This morning I had some fun with my Arrow antenna and an old Yaesu 2 metre hand-held transceiver. I generally track a hand-ful of Ham Radio satellites, one of which was recently launched from the International Space Station (ISS).
This morning about 10:20 Pacific Time, we had a nearly overhead pass of the satellite giving me about 10 minutes of time to to track the bird and listen to its beacons.
At the appropriate hour (and minute) I was the image of tin-foil-hat-geekdom standing out in my yard with a pair of headphones on listening to a handheld radio whilst pointing a very strange contraption (the Arrow Antenna) skyward. I live on some acreage, so I don't have neighbors withing spitting distance, but nevertheless, it was a bit of a "moment" for me wondering if anyone watching would think the old man has taken leave of his senses...
But, the sights being whatever they were, I was having fun... I had a great copy on the bird, but didn't happen to plan ahead sufficiently to enable me to record the pass. Even with the tall trees around, I had no problem copying the pass and sent off for my reception report giving two of the (english) passwords copied during the pass as proof of reception.
If you have not tried to copy ArisSat1 yet, it is very easy even with a handheld receiver and a modest vertical antenna.
The next round for me will be to try and catch some of the telemetry. I will have to look at the satellite status page to see if the transponder is still functional, but a contact or two over the bird would be fun.
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