Satgen 178      More on Digisat Usage   by GM4IHJ           23rd August 92

Recent remarks in Satgen 177 , concerning possible types of usage of the
Arsene digipeater, have produces several interesting replies.

1. Dx expedition lands on Ungalapongo , a previously undiscovered sandbank
in the China Sea, which recently acquired DXCC status. The intrepid
explorers start to set up HF rigs and antennas various, but give priority
to a satellite digipeater link to Arsene. The reason being, that through
this link they can immediately reach half the DX packet clusters in the
world which possess simple Arsene downlinks.
Through Arsene the sandbank sitters can orchestrate the distribution of
QSO's for the DX hungry millions of the Amateur Radio world. If you have
not got an Arsene link on your DX cluster you miss out. If you have one,
DX becomes as easy as falling off the proverbial log.

2. Another idea suggests that suitably equiped terrestrial packet bulletin
boards will be able to monitor Arsene for timely warning from stations to
their east of likely Aurora or other VHF DX opportunities.

3. Taking the Arsene possibilities much further it is possible that it
could provide a means of access to some hither to impossible experiments.
One which comes to mind is SID VHF DX. SIDs Sudden Ionospheric
Disturbances occur several times a year when a massive explosion on the
Sun produces a flood of high speed Gamma rays which rapidly ionise the D
and E layers to the point were all HF ionospheric propagation ceases over
the Earth's sunlit hemisphere.  The intruiging question is " What happens
to the F layer". Surely it must be ionised to very high levels perhaps to
the point where it will refract VHF signals. Up to now this has not
mattered because we had no way of warning people that an SID had occurred.
Now we probably can via Arsene. Perhaps alerting ground  stations to
listen for possible VHF DX particularly at stations on the earth's night
side and around the terminator. Is 50 MHz DX possible at Solar Min via
SIDs ? Is the Mir and SAREX amateur radio audible around the world in SID
conditions ?

Clearly the possibilities raised by simultaneous nearly complete
hemisphere coverage from Arsene afford the opportunity to use it like an
old fashioned "Town Crier or Herald" who stood at the centre of things and
gave out the news. Indeed simply "reading the mail " on Arsene's single
channel digipeater may be a very absorbing passs time. IF WE GET IT
PROPERLY ORGANISED .

KITSAT. Have had mixed results monitoring Kitsat. Up to 17th August I got
good 9600 signals marred by very deep regular fading at a roughly 33
second peak to peak periodicity. Then 17th and 18th I got excellent steady
signals. But after being absent getting my hand repaired on the 19th and
20th, I caught up with Kitsat again on the 21st only to find I had a very
strong signal but no sign of packet keying at either 9600 or 1200 bps.
Will watch it this coming weekend to see if I can work out what is going
on . 73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN