VE6AB Portable Ops

All the photos in my galleries expand and include captions located beneath the photos.

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Working The Birds

VE6AB working a satellite with his full duplex ultralite satellite setup.

For the record, this is a challenging way of working the satellites in a low earth orbit, and I recommend that if you are attempting your first contact on satellite, that you use your HT with a Arrow antenna (see link below), as your chances of making contact will be far greater than using my setup as seen in my photo, at least untill you get more experience working the birds.

So what do I have going on here you ask....I am using 2 HT'S to work one of the various LEOs (low earth orbit satellite) orbiting the earth every 90 minutes.

In this photo, I am using my one HT to uplink to the satellite on 2 meters, and I am hearing the downlink frequency from the satellite on my other HT on 70cm, through the headphones that I have on.

Notice that I am holding the antenna of my uplink radio perpendicular to the satellite, for maximum penetration of the uplink signal from my HT into the satellite.

How do I know that I am holding my uplink radio perpendicular to the satellite you ask....by the way I am hearing the downlink from the satellite into my headphones from my receive HT that is pointed directly at the satellite, and therefore creating a 90 degree angle between the two uplink and downlink HT's.

The antenna that you see mounted on my downlink radio, is called a CJU, especially designed for direct-mounting to a HT for working satellites. I built a modified version of this antenna from a article that was published in QST magazine some years back.

Fastened to my right-hand wrist, is a device running Pocketsat +, that shows me the orbit of the satellite that I am working.

This link will show you a pass that I was working with a Arrow antenna, along with my Yaesu VX-8R

http://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/HamRadio/i-nttPXHk

On another note, if you enjoy using your handi-talkie, and would like to learn more about how to do more with it, you will want to check out the new book "Radios to Go", just released by the ARRL, and available at a ham radio outlet near you, or from the ARRL store.

http://www.arrl.org/shop/Radios-to-Go/

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