This is a recording of the LUSAT-OSCAR 19 (website) CW beacon which was on 437.120MHz:

LUSAT-OSCAR 19 20081123 1615UTC

Then Cubesat OSCAR-57 flew over:
cubesat-oscar_57_20081123_0153utc

The highlight of the evening was two AO-51 QSOs with W6BVB and WD9EWK! The Quadrifilar Helix antenna works!

I need to mount it high up. I could tell the house was in the way based on the angle and elevation and sudden drop on where the house is. Otherwise I believe I picked-up AOS at around 15 degrees elevation, which is quite right from the ground in the back yard and with the tall trees in that direction. I’m very happy! I was using 50 watts into a 5/8 vertical for my output on 2m.

I keep coming back and updating this blog entry with more sounds I record from this antenna. What a blast this has been. It’s like someone tore open a hole into space so I can actually hear. Here’s some Morse telemetry from RS-22 (website):
RS-22 20081123 0625UTC

For software, I’m tracking the satellites with Orbitron. Once I decide which bird to track, I switch over to the Ham Radio Deluxe Satellite Tracker which comes as a part of the awesome Ham Radio Deluxe suite; this I use for frequency control. I’m still mastering the linear inverting transponder for VO-52 but I have already successfully tuned-in a couple passes already; seems to be an active bird.

Anyway, I was putting together the A3S and I first thought it was odd that I had a couple traps with the very visible original label of “TE” which I figured were just new traps Cushcraft had sent out to a previous owner. Things were going well until I realized I had two of the 1/2″ aluminum tubes (“EG”) which were quite a bit longer than the 36″ they were supposed to be. I thought maybe the previous owner had made some mods that would explain why.

I got up this morning thinking I would simply cut the extended parts and put it together and make final adjustments with my antenna analyzer with the yagi pointed at the sky.

But then I got to thinking, some of these parts are also what appear on the A4S tri-bander by Cushcraft. What if this were somehow mixed-up with an A4S or maybe by hook or by crook, the guy sold me something other than an A3S? Just to check my sanity, I carried the assembled boom back on to the patio this morning, and measured the diameter of the tubing. Hmmmm, 2″!!! I then measured the length, which should be 14 feet for the A3S. I started laughing when my 16′ measuring tape ran-out and there was still more boom left.

I was sold a Cushcraft A4S!!! At least most of one. I’m guessing I have the three main elements and not the smaller one. For now that’s fine. That will give me only two elements on 10m, but that’s OK since I believe there should be increased gain and perhaps increased front-to-back ratio with the extended boom length.

So now to print-up the Cushcraft A4S Manual and assemble the antenna accordingly.

Stay tuned!