Day 1:
So, after Pete, W2JV's great presentation at the ARRL Centennial last weekend, I decided to finally put together the Arrow 2m/440 Satellite Antenna that had been sitting next to my operating position for about a year now and take a crack at some satellite QSO'ing.
I checked the SO-50 schedule (this was Tuesday, July 22nd) and saw there were a couple of 80 degree plus passes in a couple of hours. I figured putting the antenna together (very fast) and programming SO-50's uplink and downlink frequencies with several plus and minus shifts to account for doppler into my Yaesu VX-7R wouldn't take too long and I'd probably have time to relax before the passes.
Well, the antenna went together extremely quickly, but I encountered some unexpected problems with the HT. Having bought the radio back in 2008--before all the USB to radio cables were available--I had been using a Belkin USB to serial adapter with the Yaesu pigtail that screws into the mic jack for programming. I'd never had any trouble before and so wasn't expecting any now. The software read the radio just fine, but when I went to write (clone) to the HT I got an error. Not only did it give me an error, it also erased the radio and all my settings.
I proceeded to try all manner of fixes for the problem. Removing and reinstalling the cable on the HT (about 30 times), trying different ports and a couple of other computers, all to no avail. By now I'd missed the passes and had to get ready for the evening's class, so I sat down and patiently programmed 9 memories with cross-band frequencies (aka "odd split"), PL tones (TX only) and turned off the squelch (set to zero as so often stressed by Pete and others who operate satellites -- you have to hear the squelch 'quiet' when the HT starts receiving the satellite).
I saw there were a pair of 30 degree passes, short ones, on the sked for tomorrow (July 23rd) so I'd give them a try before messing with the radio programming any more. In the mean time I'd check out my programming cable(s) for problems. I also went on Amazon.com and ordered a straight USB to Yaesu programming cable with a supposedly guaranteed FTDI chipset that wouldn't give me any problems like most of the pirated Chinese cables.
Day 2:
My programming pigtail never fully locked into the HT. Upon further examination I noticed the plug on the HT end was able to be rotated independently of the cable. That's not good! I had to cut off the plastic covering the plug and found one solder connection (a ground I believe) broken off and one of the other wires also fell off during the exploratory surgery. OK, have to get out the soldering iron and fix that later.
Today's first pass was a low one, 30 degrees, and also brief. It was an 8 minute window staring at 174 degrees, rising to 30 degrees at azimuth 113, then falling off at about 54 degrees.
I had my digital recorder hanging from the HT on its strap and the radio on with the volume turned up. A couple of minutes into the pass I figured the doppler wasn't going to be as much of an issue with such an oblique pass and went through the frequencies until I had some audio coming through. It was very weak (I'm covered in trees here and trying to work the satellite through them) and I could barely make out any of what was being said, but it was exciting and I knew I was at least on the right track. My next opportunity today, for another low pass is at 3:13 PM. This one will be 9 minutes and get up to 32 degrees (whoo hoo). In the meantime I'm going to see if I can repair this cable and get the programmer working... I'm living dangerously because if I try to program the radio and wipe it again I'm probably not going to want to reprogram it by hand until I get over the disappointment.
...to be continued.
Kevin AB2ZI
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