RE: [amsat-bb] Is my AO40 beacon strength average ?

["Ken Swaggart" <k.swaggart@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Darren (& all),

I'm using a 60 cm offset feed dish with the G3RUH patch. Attached directly
to the patch antenna is a Downeast Microwave preamp and Drake downconverter.
I have about 15 meters of RG-8x coax from the downconverter to the FT-847.
At the shack I run the incoming signal through a TV splitter, one output to
the FT-847 and the other to another receiver for the telemetry while I'm
operating with the FT-847.

When receiving the telemetry at squints of approx 11 or less my S meter runs
S4 to S5, depending on distance, with the background noise at S-0. (Without
the splitter the downconverter background noise is about S-2 to S-2.5) When
I point the dish at the sun or nearby fir trees or terrain I get about 1 S
unit rise in noise typically.

Hope this helps.

73,
Ken, W7KKE


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-AMSAT-BB@AMSAT.Org [mailto:owner-AMSAT-BB@AMSAT.Org]On
Behalf Of darren.rainer@btinternet.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 04:57
To: amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org
Subject: [amsat-bb] Is my AO40 beacon strength average ?


Hi all, I am wondering if my received signal from AO40 is average for my
setup.
I am using the following :
FT847
20 metres of RG213
DB6NT MKU24 pre-amp
G3RUH 60cm dish and patch feed.

AO40s beacon never peaks above S3. My noise floor < S1.
I can hear my signal coming back about S2 using 50 watts into a 8 9 ele vert
beam on 70cm. I tried a 1m prime focus dish last night and got the beacon to
S5. Is there anyone out there using a 60cm dish and patch getting S9 signals
? or are some of the reports a bit on the keen side.
I have painted the dish with plasticote paint which is non metalic, but
wondering if this could be having some effect.

Regards
Darren Rainer G4VTQ
----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org


----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org