This arrived on the ANS-Editor list and is probably better handled on the amsat-bb so here it is ...

Subject: [ans-editor] Re: Request for help with ECHO 70 rig that could put me back on ham satellites

Dear amigos : I am new to this list. My very good friend CO6CBF Hector asked me to make a comeback into the ham satellites world. I found an ECHO 70 KLM transceiver that was in bad shape, but that could be repaired. Now it is receiving , but on transmit the power is only 1 Watt. The receive sensitivity is not great, but enough for Hector to make a two way contact with it... Hector has a very good 70 cms band antenna system that really helped. The 70 cms signal level at the input of the first of two output filters is 10 Watts, measured with professional test instruments, but after the filters there is only 1 Watt. I suggested to Hector that he blew hot air over the ceramic trimmers of the two filters in order to remove humidity ... It worked on one of the filters... now there is good power output on the 435 megaHertz segment , but 432 megaHertz is still at the low power output level. FYI, we are not authorized to operate on the 432 megaHertz segment used by the Oscar 7 AO7 ancient satellite... but do have permission to operate on the 435 megaHertz segment that other satellites use. We are looking forward to a rules changes that will allow us to use the 432 mHz segment soon. Any information about the ECHO 70 KLM transceiver that can be found will be most useful, as once the rig is in good working conditions it will be used frequently from my EL83td grid square location in downtown Havana, and possibly by mini dx satellite expeditions to other nearby grid squares too. If the files that contain the information about the ECHO 70 KLM rig are large, please send them to: arnaldo.coro at gmail dot com

Thanks in advance for your help and hope to make many new friends in my return to the amateur satellites world after many years of absence * I am from the days of Oscar 7, RS 10 and RS 12 and RS 15 * !!!!

73 and DX Arnie Coro CO2KK: