Re: [amsat-bb] Oscar 7

[rdwelch@xxxxxxxxxx]

Gosh, I became an AMSAT member in 1974 after having with Project OSCAR
before that.  The two satellites I used then were AO-6 and the newly
launched AO-7, a combination Mode A and Mode B bird.  Hawaii was the best
westernly reach from here in the St. Louis area and looking easterly I
could work Norway, Sweden, Germany and France.  I don't recall Italy but
North Africa was out of range.

I could work Hawaii but, theoretically, anyone east of about Ohio
couldn't.  In spite of that, one night when I was about to go back to a CQ
call from a Hawaiian station, I heard a Florida station calling him.  Since
I already had Hawaii safely tucked away I let the Florida station have the
opportunity and by gosh he worked him.  Must have been a bit of
tropospheric bending at work across the Gulf of Mexico.  Usually on AO-7
the passband was so quiet that you could hear the whine of ground radar
signals.

I have searched and cannot find the transponder passband frequency ranges. 
I finally looked in an old 1975 log book where I recorded a 432.15 uplink
and a 145.9 downlink.  I'm sure these are not exact but close enough that I
can play with it a bit.  Next pass is a westernly one in about 37 minutes
here.

Dave Guimont wrote:
> 
> >Oscar 7 was one of the best if not the very best Mode B satellite we have
> >ever had.  Imagine a quiet place in a transponder frequency band where you
> >could converse for about 20 minutes with S9+ SSB signals. I finished my WAS
> >on that satellite, Hawaii included, and worked over 80 countries with it.
> >It was a great satellite to use and made a super demo satellite at club
> >meetings, etc.
> 
> Yes, indeed, Roy.....I don't know why we don't use the same scheme on our
> next bird
> instead of a ridiculous 2 user FM voice mode....FM is fine for digital, but
> we'll have the
> same ridiculous squabble that went on over AO27.
> 
> Many, many of us cut out teeth on it...I worked it up in the North woods of
> Minnesota,
> about 20 miles from the nearest road, with very inexpensive portable
> gear.  The FM HT will
> never equal that performance, and that was how many years ago????

-- 
73, Roy -- W0SL

E-Mail: rdwelch@swbell.net
Home Page: http://home.swbell.net/rdwelch
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