Satgen 387 A New Jamsat by GM4IHJ 23 Aug 96 Japanese JAMSAT JAS-2 launched on 17th August 96 and was audible from orbit No 1 , sending telemetry on 435.795 Mhz CW. At first it appeared that JAS-2 was alone, and that its predecessor Fuji Fo20 had been switched off. But by 1610 utc the operating satellite was old Fo20 with JAS-2 not heard if it was there at all. As operating started here in Scotland at 0723 utc on 18th Aug, Fo20 was up and it reappeared next orbit at 0913 utc in its regular JA analog mode. Then at 0944 utc Jas-2 came in range of GM also on mode JA and it was still in that mode one orbit later at 1126 utc. By 1314utc however JAS-2 had switched to mode JD digital , sending BPSK at 1200 bps on 435.910 Mhz plus or minus about 10 Khz of doppler shift. For the rest of the day Fo20 was mode JA and JAS-2 was mode JD. But more recently both satellites have been using mode JA , with JAS-2s transponder being used by radio amateurs, though it was not clear at IHJ whether this was in fact supposed to happen , until JAMSAT declared the satellite open. Clearly JAS-2 is in a slightly different orbit from its predecessor , with a different right ascension so that its orbits follow roughly the same path as Fo20s but at a later time of day. One thing which was very clear when the JAS-2 transponder came on , was that it does not have the repeats of its CW beacon which appear in the transponder band on Fo20. Though IHJ was confused at one time when tracking JAS-2 in mode JA analog with clear BPSK in the transponder band. A quick check on other possible sources soon identified this other signal as the downlink from Io26 Itamsat. Which could give slight problems to users of either satellite when they appear in your sky together. Happily the mode JA transponder band is wide so the presence there of the Io26 BPSK should not be too troublesome. But not so the pirate uplinks coming up on 2m as JAS-2 passes over Europe. At 1215 utc the JAS-2 transponder pass band just above the beacon featured a clutch of at least 5 pirates . So these look as if they could be a problem as one or two of them appear to have very high power . As JAMSAT have reported , you should be able to access the JD mode using simple packet protocol software and modems ( albeit with BPSK reception facilities). As yet none of the orbits in range of Scotland have been copied whilst using the alternative 9600 bps FSK packet communication feature which JAS-2 can provide. Whether this 9600 bps facility has a simple communications protocol , or whether it requires the more comple PBG family of software or WiSP, is not yet clear . But one thing is for sure, we look like having an excellent mode J satellite in our skies for many years to come. The first IHJ mode J qso was with DD1QS followed by DD2WN , courtesy of Jamsats Oscar 8J transponder on 29 April 1978. So we only need 20 more months of JAS-2 and that will be 20 years . My very grateful thanks to all at Jamsat for making this happen.