ARRL: On December 12, 1961, Amateur Radio entered the Space Age when OSCAR-1 was launched. Since then, amateurs from more than 22 different countries have launched over 70 satellites, exploring both digital and analog satellite technology. Many of the latest birds have been school experiments, training scientists and engineers. But, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to participate– Some satellites operate FM and can actually be worked using a dual-band handheld transceiver.
Yup, you guessed it.. everything you want to know about satellite’s will start to appear on this page! Just give us some time as we start to make the content needed to help fill in the blanks. Make sure to take time and meet your elmers!
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ISS in APRS mode (pretty easy to have instant success with the gear may new hams chose as their 2nd radio)
Home Brew Directional Antenna (or buy one)
FM crossband repeater for voice – Schedule
The few FM sats can also work with two HTs or a dual band radio that can do odd splits.
The Transponder Sats can carry CW and SSB and sadly this is not equipment that “new hams” have by default anymore. But, this is my own next area of Sat exploration.
DX Engineering sponsored some nice videos on this topic.