Second time using this solution outdoors with Greencube satellites and it works great! For less than $1 CAD, a cell phone holder with a quarter-screw opening and a tripod will do the trick Use the U-shaped clamp to mount the antenna on it and it's ready to use. It's very easy to control the pitch angle with high accuracy

This post is relatively short as it mainly records the operation process. This morning successfully completed a 144Mhz FT8 DX QSO with BA7NQ in Foshan, Guangdong (OL53). I'm using a 7-unit Yagi, straight line distance of about 300km. this QSO was completed in thunderstorm, thanks to the propagation brought by Tropical Disturbance 99W. *This behavior is highly discouraged and will put you and your radio in danger. Please disconnect the radio from the antenna during thunderstorms.

IO-117 is a satellite developed by the University of Naples, Italy, for growing vegetables (really!) The satellite carries a digital transponder. It operates in MEO orbit, an orbiting satellite characterized by long transit times and large coverage areas, making it a good candidate for DX. Because it has a certain threshold, few HAMs in China will use this satellite. I am glad I learned to use it and used it to QSO with many distant stations. In order to let you understand and use it, I have written this article, and I hope you will like it. I hope you will enjoy it. Also, please feel free to point out any non-exhaustive or wrong points. Special thanks: BG7XWF, BI4KZZ Device Required equipment/software: Optional equipment/software: Yagi antenna rotator and automatic frequency control software are especially recommended, which can save a lot of trouble. It is recommended to use YAGI antenna with 12dbd or more and add LNA amplifier to improve low elevation decoding rate. Hardware setup The following take IC-7100 for example, ICOM with the same brand of radio operation is similar, YAESU & Kenwood radio please feel for yourself (because I do not have YAESU or Kenwood radio, sorry) Same as using FT8 data communication mode, adjust the radio to data communication mode. Turn on the radio SPLIT function, select USB mode, and then turn off radio squelch. Software Setup Open Soundmodem, select the sound card corresponding to the radio in Settings-Device->Sound Card The PTT Port is set to the COM port of the radio so that it can automatically…

Holding an Yagi to do satellite QSO is really tiring (both physically and mentally), and handheld antenna gain is generally not that high (for weight control). U7V5 is about as werght as an average person can hold it up for a satellite connection. On the other hand, in 2022, the University of Naples launched a MEO orbiting amateur radio satellite: GreenCube. It puts higher demands on antenna gain, and with up to an hour of pass time, hand-held antennas are simply not feasible. After viewing the article written by BG7XWF, I decided to install a low-cost rotor for myself, which cost about C$78 (400￥).Links to articles he wrote. Thanks for him guiding me through the installation! The 301 rotator and 301 PTZ control box cost about C$48 (250￥) and carry 1.5m V7 Yagi + 1.8m U12 Yagi I use a 2.5m sign pole to support rotator and antenna. buy a plastic bucket or a larger delivery box and pour cement into it and stick the pole upside down. finally, install the monitoring camera transfer plate, and install the screw on the rotator according to the hole position. The antenna is supported by 2m Reker rods (epoxy tubes). purchase the M8x57 U-pipe card and punch two holes in the stick that fit just right. Finally, pull a network cable between rotator and the indoor control box; cut off the RJ45 connector, peel off the cable, and connect the cable according to the logo of the cradle rotator and control box. the control box code switch corresponds to the baud rate and…