Our first method of pass determination was with a home made plotter...I still have my original one, and think it is on my website:
http://cid-1973adc8c1d3207c.skydrive.live.com/summary.aspx?sa=140581470
Nothing but a circular plot of the world with a curved arc that represented the path of the satellite....then the time in minutes of the pass marked off to determine AZ/EL. QST had a listing of pass times for the month, very simple, and as you remember we used to have 4,5,6 in a round table permitting about 20 second bites....We gabbed mostly about what we had just homebrewed, and continue the chat on the next pass, or maybe the NEXT DAY!!
Chuck, I'll dig out my old logs and let you know...When I upgraded I kept my old callsign just for the recognition on the sats,a and ease of operation, as you remember it took about four hands!!
At 05:35 PM 7/27/2011, you wrote:
I remember working Oscar 7 back about '81..'82. I homebrewed a stack of 4, 11 element 2m yagis just for the purpose. I used a Kenwood TR-9000 (I think) for the uplink and a Kenwood TS-520s for the downlink. I don't even remember how we used to determine when the passes were but I think it had something to do with info published in QST. Soon after that, life interfered and I was inactive for many years. The most sad thing is that I didn't save my old logbooks. So, If by some odd chance, someone has a record of a contact with WD9JFY on the old bird, please let me know. Hindsight is always 20-20. :-((
Chuck, KM9U (EX WD9JFY)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Guimont" [email protected] To: "Thomas Doyle" [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 16:44 Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Oscar-10
Hello Tom Doyle!
We worked Oscar 8, mode J on 23mar82 at 1520Z...I've got #219 entered in the remarks column, whatever that means, maybe Mode J club??? With a check in the qsl column so I assume we exchanged cards..
So you can count San Diego county if that still works???
Counties to me mean hunting boundaries..
Lots of familiar calls....any other OT's still around??
I have done the same thing with my logbooks over the past 31 years, with quite a few big gaps....FM seems to make sort of a buzzing in my fillings???
If you have not been on satellites for a really long time (> 20 years) you may find this interesting. It explains why us old geezers say the old days were amazing. If you were on decades ago it may bring back memories.
I have been getting back into hamming after a long hiatus and have been listening to the satellites for a month or two while working on a controller project and decided it was time to try and make a contact. Thanks to K4MOA and W5MPC, today I made my first sat contacts in a very long time. A little later I almost made a cw contact (used my trusty old J-38 key) on another sat but lost him. I told you this was interesting and really exciting.
Thought I had better log the contacts and started looking for a logbook. Found a old slightly yellowed logbook with Oscar-10 written on the cover. As a group we hams (including me) are pretty cheap so I had saved this logbook because there were empty pages still left in it. I entered my new contacts on a fresh page (decided to splurge) and then looked back and found it was my first sat contact since 1983. I know you are still waiting for the exciting part.
Here is a typical page from the log. I am in Wisconsin and believe it or not I had pile ups of europeans wanting to work Wisconsin of all things. It was a real thrill. Times change and I now have two grid squares - not sure what they are for but I have two and feel the need for more. There are 29 empty pages left in the logbook so I am good to go. Hope to work you.
http://www.tomdoyle.org/satellite/Amsat-1983.jpg
73 tom... W9KE _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
73, Dave, WB6LLO [email protected] Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
73, Dave, WB6LLO [email protected]
Disagree: I learn....
Pulling for P3E...
I remember using the "Oscarlocator" all the time in those days. http://www.studiorite.com/oldindex/images/OscarLocator1sm.jpg
You could get the info from QST or there was either a weekly or daily Oscasr bullitens put out by W1AW, in CW on all their HF Freqs that they used. I do not remember if the info was also sent in SSB or not. I always copied the CW version.
Joe WB9SBD
The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 7/28/2011 1:48 AM, Dave Guimont wrote:
Our first method of pass determination was with a home made plotter...I still have my original one, and think it is on my website:
http://cid-1973adc8c1d3207c.skydrive.live.com/summary.aspx?sa=140581470
Nothing but a circular plot of the world with a curved arc that represented the path of the satellite....then the time in minutes of the pass marked off to determine AZ/EL. QST had a listing of pass times for the month, very simple, and as you remember we used to have 4,5,6 in a round table permitting about 20 second bites....We gabbed mostly about what we had just homebrewed, and continue the chat on the next pass, or maybe the NEXT DAY!!
Chuck, I'll dig out my old logs and let you know...When I upgraded I kept my old callsign just for the recognition on the sats,a and ease of operation, as you remember it took about four hands!!
At 05:35 PM 7/27/2011, you wrote:
I remember working Oscar 7 back about '81..'82. I homebrewed a stack of 4, 11 element 2m yagis just for the purpose. I used a Kenwood TR-9000 (I think) for the uplink and a Kenwood TS-520s for the downlink. I don't even remember how we used to determine when the passes were but I think it had something to do with info published in QST. Soon after that, life interfered and I was inactive for many years. The most sad thing is that I didn't save my old logbooks. So, If by some odd chance, someone has a record of a contact with WD9JFY on the old bird, please let me know. Hindsight is always 20-20. :-((
Chuck, KM9U (EX WD9JFY)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Guimont"[email protected] To: "Thomas Doyle"[email protected] Cc:[email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 16:44 Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Oscar-10
Hello Tom Doyle!
We worked Oscar 8, mode J on 23mar82 at 1520Z...I've got #219 entered in the remarks column, whatever that means, maybe Mode J club??? With a check in the qsl column so I assume we exchanged cards..
So you can count San Diego county if that still works???
Counties to me mean hunting boundaries..
Lots of familiar calls....any other OT's still around??
I have done the same thing with my logbooks over the past 31 years, with quite a few big gaps....FM seems to make sort of a buzzing in my fillings???
If you have not been on satellites for a really long time (> 20 years) you may find this interesting. It explains why us old geezers say the old days were amazing. If you were on decades ago it may bring back memories.
I have been getting back into hamming after a long hiatus and have been listening to the satellites for a month or two while working on a controller project and decided it was time to try and make a contact. Thanks to K4MOA and W5MPC, today I made my first sat contacts in a very long time. A little later I almost made a cw contact (used my trusty old J-38 key) on another sat but lost him. I told you this was interesting and really exciting.
Thought I had better log the contacts and started looking for a logbook. Found a old slightly yellowed logbook with Oscar-10 written on the cover. As a group we hams (including me) are pretty cheap so I had saved this logbook because there were empty pages still left in it. I entered my new contacts on a fresh page (decided to splurge) and then looked back and found it was my first sat contact since 1983. I know you are still waiting for the exciting part.
Here is a typical page from the log. I am in Wisconsin and believe it or not I had pile ups of europeans wanting to work Wisconsin of all things. It was a real thrill. Times change and I now have two grid squares - not sure what they are for but I have two and feel the need for more. There are 29 empty pages left in the logbook so I am good to go. Hope to work you.
http://www.tomdoyle.org/satellite/Amsat-1983.jpg
73 tom... W9KE _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
73, Dave, WB6LLO [email protected] Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
73, Dave, WB6LLO [email protected] Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hats off to you guys.. working satellites has become much easier with the advent of computerised pass prediction and FM birds. Back in those days it took real brains to work those birds!
73
Pete
2i0VAX
On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Joe [email protected] wrote:
I remember using the "Oscarlocator" all the time in those days. http://www.studiorite.com/oldindex/images/OscarLocator1sm.jpg
You could get the info from QST or there was either a weekly or daily Oscasr bullitens put out by W1AW, in CW on all their HF Freqs that they used. I do not remember if the info was also sent in SSB or not. I always copied the CW version.
Joe WB9SBD
Hi Pete, 2i0VAX
Probably you was not a satellite operator on those early days of OSCAR-10, OSCAR-13 and AO40 and so you cannot understand and realize how much easier it was to operate satellite with respect to the actual FM birds.
No automatic antenna tracking was needed and no automatic doppler compensation was needed to work all Continents for hours with many different stations all at the same time through the above wonderfull HEO satellites, without any interference and it was much and much better than on 20 meters.
OSCAR-10, OSCAR-13 and AO40 was the PHASE III of AMSAT but actually the LEO FM satellites are getting AMSAT many steps back to PHASE I
73" de
i8CVS Domenico
----- Original Message ----- From: "P.H." [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 7:58 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Oscar-10
Hats off to you guys.. working satellites has become much easier with the advent of computerised pass prediction and FM birds. Back in those days it took real brains to work those birds!
73
Pete
2i0VAX
On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Joe [email protected] wrote:
I remember using the "Oscarlocator" all the time in those days. http://www.studiorite.com/oldindex/images/OscarLocator1sm.jpg
You could get the info from QST or there was either a weekly or daily Oscasr bullitens put out by W1AW, in CW on all their HF Freqs that they used. I do not remember if the info was also sent in SSB or not. I always copied the CW version.
Joe WB9SBD
_______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (4)
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Dave Guimont -
i8cvs -
Joe -
P.H.