The bulk of this episode is an on-location interview with two Raleigh NC area hams who gave a couple of live demonstrations of operating through satellites at the Raleigh Hamfest, April 15, 2017.
There’s some banter between hosts David Goldenberg W0DHG and Gary Pearce KN4AQ back in the studio. And toward the end Gary announces a Viewer Challenge that we’ll detail down below.
The satellite hams are John Brier KG4AKV and Tucker McGuire W4FS. At 18 years old, Tucker is a relatively new ham who first started operating satellites last summer, and quickly jumped into the deep end. John’s been around longer, but ham radio satellites and space operation captured his focus, too. He produces videos about it on his YouTube channel, Space Comms. Links below.
Gary talked to John and Tucker after they completed their second demo, and he edited a little of each demo into the interview.
There’s video of all of both demonstrations on YouTube. John shot himself operating through ‘Saudi-Sat’ SO-50, a “Mode J” FM crossband repeater (145.850 MHz uplink and 436.795 MHz downlink). John used three cameras (including a GoPro on a headband for a unique view). Gary edited the video and put it on the HamRadioNow YouTube channel as an extra bit if video.
Gary added two more cameras to the mix to shoot Tucker operating through FO-29, a Japanese satellite that uses a 100 kHz wide ‘linear transponder’ for mostly SSB and CW (and NO FM, please) between two meters and 70 cm. There’s a few minutes of that demo in this episode, and the whole thing is on John’s Space Comms channel.
Watch HRN 316: Look! Up in the Sky! Ham Radio Now
Space Comms http://youtube.com/SpaceComms1
KG4AKV’s SO-50 FM operation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dhJsfh6fYA
W4FS’s FO-29 SSB operation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEvsKN9ZSyw
John KG4AKV https://twitter.com/johnbrier
Tucker W4FS https://twitter.com/Whiskey4FoSho
