*New* India-Indonesia Time Slot for LAPAN-A2 Amateur Radio Satellite!

 When I started working Low Earth Orbit amateur radio FM satellites, my local Elmers used tell me that LAPAN-A2 (IO-86) satellite with an orbit near the equator is very difficult to access due to the activation of transponder near its entry to Indonesian region. They used to get just about 30 seconds during a pass, which is hardly enough to access. Later some of my friends residing South of my location told me that they could access LAPAN-A2 for short periods using handheld Yagi antennas while operating outdoors. I was also told that when there is a satellite focused DXpedition in Maldives, the satellite used to be activated earlier and longer window was available for access from South India. In any case, access from North India was impossible due to the pass along the equator, with only slightly varying orbits. LAPAN-A2 satellite has a power output of 5W like the amateur radio on international space station.


Situation changed recently when at the request of VU satellite operators, the controller decided to activate the satellite a bit earlier so that VU and 4S7 stations will have greater opportunity to use the LAPAN-A2 voice transponder. During one such early activation, one VU ham could establish a two way contact with a station in Mauritius as well. Many VU hams, even those from Central India, could easily work the satellite and have contact with Indonesian and even Malaysian stations. I could also work a few VU stations and a 4S7 station using the voice transponder of LAPAN-A2. Even though I could hear a lot of Indonesian stations and occasionally some of them called me back, full two contacts have been difficult because of my limited setup of a fixed elevation azimuth Moxon Yagi. By the time DX stations are heard in my radio, the satellite is too far off for my setup and I have difficulty in recognizing callsigns quickly at low elevation of the satellite and hence low signal strengths.

Looking at the LAPAN-A2 activation for this weekend, there is a great surprise for VU hams. Couple of time slots have been named "India-Indonesia" with still earlier activations! That would facilitate more contacts between VU hams and LEO satellite operators located as far as Mauritius and the Arabian Gulf, which was hitherto impossible with LAPAN-A2 satellite. Of course, your antenna and radio setup should be good enough to hear the signals at low elevation of the satellite when the DX stations come in. It is a very welcome move from the controller of LAPAN-A2 satellite, at a time when there is scarcity of FM satellites with all the TEVEL series having re-entered and SO-121 QRP satellite due for re-entry soon. All VU hams operating with handheld radios and Yagi antennas outdoors and those with excellent indoor radio with automatic Doppler tracking and cross Yagi using azimuth-elevation rotators can expect to get good DX contacts during this "India-Indonesia" schedule of LAPAN-A2 activation.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Six Button Wireless Mouse vs Three Button Mouse

Image
 When I started using computers long back, mouse had only two buttons, a left and a right button. Then came three button mouse with an extra scroll button. I have read that there was also a single button mouse, but I have not seen one. Now here is a six button mouse, that too a wireless mouse with a USB-A Nano Dongle and 2.4 Ghz wireless connection. In the earlier era, mouse had a rolling ball which would gather dirt and sometimes stop functioning well. Now we have optimal mouse which uses a red light source and an optical sensor instead of the rolling ball. The wireless mouse works on a single 1.5 V, AA battery with a projected battery life of one year!
Read more

Debut Ham Radio Technical Discussion Net on 7065 kHz, 1:45 am UTC (7.15 am IST)

Image
Started by calling CQ on 7065 kHz using my automated CQ call which I had described yesterday. VU3RFT joined first followed by VU2EHA. Had a good discussion on Center Fed and End Fed Dipole Antennas. VU2EHA and VU3RFT participated. All of us were using inverted V dipole antennas. VU2EHA had 40 and 20m dipoles on same mast. VU3RFT was using 1:1 current balun. I mentioned that I am using 40/10m center fed dipoles with 1:1 current balun. VU2EHA asked about 15m dipole. I suggested that the 40m dipole will work well on 15m as it is an odd harmonic. He mentioned a problem because his IC-718 does not have an autotuner. We lost propagation at around 7.35 am IST. Wonder whether there was a geomagnetic storm? Number of waterfalls on 40m band decreased very much at that time. Planning to try again tomorrow at the same time. SWLs can monitor at  http://vu3wew.ddns.net:8073/ , the OpenWebRX by VU3WEW, located about 10km from here and likely to pick up my signals very well. Being a WebSDR, it can be
Read more

Building a Tape Measure Yagi for LEO Satellite Operations

Image
 The Moxon Yagi which I have been using for my LEO Satellite operations had a Moxon rectangle for VHF and five UHF Yagi elements which were passively coupled to the VHF Moxon driven element. The gain was not that high when I thought of working SO-121 QRP satellite. VU2TEK had good success with his Tape Measure Yagi which motivated me to go for one. But I don't expect the same success as he was operating outdoors, pointing the Tape Measure Yagi in the direction of the satellite pass. I am planning to use only in a mast mounted fashion which will limit its usability for satellite passes to a short period of about 4 minutes. I have chosen the DK7ZB design which I have been looking at for a quite a long time. That design has 5 elements for VHF and 8 elements for UHF with a boom length of about 1.5m. First step was to get a wooden reaper to use as the boom. Earlier it used to be available in all electrical wiring accessories shops. But now with the usage of PVC channels for wiring, I w
Read more