Happy Birthday! Guess who is turning 20 years old on January 22nd?

AO-16, DO-17, WO-18, and LO-19 !! :)

To honor the great work of AMSAT volunteers that created, built, and launched the original "fleet of four" microsats exactly 20 years old, we will be *attempting* to operate AO-16 in its special "voice mode" on select passes during the period January 21-24. Operations will be limited to stations that share the footprint with the command station N8MH (grid FM05pj).

Mode FM Voice Repeater (Downlink is DSB. Operation is Intermittent) Uplink: 145.9200 MHz FM Downlink 437.0260 MHz USB and LSB

Please understand that because of the current orbit and a thermal issue in the spacecraft, the satellite turns itself OFF via a reset rather unpredictably--sometimes only moments after being turned ON. So operations may be limited to very short periods of times (barely enough for quick exchange). During some passes it might not work at all...but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Watch for AO-16 to be turned ON for operations during the following dates and times, posted below in UTC:

WinAos QTH: -78.7/35.4 ---------------------------------------------------------- Day Object AOS (U) LOS ---------------------------------------------------------- 21.01.2010 AO-16 19:02 19:16

22.01.2010 AO-16 08:56 09:10 <- (yes, that's 4am Eastern time ;)

22.01.2010 AO-16 20:10 20:25

23.01.2010 AO-16 08:25 08:40

23.01.2010 AO-16 19:39 19:54

24.01.2010 AO-16 19:09 19:23

24.01.2010 AO-16 20:49 21:02

Let's hope at least a few of you can make a contact! If nothing else, you can listen to the familiar "hmmmmm" of 1200BPSK and reminisce.

73,

Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] AO-16 Command Station