Posts by pe1itr

Calendar 2022

1 2022-02-19 QO-100 SSB Challenge From 18:00UTC to 24:00UTC

2 2022-05-21 QO-100 CW Challenge From 18:00UTC to 24:00UTC

3 2022-08-20 QO-100 SSB Challenge From 18:00UTC to 24:00UTC

4 2022-11-19 QO-100 CW Challenge From 18:00UTC to 24:00UTC

This year's first QO100 SSB Challenge will take place next Saturday, February 19, 2022 at 18:00 UTC. Note the changed duration of 6 hours per contest.

This is the first in a series of 4 QO100 SSB/CW Challenges. More information at https://contestrobot.pe1itr.com/qo100_challenge/

Note the new rules for 2022: https://contestrobot.pe1itr.co…-challenge-rules-2022.pdf

Everyone is invited to participate. You can participate by uploading the log in the relevant cabrillo file format to the contest robot. Have fun collecting as many grids and callsign pre-fixes as possible.

73 Rob PE1ITR & Remco PA3FYM

Now with the new band plan, the FT8 / FT4 activity will also have to move.

I set: FT8 / FT4 = .540 "Dail Freq"

I made over 65 qso's in FT8/FT4 mode so far on QO-100 and I enjoyed every qso.

It appears that FT4 is better because quite some stations shift in frequency during the transmission, making FT8 difficult to decode. Signals are not weak and that extra weak signal sensitivity is not necessary.

73 Rob PE1ITR

I am using my swiss army knife for satellite work: Nova for Windows.

https://www.nlsa.com/

It is free. Also runs on Linux under wine..

The sun is a standard object and the kepler elements of Es-hail2 can we loaded from https://www.celestrak.com/.

With this program I can view the conjuction of Sun and QO-100 live by putting both objects in the current view. And make a planning.

I think that the transponder noise at the March equinox was much higher and therefore the increase of sun

noise less noticeable. In the meantime the transponder noise is set much lower, the effect would be more noticeable.

I just calculated: When I use a 1meter dish and a pre-amp of 0.8db Nf. The VK3UM EME Performance Calculator gives a noise increase of 7.6 db.

With a 0.8m dish -> 6.1 db noise increase.

For my location the equinox is 09:55 UTC

Assuming a beamwidth of 2 degrees (-3db points) the noise increase will start 09:51 UTC and ends 10:02 UTC. So 9 minutes or less.

I'm curious now.

I have in my notes that 2019-10-12 around 09:55UTC there will be a Eshail-2 Sun Equinox. Is there more info what we could experiencing?

We will be on QO-100 as PE6SBW/J ( Scouting Burgemeester Welschen Meerhoven ) locator JO21RK on the NB and WB transponder.

CU 73 Rob

Mike tnx qso. Here is a screenshot of the last part of our qso. GW8OGI called me also.

Not me. But I will be qrv in one hour or so with FT8 on .600 (Dail Freq).

Ok Agreed. I set:

FT8 = .600 "Dail Freq"

Other NB MGM = .610 spreading upwards

According to the transponder "band plan", the Narrow Band digital mode runs from .600 - .620. We can best place FT8 on the edge such as .600 dail freq or .617 dail freq. The rest is then free with .610 as the center of digital mode activity for JT65c or whatever mode. OK?

I also received multiple decodes in FT8. The decode of the main signal and of the jitter artefacts.

This morning I made a nice JT65C and FT8 qso with PA3FYM. This worked ok. I discovered a 25Hz jitter on my lnb showing in the spectrum. That why JT65a is difficult. But modes with wider spacing of the tones are ok.

Can agree to label 10489.610MHz as FT8 frequency?

73 Rob PE1ITR

Today I had a PI4 next generation beacon running from just HackRF SDR with 1 MMIC behind it. Less then 100mW in my 1.4m dis . Decoded great.