The antenna I bring every so often to the OTC is the Arrow II Satellite antenna: https://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/146-437.html. GPSCentral has it here: https://www.gpscentral.ca/product/arrow-antenna-146-437/. Unfortunately it is now 312$ up from 195$ (pre-tax and shipping) when I bought it last year (2023) in June. This is for the collapsable boom with duplexer. If you opt for a solid boom and no duplexer it is 205$ (pre-tax and shipping).
Software:
I use gpredict on linux: https://github.com/csete/gpredict/ It is free and open source, and available in the debian software repository. The Github releases page has a Windows binary as well (https://github.com/csete/gpredict/releases/). gpredict has an antenna rotator interface which John Schouten VE7TI, Dino VE7XDT and I used last field day for the sarctrac rotator. The website is https://oz9aec.dk/gpredict/index.php.
For phone, on Android I use Look4Sat: https://github.com/rt-bishop/Look4Sat/. It is not available on Apple devices. You can download directly from the github releases page, or download it from the F-Droid App Store or the Google Play Store. look4sat is interesting because it also has built in rotator control which of course I have never used. Apparently you need to input to local IP address.
Later on, we can have a workshop on how to use these softwares if needed.
The seminal website for amateur radio satellites is https://www.amsat.org/. There is a great amount of information on the website. For one, they have a ‘for beginners’ page https://www.amsat.org/introduction-to-working-amateur-satellites/.
Other AMSAT links:
https://www.amsat.org/station-and-operating-hints/.
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/FM-Satellites-Best-Practices.pdf.
This last link is a document outlining ‘good practices’ for satellites. Here are some things I would append and/or modify:
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For point 4, to me this is not that important. If the pass is very busy, then perhaps calling CQ may not be prudent as it reduces usable time. However, when the pass is empty or only 1 or two other stations are on, I see no reason why not to call CQ. The idea that CQ should not be called on FM satellites because it’s the same as a terrestrial repeater is nonsense, because there is no reason to necessarily to not call CQ on a terrestrial repeater. ‘You don’t call CQ on a repeater because you just don’t’ is entirely unpersuasive.
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For point 5. Again, phonetics is good to use but not strictly necessary. If it is a busy pass then yes it is needed. On a calm pass, phonetics are not necessary but still good to use. And, I cannot stress enough, use standard ITU phonetics. Never be like N6AJ I heard once: Norway Six America Japan. People are used to standard phonetics so it makes it easiest to understand and copy. This is especially important on satellites as stations may have only seconds to understand and respond.
AMSAT has a list of satellites webpage.
FM satellites here: https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellite-frequency-summary/.
Linear satellites here: https://www.amsat.org/linear-satellite-frequency-summary/.
There is status page here: https://amsat.org/status/.
This is a user reporting page. Other amateurs radio operators will submit whether or not the satellite was heard. Here is a sample screenshot:
Here we can see that AMSAT-OSCAR-7 has been heard on 10 May. However on 9 May, it was not operating. AMSAT-OSCAR-91 has been sporadically working. This has been the case for at least a month. Unfortunately this satellite is on its last legs.
Other links: AMSAT Argentina has webpage tracking satellites: http://www.amsat.org.ar/sat.htm.
https://www.n2yo.com/ is another good website for tracking.
For viewing grids https://dxcluster.ha8tks.hu/hamgeocoding/ is a good website which overlays the grids on openstreetmap. We are in CN89, and the OTC is in CN89oc.
https://www.ariss.org/ is where you can learn more about the ISS FM repeater and APRS digipeater. Go to the general contacts page.
I will end with this; here is a photo of all the grids I have made contacts with so far (contact grids are the red squares). At least 45 grids. Most are unconfirmed. Of the unconfirmed, 10 grids are from contacts with station AD0HJ roving, and 4 from WD9EWK (three roving) - WD9EWK also accounts for one confirmed contact. The top left one is with AL9D at Wasilla, Alaska, and the far right one is with VA3VGR at Ottawa Ontario. This was created by the software Great Circle Maps SM3GSJ (you can download here https://www.qsl.net/sm3gsj/). The red square with the circle inside is our location: CN89.
