Thanks to AMSAT, the Navassa Island K1N DXpedition is equipped to work stations via the FO-29 Amateur Radio satellite. Vice President-Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, said that AMSAT had provided the DXpedition with a Yaesu FT-817 transceiver and associated equipment to support operation on FO-29’s linear passband. AMSAT also gave the group pass predictions, an operational plan, and training.

The primary K1N satellite operator is Gregg Marco, W6IZT. K1N will operate half-duplex and use an Arrow antenna. While the focus will be on FO-29, it is possible they may try SO-50 as well. AMSAT provided the DXpedition with pass predictions for FO-29 and for SO-50 for all passes that are 20° or higher at the island.

The radio is programmed with five, split-band memory channels for SO-50. The VFOs are programmed for FO-29 operation with a fixed uplink of 145.980 MHz, for a downlink at 435.813-435.827 MHz, depending on Doppler shift. K1N will tune for replies and may not be listening directly on its own downlink. Calling while the operator is transmitting will not work, since he is half-duplex.

This particular frequency scheme was chosen to reduce QRM and allows a quick tune to the beacon for antenna pointing, when there are not many callers, Glassbrenner explained.

Glassbrenner said he has asked W6IZT to alert him, if possible, should the DXpedition decide to get on FO-29, and he said he would relay the information to the AMSAT-BB list and the AMSAT Twitter feed.

FO-29 Frequencies:

Uplink Passband: 146.000-145.900 MHz (analog CW/SSB)

Downlink Passband: 435.800-435.900 MHz (analog CW/SSB)

Beacon: 435.795 MHz

SO-50 Frequencies

Uplink: 145.850 MHz FM, 67.0 Hz tone

Downlink: 436.795 MHz FM

K1N also has reported that some contacts have been made on 6 meters. The DXpedition is set to wrap up on February 12.