so it helps me to let the pass go for a while before jumping in. That way I've already got most of the guys out there written down and I can just check them off and call right back without wasting time writing. Recording is even better, as you can go back and log everything after the pass.
Also, have you confirmed you are using max power on your HT?
I have an Elk antenna with a VX-6 handheld. I know having two radios would help a lot, but I am not there right now. Also, I have double checked all my rx/tx frequencies and PL tones and I really think everything is set up correct. For AO-27 I am transmitting on 145.850 and receiving on 436.805-785.
Thanks for the quick QSO on AO-27 yesterday. Your signals were making it through the satellite, although your audio was a little light. I don't see any of yesterday's passes on K8YSE's web page yet, but I can e-mail you a copy of my recording if you'd like to hear how you sounded from out here.
Thanks for the contact Patrick. I needed to make some adjustments to my radio setting to get in. Now I will work on my audio level. To be honest, I got so excited when I made the first contact that I may not have even been talking into the mic! I guess the first troubleshooting step will be to slow down, listen to the calls, and speak into the radio...
I'll wait a few days for K8YSE's recordings before I get you to email me one.
Thanks for the contact Patrick. I needed to make some adjustments to my radio setting to get in. Now I will work on my audio level. To be honest, I got so excited when I made the first contact that I may not have even been talking into the mic! I guess the first troubleshooting step will be to slow down, listen to the calls, and speak into the radio...
I'll wait a few days for K8YSE's recordings before I get you to email me one.
Thanks for the help
I don't think you were speaking too fast. That was what let me get the grid you were transmitting from on the air, and not needing to get it from my recording. Depending on the radio and mic, you may need to either speak closer to the mic or kick up the mic gain a little. For many radios, this is a menu setting and not something that you have to open up the radio to adjust with a screwdriver. You should be able to make the adjustment, and not resort to screaming into the mic, to increase your transmitted audio levels.
As for K8YSE's recordings, you can always e-mail John and ask him to post the recording from that pass. His station records them automatically, and then he manually puts them on the web page. My QSL card for yesterday's contact (with SASE) went out in this morning's mail, and you should see it later in the week.
Need a Satellite Elmer!
Originally Posted by N4BWH
