AB1OC Satellite Worked All States (WAS)

I have worked and confirmed all states in the USA for some time now except for Hawaii. It is simply impossible to work Hawaii from my location in New England via a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. Fortunately, the Greencube (IO-117) Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite has made a contact with Hawaii possible. The next challenge was finding an active Amateur Radio satellite operator set up for Greencube.

Developing a Plan

KH6WI is QRV in Hawaii!

After doing some online research, I was pleasantly surprised to find Eric Olson, KH6WI, was preparing a portable setup for Greencube! This motivated us to set up the software to use Greencube from our station here.

Making the Contact

Eric KH6WI Calling CQ from Hawaii

With everything set up and working for operation with Greencube, I anxiously awaited Eric’s first activation. I was thrilled to see him calling CQ during one of the first passes that he was active on.

The Contact with KH6WI

The contact with Eric was easily made and quickly confirmed via LoTW. With this done, I had finally completed my Satellite Worked All States!

Grids, Grids, Grids

AB1OC Satellite Grids

I’ve been active on Greencube for about a month and have made over 320 contacts via Greencube, bringing my total satellite contact count to over 3,200. Greencube has helped me confirm several new DXCCs via Satellite and increased my worldwide grids to over 415 grids.

If you have not tried Greencube (IO-117), I’d encourage you to set up your station to work this bird. It’s not difficult to do this, and Greencube opens the world to Amateur Satellite operators.

More Fun With Greencube

This article is the third in a series that we are working on. You view the other articles via the links below. This is a work in progress, and we’ll be creating additional Greencube-related posts in the near future:

• Greencube (IO-117) – A New Satellite for DX!
• Greencube (IO-117) – Station Setup, Software, and Operation
• Greencube (IO-117) – M2 Antenna Systems LEO Pack – Will It Work?
• Greencube (IO-117) – A Portable Station for Activating Grid Squares
• Greencube (IO-117) – The Road to a Satellite DXCC?

You can also read more about our Satellite Ground stations here.

Fred, AB1OC