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After a hour or so of the JT-65 used frequencies (note – not allocated but generally used frequencies) being covered in RTTY I decided not to bother trying to have a QSO using that mode. It also helped that the JT-65 programme kept crashing on my struggling net top.

I thought I’d try and listen out for the ISS if it was passing me by and using HamSatDroid on my trusty phone I was presented with a big fat ‘not today you won’t’.  I remembered that I hadn’t updated the Keplerian data before checking the passes so I did and the programme defaults to the first on the list. AO-07. It showed that it was due to make a pass in about an hour. With this opportunity I assembled my Sotabeams SB270 and checked to see if the pass was easily visible from my house, i.e. from about SW to roughly NNE and luckily it was so I thought this would be an opportunity to taken.

Bearing in mind it was dark at this time and my decking needs a good coat of ‘taking down and rebuilding thanks to Story homes’ I pointed the antenna skyward and was met with a crackly warbly of ‘CQ satellite’ from a German station. he called CQ for the complete pass and I didn’t hear a single response to his calling. At this point I wish I had a duplexer connected to the antenna and a steady tripod as well as a handy lightweight rotator to help with the pass as this was too good an opportunity to miss. Alas I had none of the above and the station went unanswered. A 2m / 70cm duplexer is now on the shopping list as the chance of me being able to spend some time making a rotator is fairly small. Perhaps a larger one will come available at a Hamfest or eBay.

VHF is by no means easy at my QTH but there seem to be opportunities and its probably about time I explored a few of them