CW on the Es'hail-2 QO-100 satellite downlink

G

GM0WEZ

Super Member
Folks might have heard of the QO-100 Es'hail-2 geostationary amateur satellite. It's a popular place for CW and SSB QSOs.

Uplink is on 2.4Ghz, and Radcom had an ingenious article in which someone made a 70cm to 2.4GHz transmit converter with no construction at all - because 2.4GHz is also used for non amateur purposes, he simply bought various attenuator, bandpass filter, LO, mixer and amplifier modules and linked them together with SMA leads. No soldering! Total cost with antenna about ?170. Haven't tried it yet....

Downlink is on 10GHz, and can be achieved with an old Sky satellite TV dish and an SDR. However, you can also listen to the downlink right now, on the BATC WebSDR receiving from Goonhilly. [https://eshail.batc.org.uk/][/url]

I just tried it and it works FB. Considerably clearer than HF, so might be good for live CW receiving practice. However there is rather more SSB than CW when I listened.

 
There's a company here in Portugal, DX Patrol, that makes kits with everything necessary to work this satellite:

https://www.dxpatrol.pt/index.php/kits

Prices seem reasonable, although I have no experience with the topic. The idea of working CW this way is very interesting. My issue is I don't have visibility to the sat from my home QTH, and also I don't have 2m/70cm rigs for the IF.

Also, as you say, listening to the websdr shows little CW activity. Maybe that can change in the future.

 
Thanks Pedro. The DX Patrol unit looks like a much easier and cheaper way on to the band. I wasn't aware of it. I see they also sell other goodies for receiving the downlink and an uplink PA.

Although apparently people have made datamode contacts with 50mW, I see about a watt on the uplink is suggested. The DX Patrol gives 250mW, but 2.4GHz wifi power amps are readily available for circa £35. They are 8 watts, so would need to be wound back a bit.

Radcom article is http://rsgb.org/main/files/2020/01/Easy-100_update_RadCom_June_2019.pdf (I think it's accessible to non RSGB members).

The recommended antenna is a 24dBi semi-parabolic, 60cm x 100cm, which  the article says is £25 including delivery. However I heard that when the article was published, demand rocketed. And so did the price!

It's an interesting idea, though I wonder if I would lose interest once it's up and running as contacts could be rather easy. Could obviously be useful for emergency comms.
 
GM0WEZ said:
It's an interesting idea, though I wonder if I would lose interest once it's up and running as contacts could be rather easy. Could obviously be useful for emergency comms.
Click to expand...

That's also my fear, to put a fair amount of money into it, and then lose interest after a while. In the end, it's making contacts through a repeater.
 
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