Guy - K4GTM and Dan - KF4MND get their radios ready to go while Jackson passes time playing a video game prior to launch time.
The initial plan involved Dan transmitting NASA audio through the 146.700 repeater from his home station. Unfortunately, propagation didn't support him getting into the 146.700 well from his home in Long County throughout the evening. As a result, the feed suffered from poor audio most of the night (although predictably it did work perfectly after the launch!). We substituted with audio from Kevin's laptop through a wireless connection until his laptop battery died and then via updates from Bob, Mark, and Jerry via the 147.330 repeater.
Lowell - N4ZLJ and his wife, Robert - KJ4HAL, and Kevin, WDoGFG get updates over the 146.700 and 147.330 repeaters.
Surprisingly, of the three of us to try to listen in to the launch on 259.700, I was the only one to hear anything. Guy tried with his Yaesu VX-7R and Robert tried with his Radio Shack Pro-164. My BC-396 with the Diamond RH-77 antenna picked up 4 transmissions including "Negative Return" and "Press to MECO." I was asked why I thought I was the only one to hear it and my best guess would have to be antenna. The VX-7R could have sensitivity problems in the mil-UHF range, but many of the recent Yaesu radios seem to do pretty well for most of the mil-UHF range. Guy was using the stock VX-7R antenna, which as an amateur radio antenna may just not be tuned well for that range. The RH-77 is an amateur antenna, but is only dual band (as opposed to tri band 2m, 6m, 70cm for the VX-7R) and just happens to make an excellent scanner antenna. Although I don't know how well the Pro-164 works on mil-UHF, I have to assume it does well because I think it is made by GRE. GRE products usually perform quite well in that frequency range. Robert was using a stock antenna, which could very well explain why he didn't hear anything; those stock antennas rarely perform well for mil-UHF.
I really had fun with this activity; I think the whole group did. After the launch, most of us adjourned to Spanky's Beachside for dinner. I enjoyed not only getting to see a brief part of the launch first hand, but also just getting out with some fellow hams for a bit. I had talked to Lowell on the radio a few times, so it was good to meet him in person. We also exposed a few folks who passed by and were gathering on the pavilion to look for the shuttle launch to radio monitoring and amateur radio. Most had no idea you could listen to the shuttle via radio!
If we get the chance to do this again, I do belive I will bring a different setup for monitoring. One of the BC-780s along with an amplified speaker to boost the audio over the wind and surf noise would work better. I also plan to take something capable of receiving HF, perhaps the the DJ-X10T so we can monitor the Booster Recovery Net. The BRD net would be a good backup the the retransmitted NASA audio (countdown is provided to the booster recover vessels over HF).
Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net
