[amsat-bb] Happy 20th Birthday to FO-29!

[Paul Stoetzer]

Today (UTC) is the 20th anniversary of the launch of FO-29. Congratulations
to the Japan Amateur Radio League for the success and long life of this
satellite. To commemorate FO-29's birthday, I have posted a short article
about FO-29 on the AMSAT-NA website.

http://www.amsat.org/?p=5417

On a personal note, FO-29 has provided me with many, many hundreds of hours
of enjoyment since I made my first QSO via it's linear transponder nearly
four years ago. I have made 1,601 QSOs (34% of my total) with 400 different
stations in 511 grids, 41 grid fields, 48 states (Hawaii is out of range,
but I'd love to work Delaware on it some time!), 7 Canadian call areas, 46
DXCCs, 14 CQ zones, and 4 continents - all using two Yaesu FT-817s, manual
Doppler tuning, and an Arrow antenna from here in Washington, DC. The large
majority of QSOs were made using 5 watts (as I only became "QRO" with a 30
watt amplifier last November). I always look forward to saying hello to my
European satellite friends every couple of months when the apogee is over
the Atlantic and trying to stretch the footprint to work new countries.
Here's to hopefully many more years of service to the amateur satellite
community!

73,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
Secretary
Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA)