OBSERVATIONS FROM NORWAY.         MARCH 2006.

APOLOGY FOR ABSENCE.

Observations from Norway has been "on a break" for the last 3 years due to the recurrence of the hiccuping of the pig's heart in La2qaa's chest, however, I'm now assured that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible (with apologies to The BBC).

(Sow, hands up those who know which parts of La2qaa originally belonged to the pig.....GM1SXX).

In the past 3 years I've received 4 requests (I counted them) for more Observations. I also received more than 400 requests to abstain from such frivolity (of which I refrained from counting) ... so, being of a somewhat tenacious nature (PH7PCF will tell you what means) I've decided to carry on regardless.

AO-7.

As will be well known, AO-7 has been out of eclipse for a few weeks now and in this period the 24 hour timer has been functioning as it was designed to do more than 3 decades ago. This means the satellite has been alternating between modes A & B every 24 hours, changing at 09:00 UTC.
The favoured mode has been mode-B with 26 stations from 12 countries logged onto the AO-7 Resource Page log on the 1st of March. The prognosis is that in or around the middle of March the satellite will return to a random mode of operation due to the eclipse factor. For more information see ...

<http://www.planetemily.com/ao7/ao7log.php> (follow the links).

To get a fair guesstimate of what can be expected in the coming months check out the activity log for the last 3 years but do remember, this is an "estimate" so don't take it as gospel. The only certain way to check which mode the satellite is in is to either listen for the beacon or to send the proverbial dit dit dit and see which transponder is turned on ... and don't forget to log your findings since G1WPR is far! too lazy to send 3 dits into space.

Please do! read the recommended operating procedure for AO-7. The Gentleman from the American side of the pond who "advised" that a power amplifier was a necessity to work AO-7 is wrong. An EIRP of 10 watts is adequate for CW and SSB operation providing the propagation is reasonable.

How much power is enough?, that's a debatable point (see the OBSERVATIONS main page) but in AO-7's case 10 watts (EIRP) "is" enough. A lot of stations use the same power level when the satellite is at TCA (time of closest approach) as they do when it first comes up over their horizon. This is a bad habit, poor operating procedure and is *not* necessary. Remember, there are a few subtle differences between satellite operating and banging away on 20m. Try lowering your power as the satellite approaches, you may get a surprise. In my case, halving my transmit power at TCA makes no difference whatsoever to the received signal ... and I'm using a receiver with a front end that was designed by the early cave dwellers in Tokyo.

AIN''T THAT CUTE.

Recently, there was a complaint that only 40 amateurs worldwide had bothered to send it reports of the CUTE 1.7 satellite. Apart from the lack of interest in Packet radio in the last few years due mainly to the Internet plus the lack of available 9600bps satellites I suspect the interest for digital satellites is on the wane and most people (like myself) have binned their 9600bps equipment. 
However, on the subject of digital modes, PH7PCF and myself did a PSK31 test on AO-7 which we assumed would work due to the relative small amount of doppler on this satellite but we found that most software applications just don't have an AFC that can tackle the doppler problem properly.

The other disadvantage of digital modes is the expense required to attain suitable equipment.  Not only does this cut out the so called 3rd world countries it also cuts out the likes of La2qaa!  It is of course possible to operate the modern digital modes on LEO's but this requires a considerable investment ... a half decent computer, CAT controlled rig etc. There is free software available and J-poles are easy to build but without a program with a dedicated AFC and computer controlled tracking the chances of success are minimal.

There is of course the DOMINO effect (pun intentional). Stations at La2qaa'a antipode (he means New Zealand, folks) have been experimenting with a "new" digital mode but whether this will be suitable for LEO satellites, only time will tell.

YES, BUT IS IT RADIO?.

The time honoured debate as to whether Remote Base Station operating (not to speak of Echolink) is in fact "radio" or not, continues. Some say it is, because a Wi-Fi computer system operates at
2.4Ghz. Others say ... nah!.

As an experiment I used the GoToMyPc software and connected my laptop to the desktop machine and was able to control my rigs from the front garden. You "can" operate satellites from a QTH in Norway using a remote base station in Australia!. (Bin there, dunnit!.....LA2QAA).

It was also interesting to sit in front of my laptop in the living room (in Norway) using Echolink
connected to N1DID (ex: W0EEC) in the Bay Area, USA and listen to Emily working AO-51 with a SSB uplink conversing with various west coast American stations on the FM downlink. I must admit, I was rather surprised at the quality of the signals.

Yes, but is it radio or isn't it?. You must decide that for yourself.

ECHOLINK AND AMSAT.

It can be interesting to use video conferencing in MSN to exchange ideas and circuit diagrams in real-time. On the same theme the Amsat conference link within Echolink seems to be somewhat under-used so c'mon folks, if you have a PC and a decent connection to the Internet, don't be shy, click in and have a chat with a few other satellite enthusiats around the world.

ACRONYMS.

For many years OBS was an acronym for OBSERVATIONS but in the case of La2qaa it has since become short for OLD, BALD and SENILE.

While the latter 3 letters of my callsign (QAA) suggested the "Queen's Able Assistant" (because I'm ex: Royal Signals), lately, it's a little more apt with "Quite (the) AO-7 Aficiondo".

That's it for this month folks. As in previous years, compliments on the back of a $100 note to
LA2QAA, criticisms to GM1SXX on a bit of bogroll wrapped round a wall-brick and chucked through his front window.

73 John.  la2qaa@amsat.org