Use the satellite to work some more stations, I guess. Maybe use different satellites. I've been working toward making satellite contacts with my own station for almost 30 years, and it has finally worked.
Tonight's success was made possible by the fact that sometimes AO-51 is set up for "QRP" (low-power for non-ham types) operation. In QRP mode, it does not require that I set a PL tone, so I can use my old TR-9000 as the transmitter, which puts out 10 Watts, the maximum allowed, but doesn't have PL tone capability. However, it does mean that I can't use an amplifier or an antenna that isn't omnidirectional. In fact, here is a picture of my transmitting antenna:
It's just a dipole, made of some leftover 12-gauge house wiring, that's hung from the ceiling.Here's my receiving antenna. Actually, there are three antennas in this photo.
The antenna on the right is a "Texas Potato Masher" which I built wrong, so it doesn't really work. Over the next little while, I'll be figuring out how to fix it. On the left are two "Arrow" antennas built on the same spar, a piece of 3/4 inch square dowel. Perpendicular to the plane of the photo is the 2-meter antenna, which I can't use when using AO-51's QRP mode, and the 70-cm antenna is at right angles to it so you can just barely see it. The 70-cm Arrow is the receiving antenna that worked well enought. I can't seem to work the satellite when it is west of me, but north west to north seems to work okay. My guess is that it's due to the trees to the south and southwest.All three antennas are mounted on an altazimuth mount I build based on a similar mount described on the AMSAT site. The main difference is that I built mine to be all PVC since I didn't feel like paying for a metal tripod.
The antennas and mount and a duplexer, a piece not shown, are the culmination of several weeks of effort, and it all worked. Like I said, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself, now.
