[amsat-bb] OSCAR-Locator & Amateur Satellite Report Number 154

Les Rayburn les at highnoonfilm.com
Mon Feb 25 06:15:24 UTC 2019


Bob,

What a wonderful re-discovery. Any chance you could scan that ARRL publication? I’ve searched Amazon and Ebay since getting your e-mail, but no joy. I’d love to add it to my collection of vintage amateur satellite items. 

Neat stuff indeed! 


73,

Les Rayburn, N1LF
Maylene, AL 
EM63nf
AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member




> On Feb 24, 2019, at 8:47 PM, Bob Meyers <meyersb at uplogon.com> wrote:
> 
> I just was digging through my ham shack and there was my original Oscarlocator, first revision, 12-76.  I also found a publication from the ARRL, "Getting to know Oscar from the ground up" published in 1977.  It describes how to use the Oscarlocator.    All you needed was the EQX, equator-crossing information that was provided by the W1AW bulletins and you could predict AOS and LOS for Oscar 6 or 7.  Pretty neat stuff at the time.
> 
> Bob
> WA8FXQ 
> 
>> On Feb 24, 2019, at 7:24 PM, Wendy and Terry Osborne <wandtosborne at gmail.com <mailto:wandtosborne at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Les,
>> 
>> The Oscar locator and how it works was described in much detail in "The Satellite Experimenter's Handbook".
>> This was published by ARRL. You may be able to find a copy around some where.
>> It still has a lot of useful information in it even if the satellites referred to are long gone.
>> I made up several Oscar-Locators in the early 80s and used them a lot.
>> I found them the other day when I was having a shack clean out.
>> 
>> To use them you require an "Equatorial Crossing time and longitude" (EQX).
>> Bob McGwier's (N4HY) Quiktrak program gives these but I haven't checked any modern programs.
>> 
>> I have a set of instructions but they are based on my Southern Hemisphere version so would need to be adapted
>> for use in the Northern Hemisphere.
>> 
>> It would be an interesting exercise to make one for the ISS as an educational tool versus looking up an app on a smart phone.
>> 
>> 73,
>> Terry Osborne ZL2BAC
>> 
>> -----Original Message----- From: Les Rayburn
>> Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2019 12:42 PM
>> To: AMSAT BB
>> Subject: [amsat-bb] OSCAR-Locator & Amateur Satellite Report Number 154
>> 
>> Today’s mail brought me a vintage cardboard “OSCAR-Locator” purchased on QRZ.com <http://qrz.com/>. Also included was a back issue of the Amateur Satellite Report newsletter, Number 154 from July 27, 1987.
>> 
>> I love collecting items related to the history of amateur satellites. The OSCAR-Locator is really neat—I’m digging through back issues of QST now trying to learn how to actually use it. Don’t think I’ll be giving up SatPC32 anytime soon however.
>> 
>> Remember back even further when hams plotted satellite passes using a string and a globe? Remember watching my elmer, Ron Murray WA4IWN (SK) do that back in the day.
>> 
>> 
>> 73,
>> 
>> Les Rayburn, N1LF
>> Maylene, AL
>> EM63nf
>> AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 



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