Next Week to Wythall Radio Club. Tuesday 6th February at 8.30 pm. All welcome- Members and Non Members Alike
HOW I BECAME INTERESTED IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATION AND THE BENEFITS OF USING THE QO-100 SATELLITE AS AN EVERYDAY SET UP
I became interested in satellite quite soon after getting my licence, but it was very expensive to take up. The complexity of tracking the satellite across the sky was not within my budget. I did try the Armstrong method and really struggled. So, I decided to move on from that.
Many years later I started listening to the ISS from a simple handheld and received a few slows can pictures. I also heard stations working through both on voice and packet. Again, I parked the hobby but on this visit back to the hobby I have set my station up so that it is permanent and I can simply lock things away when I’m not working.
Some time in mid 2022, I happened to be reading an item, I forget where exactly, about a geostationary satellite that had been launched. This seemed more interesting. A satellite I could just point at and leave set up. Yes it’s lazy but it is also reliable. What was also interesting was the fact that the satellite was available on a webSDR. This became my first port of call, which quite soon made me realise that this was a thing I would be interested in.
I did some research and decided on purchasing a ready- made transverter. Unfortunately, due to my own mistake, I managed to wire up a couple of connections incorrectly and damaged the transverter. The manufacturers were very supportive and we eventually got me on the air.
It has become a bit of a passion of mine, even going portable from time to time, with a foldable 60cm dish.
Hopefully my talk on 6th February at 8.30 pm in the Darts’ Room at Wythall House will give an insight as to how we got to this point, with a quick history of satellite communication and the benefits of using the QO-100 satellite as an every day set up.