I worked the QO-100 satellite! My first satellite contact!!!

[@n2rj]

All QSOs uploaded to LoTW. QSLs will be going out soon. :)

[@nerdgizmos]

It is a crime that North America doesn't not have a Geo stationary satellite available. Especially considering how long Amsat has been operating and the money made by manufacturers in the US market that we do not have this capability.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

I could list the reasons Americans cant have nice things but i would get banned

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Congrats on working QO-100..! It's my daily hangout 🙂

[@n2rj]

Haha I’m jealous! I wish I could hang out daily there too! Although with remote stations soon being a possibility in the UK (I have a UK license - M0RAJ) I may be able to do something if I can convince a friend. 🤔

[@tzm1843]

Looks like it's a clear window from Israel! Too bad there is no amateur satellite link to reach N America via QO100. 😞

[@RailheadEd]

Thanks so much Ria! This beyond cool!

[@Ei2iP]

I am active on QO-100, best thing is it's pretty simple to get active, and there's activity on it 24/7. Worked Greenland 🇬🇱 and lots of Asia and South America.

[@moozoowizard]

Congratulations. I wish we had a geo satellite to work here in Australia. I made my first ISS contact a couple of days ago. Will try SO50 once my arrow ii antenna arrives.

[@oscarindia]

Its amazing N2RJ. Students of OSCAR India is also working on QO 100. Hope we can make this out soon.

[@n2rj]

For sure!

[@nerdinium]

I really wish the hams on the NA continent could get it together and make one of these type satellites for north and south america too.

[@kb1qzh]

I was at the North East Weak Signal picnic this weekend and just kept asking myself "Why aren't I on 10Ghz!?! 🤣" That led me down the QO-100 road. Just going to have to find a way into the coverage area once I get in 10Ghz.

[@WTNT]

Well done!

[@SpaceComms]

Congratulations on making your first satellite contact, Ria! And what a great satellite to do it on! I hope to work QO-100 one day. 73, John Brier KG4AKV

[@n2rj]

Thanks!

[@digitaldreamer5481]

Aloha Ria, my Arrow antenna was my first commercially made antenna that I ever bought to work satellites here in Hawaii and was Pretty Boni easy to do here. I need to get back into doing satellites again. Mahalo-Todd WH6DWF🇺🇸🤙🏻

[@dogastus]

I do video via QO-100, it's fun to actually see the station you're working. There are quite a few stations doing it including several in Brazil.

[@n2rj]

I want to go to Brazil and operate QO100. It’s on my list. Depends on money and vacation time.

[@dx398]

Nice. You're such a pro !

[@rhyoliteaquacade]

It would be nice if AMSAT were to launch such a satellite. I supported AO-40 and since that ill fated project, there has been little progress/interest in LEO. I worked AO-10/AO-13 and really enjoyed the long duration visability of those satellites.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

No geosat, no concord, no hypersonics....

[@RookieLock]

Congrats and thanks for the inspiration.. this is something on my to-do list !

[@CliffFoxKU4GW]

Way cool Ria! You're more than one up on me because after going on 27 years in the hobby I've yet to make any contacts using any type of satellite. Congratulations! I'm glad you're enjoying your trip to Germany! "Very 73 and 88 de Cliff, KU4GW"

[@ananthakrishnan6103]

Good Job. Keep going.

[@lyledal]

Very, VERY cool! Congrats!

[@txemagomez4080]

It was real pleasure the qso with you on the QO-100 SAT. I hope you enjoyed a lot on the SAT too. Hope to hear you from Brasil,,,,hihi, or any other location inside of satellite the footprint. Best 73 es GL de José EA2AA . Greetings from Spain.😃😃

[@n2rj]

Thank you! Yes I want to see what I can do next. Looking for parts for my own setup.

[@RailheadEd]

Very nice Ria! I operate sats all the time.

[@n2rj]

But I bet none like this one!

[@RailheadEd]

@@n2rj That is true!

[@robganon]

Yes let's make this happen in our part of the world also.

[@SpyridonMouroutsos]

:) Congratulations sv7sjs

[@SarahRWilson]

Really cool Ria! I've worked the FM sats, but not one via a linear transponder. Hope to hear you on one of the birds here someday! 73

[@KoRntech]

Congratulations

[@DaydreamAboutNiceThings]

That is super cool ! I am new to your channel. 73 W4ZTX from North Alabama

[@n2rj]

Welcome aboard!

