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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by AE6QG[/i] [br]It looks like I've recently exceeded 20 states and Canadian provinces, and am just waiting on the QSL cards to roll in. So far I have QSL cards for 3 unique states. I got confirmation yesterday for my "Satellite Communicator Award" (first satellite contact) from AMSAT and should be receiving the certificate in the mail soon. Something new I learned today: Heavy thunderstorms can completely block a weaker satellite like SO-50. I was trying to work an SO-50 pass today at 1:23pm and heard absolutely nothing, while there was a big thunderstorm cell sitting off over the Magdalena Mountains (no, the thunderstorm wasn't anywhere near me, I'm not that stupid or desperate for satellite contacts, hihi), and the pass was to get to 29 degrees elevation, so I know it should have cleared "M" Mountain just fine. SO-50 is hard enough to get even on higher passes (due to the 250 mW output, and rapidly-changing polarization due to it tumbling in orbit) that any obstruction (buildings, trees, mountains, clouds) will cut the signal to nothingness. AO-27 (500-600 mW) and AO-51 (1-6 Watts) are more resilient in this regard. I haven't verified receiving AO-27 through clouds, but last weekend when I was forced to stay indoors during an AO-51 pass during a fierce thunderstorm, I was able to hear AO-51 on the Arrow antenna indoors for a couple of minutes of the highest point of the pass, which is a fairly amazing feat considering being indoors (no contacts were possible, I'm afraid... I think the downlink signal was being bounced off a nearby apartment wall through the bedroom window, so I couldn't transmit to it directly through two stories of ceilings). I made a recording of an AO-27 pass. I want to make a couple of more recordings prior to the Sunday night Net so I can pick the best one. This week has been challenging for me to get a clear, unobstructed pass from horizon to horizon due to the athletic field being utilized by UTEP's football team. My first recording has a lot of wind noise (my only recording device available is a portable MP3 player that only has built-in microphone, no microphone input jack) and also the sound of a football team and coach whistles. Fun fun. I think I can filter most of it out using the Audacity sound-editing software, though. More later... --Wadhah, AE6QG [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.