[AReU] AO40 Monday

[w4tas]

It looks like Mike (KB4JHU) is ready to get on the satellite. We heard the
beacon
today through the trees at his house but didn't hear our downlink. I think
that a better
coaxial run will fix this problem and Mike can get a booming signal on the
downlink.

It looks like Monday afternoon will be a good time to try it out. I believe
that if we
get on between 5:00 and 8:00 PM on Monday we will make it with flying
colors.
I am hoping that Mike (W4UOO) can get his station going by this time. If so
we
can have a "threesome" at about 50 KHz above the beacon.

I am including a print out of the vital statistics of the Monday night pass
in the
afternoon. The last number in each column is the "squint angle". The smaller
this number is, the greater the signal strength of the downlink. As you can
see,
the number keeps getting larger and larger as the evening progresses.

I will be home around 5:00 PM and will get my station fired up.

Probably the Brandon repeater will be best for coordinating our effort so I
will
be monitoring during the afternoon and evening.

Tracking information is as follows:

                               51. AO-40
EST Date  Time Azim/Elev  Range    Lat  Long Doppler Phs/M  Offp
14Jan2003 1641  137/  43  60539     6S   54W   +1647 131     4.6
14Jan2003 1652  140/  44  60378     6S   57W   +1957 134     4.9
14Jan2003 1703  142/  46  60191     6S   59W   +2265 136     5.3
14Jan2003 1714  145/  47  59979     6S   61W   +2572 138     5.6
14Jan2003 1725  148/  48  59742     5S   63W   +2879 141     6.0
14Jan2003 1736  151/  49  59479     5S   65W   +3186 143     6.4
14Jan2003 1747  154/  50  59191     5S   67W   +3494 146     6.8
14Jan2003 1758  157/  51  58878     5S   69W   +3803 148     7.3
14Jan2003 1809  160/  52  58539     5S   71W   +4114 151     7.7
14Jan2003 1820  164/  52  58174     5S   73W   +4428 153     8.1
14Jan2003 1831  167/  53  57783     5S   75W   +4747 156     8.6
14Jan2003 1842  171/  53  57365     5S   77W   +5070 158     9.0
14Jan2003 1853  175/  54  56921     5S   79W   +5397 161     9.5
14Jan2003 1904  178/  54  56449     5S   81W   +5730 163    10.0
14Jan2003 1915  182/  54  55949     5S   83W   +6069 165    10.5
14Jan2003 1926  186/  54  55420     5S   85W   +6416 168    11.0
14Jan2003 1937  190/  54  54862     5S   87W   +6771 170    11.5
14Jan2003 1948  193/  53  54274     4S   89W   +7136 173    12.0
14Jan2003 1959  197/  53  53655     4S   91W   +7510 175    12.6
14Jan2003 2010  200/  52  53005     4S   93W   +7897 178    13.1
14Jan2003 2021  203/  52  52321     4S   95W   +8296 180    13.7
14Jan2003 2032  207/  51  51603     4S   97W   +8708 183    14.3

Mike has invested a lot of time and money in this project so I hope it will
be fulfilling for him to get on the satellite. I know that I will be
thrilled to make
the QSO.

If W4UOO can make it, it will be a "double whammy".

73

Tony