[@erikaostlund5229]

This reminds me of my first contacts on a repeater circa 1975. The technology looks sort of neat. I've done a few contacts on EME when I had the big VHF and UHF stacks... There's a challenge. Steerable EME might be my next radio adventure. Looks like you're having a blast with the travel. 🙂

[@royramdeen8864]

Way cool Ria...

[@californiakayaker]

When I talk about the Clark Belt most do not know what I am talking about. Imagine a "linked" system of sats in the Clark Belt all around the world. It would take some very special linking stations able to reach two sats in the "belt". I'm not sure what that would be from a distance viewpoint because , in order to get across the pacific, one would need a station in Hawaii and California and I'm not sure the coverage would handle that. The satellite would be between Hawaii and California and if it worked, 24/7 coverage !

[@stevestroh1891]

It’s actually Clarke Belt named for science and sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke who figured out the special feature of that orbit.

[@walteredwards544]

Congratulations on your satellite contacts. I remember AMSAT talk about a GEO for here too ut haven't heard anything in a while. My question is, does this satellite operate the same way as our little LEO satellites (AO 91, 81, etc ) single uplink, downlink frequency or does it operate on a band of Frequencies, like our FM Birds? I hope we can get one up soon. This would be a boom for emergency communications as well as travelers like Hikers, Bikers and etc that could use this but don't want to carry bulky HF radios and the long antennas needed to make them work. Thanks again KN4MXZ, 73🙏🏿🤞🙋😎

[@n2rj]

The narrow transponder is a linear transponder with 500KHz bandwidth and accommodates narrow band modes and SSB. It also has a wider 8MHz transponder for digital amateur TV.

[@walteredwards544]

@@n2rj nice. Thank you

[@n2rj]

We already have services like Apple’s SOS and Garmin inreach for emcomm. Since backpackers travel light this would have limited purpose for them.

[@Rob2]

Yes, there have been several "vacation style DXpeditions" by people who essentially carry their equipment as personal travel luggage. If desired, one can usually buy TV sat dishes very cheaply on the local market, and leave it there. That reduces the required equipment to a very small box. There also have been experiments without a dish (only using a bare LNB and a small 2.4GHz antenna) and it works for digital modes and CW. For emergency communications it would be a bit bulky and maybe unreliable (what if you cannot contact someone who can assist you?), but for /P amateur radio it is very usable.

[@n2rj]

@Rob2 exactly. Also not everything in ham radio has to be about emcomm first. Emcomm is something that happens BECAUSE we do amateur radio. It should never be our first goal. Otherwise you’ll have where regulators will say that they should just issue privileges for emergency only. The FCC seems to be toying with that idea based on some of its recent rulemaking proposals.

[@1OFGODSOWN]

The FM Birds are a Bad Joke because they are overrun with a group that contact each other on most every pass and it’s every day.They try and make as many contacts as possible and they don’t care about others making a contact if it’s not one of their Click Buddies.If you want some great contacts on the Birds use the Linear Birds where the Clicks can’t take over all of the contacts.👍🎙

[@Inkling777]

I've listened via the WebSDR link you give above. I'd love to see one setup for North/South America and another for East Asia and the Pacific, perhaps with a cross link between all three. Maybe GEO satellites we can piggy-back on will come along. --Mike, WA4MP

[@n2rj]

There is a desire to do so. It would very likely be piggybacked on a commercial satellite. QO-100 is using a spare transponder on a direct to home TV bird.

[@Rob2]

@@n2rj Well yes, but unfortunately it is not like a transponder on any direct to home TV sat could be re-programmed to do that... It indeed is a special transponder made by the manufacturer of the satellite, and it uses power amplifiers (TWT) from the TV sat itself, but the remainder of the transponder is a special-purpose custom build. To have that with cross links would require yet more custom hardware, which of course cannot be added to QO-100 anymore. I think more realistic in case of more than one geostationary satellite is to have a special groundstation that is in the coverage area overlap, and that re-uplinks signals received in part of the downlink band. Of course it would increase the delay even more.

[@n2rj]

@@Rob2 right. I meant for a future launch, not any current satellite in orbit.

