Satgen 16 19th July 89 Packsats are Coming. Between November 89 and July 90 , five Packet Radio store and forward satellites , are planned to be launched. They are :- Pacsat built by Amsat North America Lusat built by Amsat Argentina Webersat built by Weber State College Ogden Utah Uosat DE built by the University of Surrey Jas 1B built by Amsat Japan The first 3 should launch on Ariane with the primary payload Spot II , going into almost identical near circular, sun synchronous orbits at a nominal altitude of 822 kms and an orbital period of about 101 minutes. In this orbit they will pass overhead at about 1030 and 2230 local time, giving UK stations about 10 opportunities per day to use each satellite for about 8 minutes. Uplinks will be 2m FM 145.84 to 145.96 ,20 KHz apart with each sat using only one channel. Modulation will be FSK 1200 or 4800 bps . The 1200 baud Manchester FSK will be compatible with Fuji Oscar 12 Modems. Downlinks will be 437.025 to 437.150 spaced 25 KHz apart. Both straight BPSK and, raised cosine modulation will be available ( but not at the same time ). These signals will be receivable by ground stations using Fuji Oscar 12 PSK demodulators, but they will not demodulate on a standard TNC unless it is supplemented by a Fuji Modem. Uosat D and E will also launch with Spot II and these Microsat Packsats. It too will carry store and forward packet capability. JAS 1B , the successor to Oscar 12, will have a separate launch from Japan sometime in 1990. Its equipment complement will be an improved version of that used in Oscar 12. Once these satellites are up, and their capabilities are known, it is anticipated that they will have at least two types of users. Firstly, dedicated International traffic stations feeding to and from existing terrestrial networks. Secondly , ordinary casual users, most of whom will not have dedicated satellite access facilities, but will access via normal terrestrial packet nets which connect to special "Satellite Gateways". This sort of facility will not appear overnight. Indeed there will undoubtedly be lots of problems , but whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting. Pre launch activity at IHJ, is concentrating on two areas. Firstly developing good omni directional 437 MHz reception. Very few Radio Amateurs have ever achieved good results on UHF satellites. The IHJ log from 1978 Oscar 8J , through Fuji Oscar 12 and Oscar 13 JL, to the present,contains only 180 callsigns, with the same ones repeating time and time again. So do not assume you will get good Packsat reception after a couple of hours. Polar Bear 435.9744 MHz is a good test vehicle for reception tests, now that Oscar 12 is only available very infrequently.Secondly, work is already well advanced on the design of gateway software. IHJ's trials and tribulations will be described, as they happen, here in Satgen bulletins. 73 de GM4IHJ 19th July 89