[ARRL-OK] Fw: ARLS008 AMSAT announces satellite developments

[D C Macdonald]

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "ARRL Web site" <memberlist at www.arrl.org>
To: k2gkk at juno.com
Cc: Subscribed ARRL Members: ;
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:01:04 -0400
Subject: ARLS008 AMSAT announces satellite developments
Message-ID: <20040611201359.32190.qmail at mailer.remote.arrl.org>

SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS008
ARLS008 AMSAT announces satellite developments

ZCZC AS08  
QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 008  ARLS008
>From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  June 11, 2004
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS008
ARLS008 AMSAT announces satellite developments

The AMSAT-OSCAR ECHO satellite is on its way to its launch site in
Kazakhstan. AMSAT's Chuck Green, N0ADI, said ECHO's final check was
an hour-long stay in the vacuum chamber with both 70-cm transmitters
running at full power. Green indicated that everything that could be
tested in this configuration worked well.

"We also checked the sensitivity of all the 2-meter receivers and
the 'SQRX' wideband tunable receiver, and they were all very good,"
he said. Engineers also measured the output of the 70-cm
transmitters at various power settings.

AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, offered his
congratulations for a job well done.

AMSAT also recently announced that its ECHO launch fund took a big
leap forward at Dayton Hamvention 2004 and now stands at slightly
more than $93,000. AMSAT needs $110,000 to launch ECHO. Haighton
said AMSAT can meet the goal quite easily "if every member of AMSAT
and everyone who works the satellites--including nonmembers--is
prepared to meet the target." The ECHO launch window begins at the
end of June.

In other news, AMSAT-NA says the SO-50 satellite--also known as
SaudiSat-1C--now is available to all, and users can switch on the
Mode J transponder via a CTCSS tone. Previously, only one of the
three control operators could turn on the spacecraft for amateur
communication.

Taking Doppler into account, transmit on 145.850 MHz using a CTCSS
tone of 74.4 Hz to arm the onboard 10-minute timer. Then, transmit
FM voice on 145.850 MHz using a CTCSS tone of 67.0 Hz to actuate the
repeater within the 10-minute window. SO-50 takes a half second or
so to start transmitting once a signal is received, so users should
pause briefly before talking. SO-50's downlink frequency is 436.800
MHz.

Sending the 74.4 Hz CTCSS tone again within the 10-minute window
resets the timer.

There's more information on the AMSAT Web site at,
http://www.amsat.org.
NNNN
/EX





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