On the F-Troop net this morning, VK6AS mentioned there was another good pass of SO-50 today. With last weekend’s mistakes learned from, I had another shot at it. I thought I could hear snippets of voice modulation down in the static when the satellite was still at -5º elevation which seemed odd. It wasn’t until about 40º that I got anything readable, and even then it was only for half a second at a time.

The pass was almost directly overhead for me, so at the apex I was able to just point the Arrow straight up, and copied VK6AS’s call. I put out a call to him and was thrilled to hear his reply of congratulations. So thrilled in fact that I wobbled the antenna and lost him. I was so frantic from then on trying to find the satellite again that I completely forgot to keep adjusting my downlink and didn’t copy anything for the rest of the pass. Continue reading →