[MicroHAMS] AO-51 - ECHO satellite available!

[Kenny Richards]

Things have been pretty quiet here for a while, so I thought I'd start 
posting some things I found interesting.  At the last club meeting I 
told everybody about a new satellite which was launched, well it has 
been enabled for temporary use starting on Friday.

73,
Kenny

Full announcement from ARRL

==>AMSAT "ECHO" SATELLITE OPENS FOR FM VOICE TRIAL RUN

AMSAT-NA's new "Echo" satellite (AO-51) has been turned on for general 
use
in FM repeat mode for a trial period of about three weeks. During that
time, command stations on Earth will monitor AO-51's power budget and
adjust the UHF Transmitter B (TX B) power as needed for good battery
management. They'll also be watching the AMSAT Bulletin Board e-mail
reflector, amsat-bb at amsat.org, for reports of how Echo is working.

"We are most interested in hearing about how well Echo hears you and how
well you hear it," said the Echo Command Team--Jim White, WD0E, and Mike
Kingery, KE4AZN--in an AMSAT bulletin. White and Kingery note that this 
is
a trial period of the FM voice repeater. The digital portion of Echo is
not yet open for use.

AMSAT Vice President for User Services Bruce Paige, KK5DO, says reports 
of
successful QSOs on Echo's first day of operation came from all over the
world, including the US, Brazil, New Zealand and Germany.

A Russian Dnepr LV rocket carried AO-51 and several other payloads into
orbit June 29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 10-inch-square
microsat, circling some 800 km above Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit,
will permit voice communication using handheld transceivers.

The digital transponder and the store-and-forward BBS, are not yet open
for general use.

Initially, the AO-51 downlink transmitter was running at about 0.5 W. At
that power level, AMSAT says, Earth stations will need a small 
directional
antenna to hear it. If onboard power permits, ground controllers will
slowly increase the transmitter's output during the trial period.

The Echo FM voice uplink frequency is 145.920 MHz, and the downlink is
435.300 MHz. The downlink transmitter will come on when it hears an 
uplink
signal with a 67 Hz CTCSS (PL) tone for about 1 second, and it will stay
on for 10 seconds after that signal goes away. "This operation is just
like a terrestrial FM repeater with a 1 second 'kerchunk' filter and a 
10
second hang time," AMSAT noted. Transmitter A (TX A), now sending
telemetry, generally will continue to operate on 435.150 MHz.

AMSAT points out that Echo, which launched June 29, is still "wobbling a
great deal," so the downlink polarization sense will vary.

The Echo Command Team says it expects Echo will be heavily used during 
the
first few days of the trial period. "It is good amateur practice and
common courtesy to let everyone have a chance," they said. "Echo will 
hear
you as well as or better than any previous amateur FM repeater 
satellite."

With hundreds of stations trying out AO-51, ground controllers say they
expect the transmitter will be on continuously when the spacecraft is 
over
populated areas.

The Echo satellite project is still some $8000 short of the $110,000 
that
was needed to launch the spacecraft. AMSAT guaranteed the full fare by
borrowing from its dedicated funds, which now must be repaid. AMSAT--a
501(c)(3) organization--welcomes additional donations to bridge the
funding gap. Visit the AMSAT AO-Echo Web page for additional
details.--AMSAT News Service