BATC Forum

Hi Everyone

I'm getting back into satellite work after a hiatus of about 4.5 years!

After aligning my dish and firing up my Mini Touner Express onto the wb beacon, the picture is very blocky. It is blocky on both my mini touners as well as my v8 finder.

In Mini Touner, i'm getting an MER of about 8.5-8.8dB (D4 being reported)

Am I doing something wrong? I seem to be able to receive most Amateur feeds ok, although I haven't tried an Amateur H264 feed yet (H265 seems to be more popular!)

Thanks

Jonny
MI0MTU

Hi Jonny,

the WB beacon is fairly unreliable and often goes blocky. Try testing on other signals and I think you'll find it's the beacon that's faulty, not your system.

73

Malcolm G0UHY

Thanks!

It's been blocky for a couple of days now. But someone on the wb chat told me there is faulty hardware at the uplink site.

Indeed, amateur transmissions are received well.

Thanks

Jonny MI0MTU

The beacon always seems to have problems.
Who is the Beacon Keeper and can it be fixed?

Amsat DL but it is located in Doha.

So unless the community wants to fund flights and repairs it is unlikely to be fixed in the short term....

73
Noel

Due to iffy beacon .
I've had my minitiouner to bits & my Ryde
Testing this n that , voltages on f sockets
Tried also in 3 Portsdowns

Then today again looked for beacon.
Bang it's back ok.
Then 3 minutes in it's blocky & intermittent sound

Only reason I'm finding it difficult to be annoyed is my
Grandson M6XLG just passed his driving test today.

Not everything is bad is it

Ken