Satgen 392    Analog Satellite Operating   by GM4IHJ       28 Sept 96

Oscar Ten continues to work reasonably well. But there has clearly
been some confusion amongst operators who thought they were accessing
Oscar 13, but were if fact operating on Oscar Ten whilst Oscar 13 was
below their horizon. Oscar 13s higher doppler rate and spin modulation
presently make it a less useful satellite than Oscar 10, for voice
QSOs. But it is not clear how much longer Oscar 10 will see enough
sunlight on its solar panel to continue to operate usefully.

It has been suggested by GM4JJJ that the key clicks on Oscar 10s
transponder and beacon are from the infamous Pave Pause radar at
Fylingdale in Yorkshire England. This is bourne out by the observation
at IHJ that the clicks are not audible when Oscar 10 is in range of
Scotland but out of range of Yorkshire. This radar has been a problem
for some years now on almost all 70cm uplinks over Europe and the
difficulties are likely to continue with Phase 3D.

September has meanwhile been a superb month for RS12 sub horizon
chasers. AL7JK has been hearing ZP and South Americans, from his
Alaskan QTH. ZL2VAL in North Island New Zealand has heard North
Americans and UA4, as RS12 passed east of New Zealand heading south,
and stations in Southern Africa have been heard and worked in Europe. 
With the best at IHJ being a 20 second burst of RS12 beacon telemetry
as the satellite overflew the Antarctic ice cap at 81S 222W on 24 Sept

What has been striking about many of these contacts is that they
occured not when the satellite was between the DX in one hemisphere ,
and the contact station in the other hemisphere . But was located pole
ward of one of the stations ie either near the south or north pole
often far removed from any common great circle path. Eg contacts in
Scotland , England and Alaska have occured when the DX was in the
southern hemisphere but the satellite was north of the northern
hemisphere station. 

Some of the signal are clear tone 9, whilst others are distinctly
auroral tone 3 or 4. This despite the fact that there have been no
major auroras this month, with the best at IHJ being a short duration
auroral event on September 19th. Checking the Solar and Auroral
bulletins on Internet has indicated that many of these events occured
in relatively quiet magnetic conditions rarely reaching Kp Planetary
Magnetic Index 2. 

It is clear therefore that we still have no firm picture of how these
events fit the pattern of Solar , Solar Wind and Ionopheric variation.
Hopefully we will have the RS satellites around for a few years more
as we begin to see a climb in Solar activity, but it would be nice to
know that someone somewhere is actively pursuing the manufacture and
launch of replacement mode A and mode K satellites.