Working the Birds

Anyone who has been on my website has probably realized that I am into Amateur Radio (Ham Radio). I was west of Calgary this afternoon and had pulled over to work a satellite ( AO-51 ) as it came up over my horizon. I use a tracking program on my PDA that tells me this. The satellite (AO-51 ) I am describing belongs to a organization called AMSAT NA of whom I am a member. AO-51 is a low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite that orbits over the poles every 90 minutes at 28,000 kph, at a altitude of 800 km and has radios on board that cover a footprint of aprox 6,ooo km. When I am within this footprint, I can talk to anyone who is also working the bird within this footprint. I uplink with a radio connected to the front antenna and downlink on another radio with the cross yagi tracking array on the rear of the truck. The satellite is in range of my radios at aprox 2600 km. Time to move on.