[amsat-bb] Oscar-10

[Thomas Doyle]

I sent this some time ago but I never saw it show up so - sorry if it is a
re-post.

If you have not been on satellites for a really long time (> 20 years) you
may find this interesting. It explains why us old geezers say the old days
were amazing. If you were on decades ago it may bring back memories.

I have been getting back into hamming after a long hiatus and have been
listening to the satellites for a month or two while working on a controller
project and decided it was time to try and make a contact. Thanks to K4MOA
and W5MPC, today I made my first sat contacts in a very long time. A little
later I almost made a cw contact (used my trusty old J-38 key) on another
sat but lost him. I told you this was interesting and really exciting.

Thought I had better log the contacts and started looking for a logbook.
Found a old slightly yellowed logbook with Oscar-10 written on the cover. As
a group we hams (including me)  are pretty cheap so I had saved this logbook
because there were empty pages still left in it. I entered my new contacts
on a fresh page (decided to splurge)  and then looked back and found it was
my first sat contact since 1983. I know you are still waiting for the
exciting part.

Here is a typical page from the log. I am in Wisconsin and believe it or not
I had pile ups of europeans  wanting to work Wisconsin of all things. It was
a real thrill. Times change and I now have two grid squares - not sure what
they are for but I have two and feel the need for more. There are 29 empty
pages left in the logbook so I am good to go. Hope to work you.

http://www.tomdoyle.org/satellite/Amsat-1983.jpg

73 tom... W9KE