Club Zoom Meeting Oct. 16, 2022
October Club Zoom Meeting
John Sisler, KJ6ZL, The primary person for Satellite contacts during SLVARC/SCCARC Field Day events. This designation ‘just happened’ over time, and has become a yearly thing for what now may be more than ten years running.
“It all began with a simple setup, and hand-operated antenna tracking (In fact we put the antennas up by simply cradling them on a tripod of three poles standing together, like they did with rifles during the civil war.). Someone would read the results of list of calculated satellite positions, and move the antennas manually, while I sat at the radio and tried to make contacts. Since then automation has joined the party and now everything is automated, even the tuning of the radio. The station has improved year after year, and now has become a simple setup to repeat.
Though maybe for next year we could try adding…
So you see, this is how the game of satellite contacts goes. It’s great fun, and sometimes can be very similar to ‘weak signal’ contacts, and sometimes similar to DX pileups. There are some things going one that make it much easier than in the past, and some things that are making it harder. In general I love it, and hope everyone else would join me in playing this game.
For this presentation I plan to discuss the current state of satellite operation, what I am aware of that is coming for the future, and how we can all get on the air. It will be an interactive discussion, and I welcome all questions.”
John Sisler is a BSME, with recent Master of Energy from the University of Auckland. He has years of experience in mechanical design of electronic products, and has recently been concentrating on geology and geothermal energy power production.