Amazing New LEO Satellite; RS-44

A new Low Earth Satellite, RS-44 has recently become usable for Amateurs.

RS-44 is using a Linear Inverting transponder on the SSB mode.  RS-44 has a passband of up to 40 kHz allowing multiple QSOs for each pass.  RS-44 is unique when compared to present linear birds in that its downlink frequency is on 70 CM band.  

RS-44 is a Russian Satellite, that I understand "failed to deploy" and is attached to its delivery vehicle in a higher than normal orbit.  Also at 5 watts of  RF output power, it is much higher than other LEO birds of typical 10 Mw of output power.

All this makes for a very powerful satellite.

Attached is a video of the Satellite screen of my first observation of a pass.   Several key observations;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GTVDt_0yS8&feature=youtu.be

1- The doppler on the downlink (the upper panadapter) is very pronounced.  Note how FlexSatPC is doing a fine job of tracking the downlink (upper panadapter) and the uplink (lower panadapter).  You can see me moving the downlink frequency and the uplink following below.

2- See the SATPC32 map on the left.  The cone of influence for RS-44 is very large.   I was listening to "pile-ups" on a station calling CQ from Europe, as I sit in my Michigan station.   I have never experienced that before!

Programs in use are SatPC32, FlexSat and Smart SDR.

Alan
WA9WUD