"Connecting amateur satellites" is a topic that many people think is particularly profound, and some people even flinch directly. In fact, I also thought that the connecting amateur satellite is so far away from our ordinary people. Just imagine how the amateur satellite in space can be connected with the walkie talkie.

In other words, is connecting amateur satellite really so advanced?

I am not a ham and didn't play radios before. I thought the radio was very advanced or only for business, police and airport use. Then I took the amateur radio license, got my own callsign, and started my radio journey. But after playing a lot, I feel boring. Later, I played the hotspot. The hotspot is good. I can connect with the worldwide hams, but as time goes by, I'm not so keen.

How can we make it continue to be interesting? Keep learning and expanding. When you learn more and know more, you will find radio more interesting. Playing amateur satellite is a more interesting radio activity.

We may have a lot of doubts about playing amateur satellite. Today, we will have a brief understanding of amateur satellite through a few questions and answers.

1. What special certificate does connecting amateur satellite need?

No. If we just want to receive signals from amateur satellites, we don't need any certificates. If we want to receive as well as transmit, the operation certificate and radio callsign are necessary. No special certificate is required. The amateur radio first level certificate is enough.

2. Do you need to buy any equipment?

Most of the frequency bands of amateur satellites are UHF or VHF. So you only need to use the existing equipment at hand, and you can simply try to connect without spending money on other equipment.

Some people say that you may need to buy a Yagi antenna, etc. in fact, if you want to better connect, a good high gain antenna will indeed have more advantages. But if we just want to try at the early stage, in fact, the original antenna that comes with the radio is also OK. If we like to play later, and want more connections, it's not too late for us to improve our equipment.

3. I saw other people's mobile phones installed some softwares. What's the purpose of those softwares?

Amateur satellites are mostly in low earth orbit with limited coverage, so we need to query its transit information. At this time, we need to install some ephemeris software to master the relevant information of amateur satellites. Different mobile phone systems and computers have different ephemeris software installed, which can be directly queried online.

4. How can I set my radio frequency?

We can check the frequency of amateur satellites we need to link. Here we need to consider the influence of Doppler shift (we will talk about later). In short, the frequency increases when the satellite is close to us, and decreases when it is far away from us. Open the satellite information of ephemeris software, we can refer to it.

In fact, it's very easy to play with satellites. Install the ephemeris software to understand the amateur satellite information; prepare your own equipment, and set the frequency channel according to the satellite information; then try listening first.

Of course, we may encounter various problems in practical operation, which requires us to learn more about some related knowledge in the future, such as Doppler frequency shift, satellite operation mode, frequency band plan, schedule, ephemeris software, etc. There is no end to learning. While constantly acquiring new knowledge, experience the unique charm of radio, which is also the charm of amateur satellite communication.