Ever since I earned my first Ham Radio License back in 2003, I’ve wanted to try contacting one of the many Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ham radio satellites orbiting the earth. Well, today was my first success and it was freaking COOL!
Basically these satellites orbit in a geosynchronous, as opposed to geostationary, orbit which means that if everything is in place, you have a good 15 minutes (at most) to make contact. Normally the first step to making contact with someone else within the footprint of the satellite’s signal, is to attempt to listen for transmissions from the satellite. Some have beacons which transmit a beep every second or so but most have repeaters on them which take the signals they receive and re-transmit them back to earth.
They usually don’t transmit with a lot of power so your antennas need to be in good working order and your radio receiver must be on the correct frequency and adjusted for the Doppler-effect.
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