[amsat-bb] Re: HEO history question

[John Geiger]

I had forgotten about the RS satellites.  Not sure if Wales would have been 
in the footprint from where I was at in Iowa at that time.  I sure miss 
RS12/13. That was a great satellite to get on. Mode T worked very well. 
Wish they would put another one up like it.

73s John AA5JG

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "i8cvs" <domenico.i8cvs at tin.it>
To: "John Geiger" <aa5jg at fidmail.com>; "AMSAT-BB" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] HEO history question


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Geiger" <aa5jg at fidmail.com>
> To: "AMSAT-BB" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 8:58 PM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] HEO history question
>
>> Back in late 1997 or early 1998 I was using a Kenwood TR9130 on 2m SSB.
>> One morning I was tuning from the FM to the SSB portion of the band, and
>> heard a station just below 146mhz.  I tuned them in, and it was a station
>> from Wales!  Obviously going thru a satellite as the 2 meter conditions
>> weren't that good that morning.  I am now wondering what satellite it
>> probably was.  Hearing it was enough to motivate me to eventually get 
>> into
>> satellite operations-that took a few years though.
>>
>> Anyways, what satellite was I probably hearing?  I am guessing AO10 or
>> AO13 but were they operational at that time?
>>
>> 73s John AA5JG
>
> Hi John, AA5JG
>
> OSCAR-10 was launched in 1983 and it started to get problems with the
> main computer in 1986
>
> OSCAR-13 was launched in 1988 and reientered because of drag in 1996
>
> Between 1997 or early 1998  OSCAR-10 was operating time to time with
> low level signals in Mode-B, 2 meters downlink while OSCAR-13 was died.
>
> If you are sure about the time of your reception back in late 1997 or 
> early
> 1998 I guess that probably you was hearing or OSCAR-10 or mostly RS-12
> a powerful LEO satellite in Mode-KT with uplink in 15 meters and downlink
> in two bands at the same time i.e.10 meters in the Mode-K and 2 meters in
> Mode-T exactly from 145.907 to 145.953 MHz
>
> BTW at that time 23 april 1996 OSCAR-10 was still well operational in
> Mode-B because I have the QSL card from i8KRO for a QSO made through
> two satellites OSCAR-10 and RS-12
>
> The uplink on RS-12 for i8KRO was in 21 MHz and the uplink for me
> on OSCAR-10 was in 435 MHz while the downlink for both of us was
> in 145 MHz
>
> Nice to remember !
>
> 73" de
>
> i8CVS Domenico
>