so ive been messing around with satellite ops for about three weeks now and finally got a pass where i could hear the linear transponder on AO-73 pretty clearly, like actual SSB voices, but i have no idea if my uplink is even making it through. im using a handheld yagi i built from the arrow antenna design and running about 5 watts on the uplink. the thing is the doppler correction is where im getting confused - im doing it manually by ear kind of which i know is not ideal but i dont have gpredict fully dialed in yet on my laptop.

the pass goes by so fast and by the time i think i hear myself in the passband its already like 20 degrees above the horizon going away from me. is there a trick to finding your own signal on a linear transponder or am i just supposed to listen for someone to come back to me? feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack especially when the whole passband is full of other signals.

also not sure if my cross polarization is hurting me more than i think - im just holding the yagi horizontal and hoping for the best honestly

yeah the doppler thing on linear birds is the part that gets everyone at first. the trick i always tell people is to tune your downlink and let your uplink sit still - the passband is wide enough that a few kHz of drift on the uplink wont kill you, especially on a low pass. what you really want to track is the downlink because thats what your ears are telling you about. gpredict with a rig control cable makes a huge difference once you get it set up, it does the doppler math automatically and splits the rates for uplink vs downlink which are different since the frequencies arent the same.

for finding yourself in the passband - honestly the easiest way is to transmit a carrier briefly and listen for that tone in the downlink while you slowly tune around. once you find it you know where you are in the transponder. takes a little patience but you'll get the feel for it after a few passes. the polarization thing is real but on a handheld yagi doing a low pass you're probably losing a few dB at most, not a dealbreaker at 5 watts

AO-73 has been pretty active lately so thats probably why the passband seemed full. i was in the same boat about six months ago and what finally clicked for me was just doing a ton of passes without even trying to make a contact - just listening, watching the doppler shift happen in real time, getting a feel for the timing. the passes are like 8-10 minutes max on a good overhead one and the first couple minutes and last couple you're fighting the worst of the doppler so realistically you've got maybe 5-6 minutes of usable time near max elevation.

one thing nobody told me that woulda helped - point your yagi roughly toward where the satellite is going to be at max elevation before the pass even starts, not where it is at AOS. gives you a bit more time to get oriented before you're frantically spinning around