I am building the WA5VJB 2/440 now. I do notice one thing that is strange, but not sure it matters.

The DE is shown as having a space for the "J" section as 1" on both 2m and 440. In almost every other posting, including one on his own website the 440 DE is shown as having a spacing for the "J" loop section of only 0.5". Does this matter? I guess I may as well build it per his 1" spec.  

http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/Cheap%20Antennas-LEOs.pdf

Well, I feel like I am talking to myself here!

Anyway, I just tried a pass overhead and still nothing!

I am building the 2/440 beam now. I am going to try 6 el on 440 and not even add the 2 el for 2 m yet. I am concerned that even a 6 el beam will not take me from not even knowing the bird is there to a usable signal.

You may wonder why I am posting here? Well, Jeff, VA3XQ started this thread and I never saw him come back. He asked if the W2A can be used. It now looks like it can not! I saw a small thread on the AMSAT mail-bb where several people said that they have not been able to hear AO-51 on the W2A even though they switched the antenna to a different rig and it was booming in! Perhaps the wide band receive mod will let you get to 435 but it seems like it takes a heck of a signal to get through!

Still the W2A is working fine on the repeaters here!

I just thought I would update this and I am going to build the 6 el 440 beam anyway to see what happens!

Hello ALL:

I have seen this request but never seen a complete answer.

Can I mod my TM-731A so that I can receive 435 for Satellite work? I wonder if I can use this rig for AO-51?

Common to most posts were "yes" but the location of the parts are not shown.

TIA

Still No Go with this W2A. I am sure it is NOT the rig. Anyway, tomorrow there is a pass at 88 degree elevation. That is about overhead, and in the clear...no trees. Perhaps the AO-51 is on low power now and it can not be heard with a rubber duck! I have the pdf of the 2el/5el beam and I may put the 70cm part together to see if I can then hear AO-51!

Sorry...Max El is 29 for the above pass.

Thank you, Patrick. In my other forum post here, I asked if I may have had the wrong time to look for AO-51? Also, even with Doppler, I would think I would have heard SOMETHING within the 15 or so minutes.

Is there a BEST freeware program for Windows XP? Perhaps I can/should use that instead of the AMSAT online tracker?

Well, I wonder if the AMSAT online pass predictions that I followed are correct? I ask this as I did all that was suggested, and I was outside the house in the clear. I moved around, and was tilting the antenna. I knew the Rubber Duck would be poor, but did expect to hear SOMETHING. This was a pass that was close to me, CN85, and was at 67 degrees, but I heard nothing.

I wonder if the online data is correct, as I now show a pass for me at CN85 May 8 (tonight May 7) 00:47:22 with a Max El of 79 degrees. I am UTC -7 so I should try again at 17:47:22 out here in Oregon!

Is this correct or is my data wrong?

I only ask this as I see some say it requires a PL tone. I have seen other posts, from a year ago, that say it no longer is needed.

I did not hear it tonight, but I am just using a Rubber Duck for now! Not sure if it is worth trying without something...anything...better!

Still, there is a status that it is in Normal Mode for WOD, so does this mean the FM 2/440 is not available?

TIA

Well, not this time...I heard nothing. May try again at 03:06 UTC.

Can AO-51 be worked with just the "rubber duck" on the W2A or any HT? I may try at 01:26 which I show as the next pass here! I already have up/down loaded.

I can confirm that the above does work.

Easy...just google w9inn antenna.

I found 2 uses for echolink.

1. I am 3,000 miles from where I grew up and was very active on 2 AM in the days way before repeaters. I lived not too far from W1AW and used to hang out there. With echolink, I can get on the "local" repeater from my old hometown (Hartford) and talk to my old friends (and we are getting old) now and then.

2. I have had a few times when my HT battery went dead while I was on a local repeater, and it does have echolink. This just happened a few weeks ago. I finally got to speak with a local I used to work with. About 1 minute into our QSO my battery went dead! So I continued on echolink.

I have connected with some DX repeaters, but it was just to see how well they worked.

If you care it is on the kenwoodusa site.

Joel...

Take a look at the Kenwood TM-255a if you can find one. It is an old rig that I still have. No, I am not trying to sell it. I bet I only have 5 hours on it as we moved to Oregon a few weeks after I bought it and it has been in its box ever since!

It is a 45 Watt 2M rig, and is actually a Mobile rig, with a detachable head. It is for SSB and FM, and does Packet very well. I used it for OSCAR and it has been described as the best all mode rig that no one ever heard of. For some reason Kenwood just did not advertise it! In the ARRL review the author said that every once in a while he gets to review a piece of equipment that he does not want to return and this was one of them. You can find the pdf manual with a search for tm-255a manual on Google. There are a few places to d/l it free. Perhaps even look at the Kenwood site.

Sorry for the late reply but I just today was able to post on this site.

'73,
Dave in Portland