[amsat-bb] W6OI Secial Event operation by N5AFV - Sunday May 30th

["Allen F. Mattis" <afmattis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Last year the W6OI special event operation held along with the annual Ten 
Ten International Hill Country Picnic was a great success.  This year's 
Hill Country Picnic will be held on Sunday, May 30th, at the home of Jack, 
K5CC, in Bulverde, Texas. My wife, Anita, and I will be driving from 
Houston to Bulverde to attend the picnic. Jack has again authorized me to 
use the Ten Ten International club station, W6OI, to work satellite passes 
during the drive to Bulverde. I will try to operate the morning passes of 
SO-50 at 1418 UTC and 1558 UTC. Depending on when we leave, operation will 
be from grid squares EL29, EL19 or EL09. A W6OI special event QSL card will 
be available for those making satellite contacts with me during this 
operation. QSL directly to N5AFV.

Ten Ten International was organized to promote amateur radio activity on 
the ten meter band. Most of you know that the 10 meter band was used for 
satellite downlinks in the earlier days of satellite communications. 
Unfortunately, during a solar storm in 2002 we lost RS 12/13, the last 
fully operational satellite using the 10 meter band. Two other amateur 
radio satellites still use 10 meters for a downlink. RS-15 is difficult to 
hear because of a weak downlink signal, and is described by AMSAT as being 
"semi-operational". Recent reports from amateur radio operators during the 
past month indicate that RS-15 appears to be failing rapidly. AO-7, which 
was launched in 1974, went silent in 1981 due to failure of a battery cell. 
The satellite miraculously came back to life and is operational at times 
when its solar cells are in sunlight. It is amazing that amateur radio 
operators are making contacts on a satellite launched into orbit 30 years ago.

For information about last year's Ten Ten International Hill Country Picnic 
and the associated W6OI special event operation, see my amateur radio web 
page at www.qsl.net/n5afv .  I thank Ten Ten International for supporting 
this special event operation.

Allen N5AFV
Houston, TX
AMSAT 33213


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