[@Rob2]

@@n2rj I think it is sufficiently difficult to get amateur radio transponders included on commercial satellites to rule out the possibility that there will be crosslinks. Remember the satellites would have to be 120deg apart in orbit, so they will be in 3 different regions (europe/africa, americas, australasia). They would thus likely be operated by different companies, and getting those to crosslink between their satellites would be very difficult. No, "we" should focus on getting actual amateur radio transponders on geosats (and be quick with that, as in my opinion the current crop of direct to home geostationary TV satellites being built and launched may well be the last!), and when we want crosslinks we should build them on the ground. (e.g. in Brazil for a link between QO-100 and a similar sat placed over the americas)

[@n2rj]

@Rob2 I wasn’t talking about cross links. I was talking about a QO-100 style transponder on a sat that has a footprint on the Americas and possibly either Asia pacific or Western Europe. I doubt ham radio by itself could fund a dedicated geostationary satellite.

[@CanuckHam]

There is apparently one spot in North America where it is may be possible, Signal Hill in Newfoundland Canada.

[@n2rj]

I mentioned that in the video. :)

[@CanuckHam]

@@n2rj I am sorry I must have missed it

[@CanuckHam]

@@n2rj I went to signal hill once but due to renovations the hamshack was closed. Maybe an excuse to go operate there :)

[@n2rj]

@@CanuckHam14:16

[@CanuckHam]

@@n2rj Yeah you totally said it too, my bad I totally missed it first time around :)

[@PhantomWoIf]

how about a geostationary amateurradio satelite for the u.s. ?

[@n2rj]

Sure let’s talk to some billionaires to loan us a transponder. :)

[@PhantomWoIf]

@@n2rj maybe that isnt a bad idea. that space x factory from elon musk uses reusable rockets to take satelites into outter space quite frequently. that guy even launched one of his EVs into outter space for fun. why wouldnt he do same with an amateurradio satelite ? worst thing that can happen is that they would say _no_ or dont say anything. that would be wondefull to have one more geostationary amateurradio satelite.

[@dg9bfc]

it will come

[@Kc8qdq]

I am so jealous of all the ham in the footprint of qo-100 maybe someday we will get one over United States. And maybe even link the two together 73 from kc8qdq

[@stevestroh1891]

I was surprised R&S used an SD unit as basic as a Pluto. I would have guessed that they would use some of their amazing products since 2.4 / 10 GHz is no big deal for them.

[@Rob2]

It is not required to use sophisticated equipment on QO-100, because the dynamic range is very small. All the stations are targeting a signal level equal to the beacon, so in practice all signals are the same level. And the typical receiver setup (as shown in the video) is good enough to receive the transponder noise floor. Beyond that, there is no performance that can be gained. It works perfectly well with a Pluto or e.g. an RTL SDR stick, an SDR Play, etc. Remember receive is downconverted by the LNB. Usually an LNB with 9.75 GHz LO is used resulting in an IF of 739 MHz coming down the cable, well within the range of any cheap SDR. Uplink at 2.4 GHz is a little more difficult, but transmit converters that operate from 432 MHz are available. The Pluto of course generates it directly.

[@n2rj]

Elsewhere in the shack they have one of their transceivers. They also have an icom. I have another video with it. You’re more than welcome to link the videos in zero retries if you wish :)

[@MichaelWeberMunich]

BSG Funk DL0RUS is free time activity group of R&S employees at the Munich campus. So we used some professional R&S gear to verify our build, but we try to keep the groups activity on a hobbyist budget. We are thankful for the radio room and the donations by various supporters. 73 DL1XMW

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

Its not a repurposed tv transponder. Its bespoke

[@johnshares444]

Wat is de frequentie

[@n2rj]

10GHz down and 2.4ghz up

[@ZiggleFingers]

I wonder if the ARRL and it's equivalent in Japan and the other countries that don't have access could start a fundraiser to build one. I bet Elon would send it up for free.

[@n2rj]

ARRL wouldn’t do it. I would rather have amsat and ARISS manage it.

[@tomsmith4907]

congrats!

[@KoRntech]

Ya I learned about QO-100's existence from @dereksgc he's doing a lot on HRPT and SDR.

[@bx3ac]

Congratulations