[DSP-10] AO-7 detected by DSP-10 at N5BF

[Courtney Duncan]

I posted this note with screen capture to the dsp-10 list only to learn 
that the list doesn't accept attachments.  I just updated my website

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ejccool3/dsp10.html

with the referenced picture.


The attached screen capture shows a relatively good AO-7 pass off the 
west coast this evening.  The beacon was mostly carrier.  Occasionally 
it turned itself off and on, but it was nothing like CW or CW rates.

What I heard through the speakers during this pass, I would have called 
"Q-1 to Q-2" in the past, certainly detectable but barely readble.  The 
screen plot shows a solid signal as well as some local birdies that I 
can't hear with my ears at all.

Having recently reacquired and re-installed my old 2 meter satellite 
beam, I did track the moderately high pass manually in azimuth.  (No 
near term plans for an elevation rotator, for LEO it's not all that 
critical.)

A prior plot (off the top of the screen here) shows AOS occuring rather 
suddenly about when the latest keps predict AO-7 would have passed into 
sunlight, several degrees above my excellent southerly horizon.  I may 
have seen it power up.

Launched in 1974 and long since battery-dead, AO-7 has been in 
daylight-only mode for years, when it works at all.  It is said to power 
up randomly in Mode A (10 meter beacon) or Mode B (2 meter beacon). 
Although I've listened sporadically on 10 meters, I only vaguely 
remember copying one pass there and can't easily find my notes that I 
made, not remembering exactly when it was.  This was the very first time 
I tried listening for any satellite on DSP-10 and DSP-10 is the first 
time in fourteen years that I've been able to listen on 2 meters for 
linear modes or weak signal.

Just Plain Lucky.

- Courtney, n5bf/6