W3ZM/1 Activation

AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration – W3ZM/1 Activations in CT and RI

Burns, WB1FJ approached me a few weeks ago doing some portable satellite activations as part of the AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration. The idea was to use the AMSAT Callsign WZ3M/1 to put the states of CT and RI on satellites.

Simple Portable Satellite Station
Portable Satellite Station on Mt. Washington

We had recently tested our portable satellite station during the Nashua Area Radio Society’s activation of Mt Washington. The WZ3M/1 activations were a great opportunity to continue testing our portable satellite station by making some more linear and FM contacts.

Radio Management via MacDoppler
MacDoppler Satellite Tracking Software

Preparations for our activations included creating a Pass Summary of predictions for the day of our activation using prediction data from MacDoopler. You can take a look at our pass summary here.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in RI

Our first activation was near the fire station in Burrillville, RI. We found an open spot and set up our station, antenna, and solar power system. This was a great public spot and we had several visitors come by to take a look at our setup and ask questions about satellites and Amateur Radio.

We made quite a few contacts at this location using both FM satellites like AO-92, AO-92, and SO-50 as well as a few contacts using linear satellites like CAS-4A and CAS-4B.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in CT

We moved to a Church in CT for the next part of our activation early in the afternoon. This site was a little less open than the first one but we were still able to make a number of contacts here.

The photo above shows a view of our portable setup which consisted of an Icom 910H transceiver, a MacBook Air Laptop running MacDoppler, and an Elk Log-periodic antenna on a tripod. The computer and MacDoppler controlled the radio VFOs to automatically correct for Doppler shift which enabled us to do contacts using linear satellites. We used an iPhone running a satellite tracking app to help point the antenna during satellite passes.

We used a pair of 90W portable solar panels, a pair of LIPO batteries, and an MPPT charging system to provide power for our radio and the computer. It was a sunny day and our solar power system kept our batteries fully charged through both activations.

We did pretty well overall making a total of 15 contacts between. The downlink side of our antenna system was the weakest link in the setup. Folks that we worked on linear satellites indicated that our uplink signals were solid but we had some trouble hearing weaker stations on the downlinks. We have some ideas for an improved antenna system for our next portable activation – stay tuned for more on this.

All in all, Burns and I were pretty pleased with these activations. We had a lot of fun, helped a few folks some new states, contributed to AMSAT’s 50th Celebration, and we learned some things that we can use to improve our portable station.

Fred, AB1OC

One thought on “AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration – W3ZM/1 Activations in CT and RI”

  1. Indeed it was fun. First time I ever did a road trip to activate anything. And loads of thanks to the fire chief, one of the other firefighters at the station, and a ham EMCOM provider who were friendly, suggested locations, and generally made the stay in RI enjoyable. No problems in CT, just no one around.

    BTW, there are still a few states that remain un-activated: DE, MD, and WV. We is to activate them by the time of the AMSAT Symposium in mid-October. If you are an AMSAT member in one of these states, or feel like a road trip, please volunteer. See https://www.amsat.org/events/was-w3zm/

    73, Burns WB1FJ

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