so i've been wanting to get into satellite work for a while now and last weekend i finally just sat down and did it. grabbed my vx-6r and a cheap arrow antenna i borrowed from a club buddy and went out in the backyard during a pass that gpredict was showing as like 28 degrees max elevation. not the greatest pass but figured id try anyway.

managed to hear the downlink pretty clearly once i figured out which way to point but the doppler correction thing is kind of killing me. i was manually adjusting frequency during the pass and its just a lot to juggle while also trying to rotate the antenna. how do people actually do this smoothly? like are you memorizing the frequency offsets ahead of time or is there a better way to handle it with a ht that doesnt have computer control

also i could hear stations working each other but couldnt seem to get a contact through. not sure if it was my tx power or just timing or what. using like 5 watts out of the vx-6r. the pass was decently loud on downlink so i dont think i was totally off frequency

the doppler on SO-50 isnt as brutal as on a linear transponder bird so you're actually in decent shape there. for an FM sat like that most people just set a few pre-programmed channels offset from center and manually switch between them as the pass progresses. some guys do three channels, one for AOS, one for mid-pass, one near LOS. its not perfect but honestly for a 5-10 minute pass you dont need it to be.

5 watts with an arrow should definitely be enough to get in, i've worked it with a rubber duck on a good high pass so your setup is fine. the thing that gets most newcomers is timing - the sat is FM so it captures on the strongest signal and if two people are transmitting at once you just get noise. try calling right after you hear a contact complete, theres usually a brief gap. also make sure your tone is right, SO-50 needs the 67hz ctcss on uplink or it wont even open the repeater.

yeah the ctcss thing got me too my first few tries, wasnt in my notes and spent like two passes wondering why nobody could hear me. also 28 degrees isnt bad at all i've had good contacts on lower passes than that depending on where the footprint lands. just gotta be ready and have gpredict open on your phone or something so you can see roughly where youre pointing