My First Satellite QSO

Pic courtesy AMSAT INDIA.

24th November 2010: It was late evening pass for Hamsat VO-52, The elevation for the pass was good around 87 Degree Max and total duration of the pass was 13 minutes over my QTH. Armed with Dual band handy Wouxun with stock Rubber ducky with ear phone which came along with the kit. The pass was at 20:55 hrs IST, I went to my terrace as I haven’t set up my external UHF antenna yet.  I first tuned to the center frequency on the downlink at 145.900 MHZ with a opened squelch but there were no station heard. After few minutes I tuned down by 10 MHZ to 145.890 and out of the blue I heard a familiar call sign VU2GUR, OM Guru was operation from Chamarajpet around 13 Kms from my QTH. I gave a report of 59 but looks like Guru did not copy me as the bird was well above my head and it was out of reach for Guru. I gave a couple of CQ calls. And out of excitement I gave a couple of calls on the down link frequency itself and then I corrected it and gave few CQ calls. Except guru I did not copy any one. After the pass while exchanging reports on the local repeater I got to know from OM Daya VU2 DPE that I was heard through the satellite via downlink, out of those couple of CQ calls Daya was able to copy me on downlink, thus making my first Satellite QSO ever. OM Daya and Guru congratulated me for my first ever sat QSO, Wow what an accomplishment. It felt great and a since of accomplishment for having made my first QSO via HAMSAT VO-52, India’s first ever Amateur Satellite.


Equipment used: Wouxun KG-UVD1P with stock rubber ducky with ear phone.

My first 2 Way Satellite QSO

25th November 2010: Having made my first ever sat QSO on the previous day and wanting for more I reached on to my terrace to catch the bird. Before working on the VO-52 I checked into “Chandamama Net” a local daily evening net conducted by OM Subbu VU2ZUB,  subbu informed me that HAM from Chennai OM Radha was able to hear me yesterday’s pass, this was anothe feather in the cap. This time I wanted to use two HT’s as I wanted to hear my own voice from the downlink and it was also suggested by OM Daya that using two Handy’s will be effective for working with satellite. I tuned my VHF handy on the downlink center frequency on 145.900 and UHF on the uplink center frequency on 435.250. After the previous days QSO I read about how Inverted linear transponder works but still I was not confident to play with frequencies to compensate the Doppler Effect, rather I waited for some station to be heard on the center frequency. This time again OM VU2GUR was heard strong, I replied to his call but he could not copy me, again I gave my call sign when VU2DPE OM Daya came in through sat and gave me a report of 59, Wow that was a two way QSO Daya was able to copy me and I was able to copy Daya. This time I was able to hear myself in the downlink. Post sat pass QSO’s on the local repeater confirmed that I was heard by Guru as well and thus established double 2 way QSO.

Equipment used: YAESU FT 411E with 5/8th Whip telescopic antenna and VOX Headset, Wouxun KG-UVD1P with Stock rubber Ducky.

Catch you on the bird 73's
DE
VU3NEO