We need PSAT IGates …

We need PSAT IGates in Hawaii, India, China and anywhere in the Southern Hempsiphere.
We did a look at the IGates that are successfully injecting PSAT packets and did a map of them on the PSAT page: http://aprs.org/psat.html

Notice that this map of stations are not all of the IGATES on 145.825 MHz which includes the ISS, but this is because the ISS is 14 dB stronger than PSAT. So a station with an omni terrestrial antenna that picks up the ISS just fine may not hear PSAT at all.

So if you have ever thought about being a satellite IGate, now is the time. And the ideal OMNI antenna for PSAT is a simple 19.5” vertical whip over a large metal ground plane. An even better one (+2 dB) is a 3/4 wave vertical whip (58”) over a large metal ground plane. And it is OK to keep this antenna lower to the ground since it will not hear anything below 25 degrees anyway and in fact, the lower it is, with surroundings blocking it, the less interference it will have.

IGATES that hear weak signal PSAT show on http://pcsat.aprs.org

All 145.825 IGATES show on the http://ariss.net page but they may not hear PSAT.

Bob, WB4APR

aprs_igate_mr
a simple APRS IGate with RaspberryPi and DVB-T dongle (DK3WN-8)
 

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