Foundations of Amateur Radio

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Amateur Radio Satellites ... more than two in the sky.

Posted: 19 Nov 2016 09:00 AM PST


Foundations of Amateur Radio

There are moments in your life when you say to yourself, duh, why didn't I
think of this earlier?

I had one of those last week.

As you might recall, I have a hard time using HF communications from my
home. There is lots of noise around and I've been going out mobile and
portable to make contacts. As satisfying as that is, nothing beats sitting
at home in your comfy chair with all the other home amenities.

Ideally I have this notion that I should be able to do my hobby from home
and have my cake and eat it too. Turns out, my duh moment was just that.

I speak regularly on the local 2m repeater, in fact I host a weekly net
called F-troop that encourages new and returning hams to get on air and
make some noise in a friendly environment where no question is too silly
and mistakes can be made on-air without subsequent yelling and carrying-on.

So, I have a fully working HF radio at home, but it works just fine on 2m
and 70cm.

My duh moment was when I realised that there are a multitude of 2m and 70cm
transmitters around that I could add to my tally of things heard and
worked. There are websites dedicated to these transmitters and schedules
exist to highlight when, how and where these things are.

So, what am I talking about?

The wonderful world of Amateur Radio Satellites.

There are lots around, sending out idents, having uplink and downlink,
sending out digital packets, you name it, the wide variety of Amateur Radio
in a 90 minute orbit around the planet.

I'll confess that I thought there were one or two doing the rounds, but
there are a few more. Just counting the active ones, there are 85
satellites designed to be used by Amateurs at the moment, of course that
changes all the time, going up and down as more are launched and others
stop responding.

In addition to this collection, there are other things you can listen out
for, like weather satellites, the International Space Station and a bunch
of other objects.

I came across the N2YO website which shows you what's up in your sky right
now, the foot print and direction, when it clears the horizon, in which
direction and what the highest elevation is and when it vanishes again, all
very helpful in getting half a chance to hear the transmission in the first
place.

I've said this before, this hobby is magic. I can't do HF, so now I'm
playing with satellites. Looks like I'm going to have to sort out some
digital decoding software as well, since many of the satellites have all
manner of non-Morse code transmissions, APRS, digital modes, graphics, etc.
Lots to learn.

Did I mention that you could do much of this with a hand-held radio? Power
is not a problem and an external antenna is likely all you'll need.

By the way, this is what I like about Amateur Radio, there are so many
different aspects to this hobby, so much variety, so many things to learn
and experience and I have only just scratched the surface.

It bears repeating that a beginner's licence in Amateur Radio gives you
access to all this and most of the things I've been talking about since I
started talking about the hobby back in 2011. I've been licensed now for a
little more than a minute and a half, but I still get a pleasant surprise
on a regular basis about the size and scope of my chosen hobby.

There's no excuse, getting bored with Amateur Radio is just not an option.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB
This posting includes a media file:
http://podcasts.itmaze.com.au/founda...teur-radio.mp3