About the stations and myself

Since 1982 I have been active on amateur radio and enjoy HF, VHF and Satelite Communicatons. I use VE7DAO for HF, FM and IRLP contacts and VA7ISS for Amateur Radio Satellite Communications. Do check out my Amateur Satellite section to find information and resources.

The last 3 years I have been without HF radio due to a move from house to a condo and as such antennas are extremely limited, however it has rekindled my interest in Amateur Satellite Communication through AMSAT Satellites. Yah, pretty high tech. Most common people would be amazed. I use an Arrow Antenna which I use for my portable Yaesu FT-60R Dual Band VHF for terestrial and HamSat use. I also use a Yaesu FT-7800R VHF / UHF radio for the car.

For part of 2008 I operated as VE7IYOA which was a Special Event Callsign Commemorating the International Year of Astronomy which was well received by the Amateur Radio Community around the world. It was quite exciting to do. I am a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and editor for our Victoria Chapter's newsletter SkyNews.

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Latest News

Special Event Canadian Callsigns
75th anniversary of the CBC

Starting December 1st 2011

VO becomes XJ
VE becomes VX
VA becomes VG
VY becomes XK

International Year of Forests

1st Nov. - 30 Nov. 2011

VE3FRST

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ARISSat-1 Heard

On August 7th 23:45 PDT I was delighted to be able to hear the Microsat ARISSat-1 with a recently acquired portable Dual Band Handheld radio. I used a Yaesu FT-60R and an omni-directioal antenna Diamond SRH77CA. The HamSat at the time was very low on the horizon and had been recently released by the crew of the International Space Station. It is known as ARISSat-1 but it also has a few other names which it goes by. Radioskaf-b or Kedr has been given a NORAD catalog number of 37772. It is known as Radioskaf-b in the Keplerian data lists. At this moment it does not seem to have a listing on the Heavens Above website. Visit the website to determine when the HamSat is in range of your location. At the time if this report it was not in the database but I think that will be quickly remedied as this HamSat becomes more popular.

When in range you will hear an automated voice announcement which is quite unique for HamSats these days. It also has an SSB transponder which provides Ham Radio users with capable SSB 144 Mhz and 440 Mhz radios to communicate over an extended range than what they are normally used to. At times it is possible to receive SSTV (Slow Scan TeleVision) and decode this data into images. Good reception and a SSTV computer decoder programs will process the data to an image.

Below is a certificate I received from the ARISSat-1 QSL program.

Visit AMSAT for frequency and up-to-date information. For detailed information the HamSat has a dedicated website here.

Recent ISS Contact - July 13th 2010

I was excited when I finally was able to make contact with the International Space Station after 20 years of trying. I spoke with Col. Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC as NA1SS on July 13th 2010 at 15:13 PDT while traveling in the car downtown Victoria, B.C. Canada. After my first contact I was then also able to contact him again on the next orbit over Victoria 92 minutes later. I was amazed, excited and over the Moon. Well almost. It was fun and such an exhilarating experience.

Those with scanners may listen on 145.800 Mhz for communications coming down from the ISS. For pass times you may visit Heavens Above for prediction times for your location. There are many resources on the web for information.

One of the best is ISS Fan Club.

Malcolm Scrimger, VE7DAO

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AO-51 SSTV Success

Successfully received a SSTV signal from AO-51 and decoded it with MMSSTV.

A special event message was made available through HamSat AO-51 which marked the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing. AO-51 had transmitted a special message commemorating the event during evening passes on Monday, July 20 and into early July 21 UTC. I was able to receive the digital message which was transmitted on the 435.300 MHz FM downlink. A special AO-51 SWL QSL will be sent to ground stations who copied the downlink.

I then received the following QSL card in return

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