[amsat-bb] Happy 27th Birthday, AO-27

[John Brier]

Happy belated birthday AO-27!

Congrats on resurrecting this transponder!

AO-27 was one of the sats I worked in my initial experiment with sats
in 2000. It's very cool to use it again today.

I was just on it on a 10 degree max elevation pass to the west and it
sounded great and was easy to get into.

73, John Brier KG4AKV

On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 5:27 PM Stephan Greene via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
> Happy 27th birthday to AMRAD-Oscar 27, still alive and operating today!
>
> For an amateur radio satellite operator in the early 1990s, working on a
> satellite project based on the AMSAT Microsat design was a dream job!
>
> The hams on the team (including Dino Lorenzini, Mark Kanawati, Steve Greene
> and Mike Wyrick) couldn't help but include an amateur radio payload, and
> were successful with the help of fellow amateurs and the local Vienna,
> Virginia Amateur Research and Development (AMRAD) group:  Paul Renaldo,
> Andre Castillot, Dave Rogers, Glenn Baumgartner, Sandy Sanders, Matt
> Butcher, Randy Mays, and Terry Fox, and with help from AMSAT’s Lyle
> Johnson, Chuck Green, and Jim White, among many others.
>
> EYESAT-1/AO-27 launched (with the amateur payload and an extra UHF antenna
> for the downlink) at 0145 UTC September 26, 1993.  [Ariane-4 V59 also
> launched amateur satellites KO-25, IO-26, and PO-28, SSTL’s Healthsat-2,
> the Stella research satellite, and the Spot-3 earth observation
> satellite.]  The satellite was commanded on during the next orbit and the
> first QSO on the amateur payload was made the following morning on
> September 27, 1993. (We think – does anyone have an archive of amsat-bb
> emails from 1993 who can check?)
>
> AO-27 was the first FM “bent pipe” satellite and proved to be easy to work
> with a strong downlink and sensitive receiver.  The amateur FM repeater has
> served many Hams worldwide and was one of the first “Easy Sats”.  AO-27 was
> later used for the first successful D-Star mode satellite QSO.  The 800km
> orbit provides continent-spanning coverage.  At least one station is known
> to have worked 49 states solely via AO-27!
>
> And here we are today, the 27th of September, 2020, celebrating the 27th
> birthday of AO-27!
>
> Thanks to Mike Wyrick N3UC who babysat the spacecraft for the last 27 years.
>
> And thanks to all those who helped.  There are many untold stories and
> photos we hope to share in the near future.
>
> Current information on AO-27’s operating schedule is at www.ao27.net
>
> 73
>
> Mark, Mike, Steve (N4TPY, N3UC, KS1G)
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