Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Going lower (frequency wise)

Friday July 27 2018 marked the arrival of my latest electromagnetic spectrum sensor. This was a bit lower in frequency than my optical instruments - a brand new Yaesu FT-991A amateur transceiver! This is sometimes called a 'shack in a box' and covers ham bands from 160m to 70cm. Earlier in the year I had finally succumbed to outside prodding and my own curiosity and took the amateur radio license exam - and passed with 100%. A few days later I received my new Technician Class license, KG5ZID. I jumped back into my SDR mode and quickly had the little receiver attached to wsjt-x.exe software in the PC and was receiving FT8 digital mode signals from all over. A ham-it-up upconverter for the amateur bands under 6m and a couple of home brew antennas (one for 6m and one for 2m) stuffed into the attic and I was off and running. K9ZVZ sold me an extra Wouxun KG-UVD1P hand held xcvr to round out the 'shack'. Fast forward to today when I came across an article in Feb 2018 QST on a new ham satellite - AO-91. This is basically an FM repeater in space that works on the 2m and 70cm bands. It receives on 435.250 and transmits on 145.960. I read the article while at the dentist office getting my old bridge repaired (ugh). When I got home I looked up AO-91 on Heavens Above and guess what? It happened to be rising low in the south and headed north! I grabbed my HT and went to the front porch, tuned the radio to the downlink, and bang! I heard ham chatter where there normally wasn't any!! I couldn't quite make out a complete call sign and the signals disappeared when the satellite pass was complete so I don't know where the stations were located but I am sure they were passing through AO-91.
So now I can add radio satellites and 2m to my 'viewing pleasure'. One thing about 2m is it isn't bothered by street lights!