[amsat-bb] Re: Memories of OSCAR 10

[Edward R. Cole]

At 03:08 PM 2/5/2011, Bill Dzurilla wrote:
>I've been enjoying the posts regarding our last HEO satellite, 
>AO-40.  I was inactive while AO-40 was going strong, but the posts 
>brought back memories of our first HEO, OSCAR 10, my first 
>experience with satellites until a couple of years ago.  You can't 
>find much about the glory days of AO-10 on the web, but I remember them well.
>
>Passes lasted for 8 hours.  Always Q5 copy everywhere in the huge 
>footprint, very little QRM or QRN.  I worked over 100 countries from 
>1983-85, but never got enough cards for DXCC.  My rig was a Yaesu 
>FT-726R with a Mirage D-1010 amp.  It was 70cm uplink, 2 meters 
>downlink.  I attached the antennas to a small mast on my chimney.  I 
>had a surplus cavity bandpass filter that wiped away all the 
>birdies; it was needed because I lived in EL49 in New Orleans.  The 
>antennas were small crossed-yagis (KLM?), circularly polarized, on 
>separate booms.  I can't recall the make or model.  Also must have 
>had a mast-mounted preamp and an az-el rotator, but I can't remember 
>them.  I got the tracking info from a program that ran on my 
>Commodore 64 and printed it out on my Gorilla Banana printer.
>
>Those were halycon days, with AO-10 supposed to be just the 
>beginning.  The grand plan was to put up 3 linked ham sats in 
>geosynchronous orbit, which would enable any ham to work any other 
>ham anywhere on the globe 24-7.  Will we ever see anything like that 
>again?  How did AO-10 compare with AO-40?
>
>There was a fire at my home and all my logs and QSL cards from those 
>days were lost.  If anyone out there happens to have an old AO-10 
>QSL card from me, I'd sure appreciate a copy.
>
>73, Bill NZ5N
>
>
>
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AO-10 in the mid-1980's was my first real satellite operation (I had 
been involved with AO-6).  It was the basic mode-B linear 
transponder.  Great range and lots of DX.  I worked some rare DX that 
was rare on HF standards.  The hams I worked said they were tired of 
the pileups on HF and came up on AO-10 to enjoy some nice contacts.

P3E inherits the legacy of AO-10 and AO-13, as it is very similar in 
what it is equipped to do. ARISSat-1 will be a precurser for what P3E 
would be without the high orbit.



73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45
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