Categories
Ham Satellite news Oscar-100

DP0GVN soon QRV via QO-100

From QO-100 Dx Club we see the following information:

A new operator, Alex – DL2ALY, has arrived at Neumayer-Station III DP0GVN two days ago.

He fixed the QO-100 setup (by exchanging the LNB) and it’s likely he will be very active in the coming months.

TNX Felix, DL5XL and Matthias, DD1US for the info

Categories
Oscar-100

Successful 4th QO-100 user meeting 2024

On June 29, 2024, the fourth QO-100 Usermeeting took place in Friedrichshafen as part of the Ham-Radio Messe 2024 in a tried and tested environment. This year’s theme was “Roving” and thus perfectly matched the motto of the Ham-Radio amateur radio exhibition “Islands on the Air”.

Please read the full article at AMSAT-DL

Categories
Oscar-100

Multiple QO-100 DX-Peditions from Newfoundland

Re-post from ANS-140. Images from @g0mrf on X

This week sees three separate groups operating from just outside the coverage footprint of the QO-100 satellite.

From Newfoundland the geostationary QO-100 satellite is nominally 1 degree below the horizon. After 5 years in orbit and much speculation, three groups are in the St. John’s area to try operating QO-100 with its S band uplink and 10GHz downlink.

First in Newfoundland was Gopan, M0XUU. He was operating with a 0.8m dish from just north of the harbor entrance and updates could be found on the QO-100 DX Club web site. https://qo100dx.club/ Despite frequency periods of no signal or deep QSB, Gopan managed to work stations via FT8, FT4, and CW. After a week on the air as VO1/M0XUU, Gopan left Newfoundland on May 15.

Arriving Monday 13 May and remaining until to Friday 17, was a Canadian team with a 1.8m dish and up to 100W. Poor weather hampered their operations. Details of the operation by Stefan Wagener, VE4SW, and John Langille, VE1CWJ, can be found at the QRZ.com page for special callsign, VO100QO at https://www.qrz.com/db/VO100QO

Finally, Graham Shirville, G3VZV, and David Bowman, G0MRF, arrived on Wednesday, May 15 with two sets of equipment and were active as VO1/G3VZV and VO1/G0MRF. They will fly back to the UK early Sunday, May 19. Operating from the old lighthouse keepers bungalow on the southern side of the harbor entrance, GN37PN85, they attempted working all modes including an attempt with DATV with a 175W S band amplifier. When not actively on the bands, a personal beacon was operating on 10489.539 MHz in CW to act as a propagation indicator.

[ANS thanks David Bowman, G0MRF, for the above information]

Categories
Oscar-100

Hur man ansöker om högre effekt för 2.4 GHz

This post is only in Swedish.
I Sverige har vi som bekant (december 2022) endast möjlighet att köra 100 mW inmatad till antennen på 2.4 GHz, vilket gör det utmanande att få en bra signal upp till Oscar-100 med mindre paraboler. Det går dock att ansöka om ett sk. experimenttillstånd för högre effekt. Om det beviljas gäller det 6 månader i taget och kostar 300 kr.

Jag går här igenom hur en ansökan går till och några tips om hur man hittar uppgifter.

  1. Skriv ett mail till amatorradio@pts.se och begär att få en ansökningsblankett för experimenttillstånd för högre effekt 2400 MHz.
  2. Du får sedan ett mail tillbaka med ett excel-dokumentet som ska fyllas i. Vissa saker är helt självklara (Namn och adressuppgifter, din signal etc) men några andra punkter går jag igenom här:
    • Koordinater sändarens placering, i format RT90 (X/Y)
      Här kan du använda följande sida för att konvertera till RT90:
      https://latlong.mellifica.se/
    • Azimut/elevation i grader
      Till Oscar-100. Info om detta får man här: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/point/
    • Öppningsvinkel i grader
      Om man inte har data på sin parabol så får man räkna ut det på något sätt, som jag inte vet hur. Eller uppskatta kanske? Min parabol hade värdet 3.1 grader.
    • Antennvinst / gain i dBi
      Samma här, finns det inte data på parabolen får man försöka räkna ut det.
  3. Skicka sedan in excel-dokumentet till pts@pts.se (observera inte samma adress som du använde i steg 1). Ange noga i rubriken och i texten vad det gäller.

Sedan är det bara att vänta på svar från PTS.

Edit 2023-01-13:
Jag har nu fått avslag från PTS vilket var väntat då jag bor i ett radhusområde. Tillståndet gäller endast för fasta sändare så det går inte heller att få tillstånd för portabel trafik.

Categories
Oscar-100

DXPATROL QO-100 Groundstation

The new DXPATROL QO-100 Groundstation is a “all-in-one” solution for portable Oscar 100 operation without any need for a computer. The specs:

  • Reception frequency 10 489.500 to 10 490.000MHz
  • Transmission Frequency 2400.000 to 2400.500 MHz
  • IF Frequency 432.500 to 433.000 Mhz
  • Linear UP and Down Converter
  • GPS Lock internal 10Mhz reference
  • Maximum Output RF Power 12W
  • Maximum input RF 5W ( 500mW optimum drive)
  • Input Voltage 12V to 14V
  • Thermal > 60º C protection
  • SWR > 1:3 protection
  • High Voltage input protection
  • Satellite Strength signal indication
  • Power output Bar and Watt indication
  • SWR Bar and ratio indication
  • Internal 5A fuse protection
  • NMEA GPS indication
  • Number of GPS satellites in range
  • GPS coordinates
  • QTH Locator presentation on screen
  • UTC Clock and Date.
  • Auto TX and RX by Vox PTT
  • Easy operation.
  • No tune require from TX to RX

More info at: https://www.dxpatrol.pt/index.php/kits

Categories
Oscar-100

Icebreaker FS “Polarstern” on Oscar 100

From AMSAT-DL web:

A portable satellite station for the QO-100 geostationary satellite (Es’hail-2) was commissioned on the icebreaker FS “Polarstern” at 14:23 UTC on December 27, 2020, with an initial QSO between DP0POL/mm and DK3ZL. A very special experiment, originated from an idea of Felix DL5XL and Charly DK3ZL. AMSAT-DL spontaneously supported this project by providing a complete 6 Watt transverter radio station, as well as a 75 cm dish on a tripod.

https://amsat-dl.org/en/a-new-star-has-risen-on-qo-100/