Operations via QO-100 from North America and live G4BRA QSO – Gopan M0XUU
Our Club Members were treated to a very special evening for our April monthly meeting, with Club Member Gopan M0XUU introducing us to Satellite operating via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 (also know as QO-100 and Es’hail 2) geostationary satellite.
Gopan was part of an expedition to Newfoundland during May 2024, with the aim of communicating via the satellite from just outside of the coverage footprint.
During his presentation Gopan ran us through the ‘narrow-band’ frequencies and bands available for Amateur Radio use via the satellite and also through the equipment and conversions needed to establish a reliable reciept and transmission using the SSB and CW modes. Gopan’s set-up performed the down-conversion and up-conversion of the RF signals using hardware alone, eliminating the need for a Software Defined Radio and connected computer.
The accurate set-up of the equipment and the dish requires quite some skill, both when locating the dish itself and locating the satellite. For the expedition this was particularly critical as QO-100 was located almost 1degree below the horizon, so relied on ducting and other favourable propagation conditions.
A first at our new meeting location, Gopan brought along his QO-100 set-up and was able to obtain a clear view of the QO-100 Satellite, pointing the dish due south and at an elevation of ~25degs. Even given the cloudy weather conditions of a Bracknell, April evening, a clear and strong signal from the QO-100 PSK Beacon was successfully detected.
Gopan handed the Mic over to our 2024 Club Chairman, Steve G4AUC, who after a couple of calls on 5w using the Club Callsign of G4BRA from the ICOM IC-705, recieved a clear reply from Michael DH7IF, located in Dossenheim, South West Germany. The setup worked faultlessly and continously throughlout the evening.
On behalf of everyone at our meeting, I would like say a big ‘Thank You’ to Gopan M0XUU for a very interesting presentation and the exciting QO-100 satellite contact.
Gopan has kindly allowed us to share his presentation slides:
A full report of the Newfoundland QO-100 Expedition is available on the AMSAT site HERE.
Thank you also to everyone that helped to set-up and tidy-up at our meeting, your help is always very much appreciated. Also thank you to the members that brought along equipment, magazines and other useful items to donate to the club.
