Satgen 160 MORE SATELLITE QRM by GM4IHJ 19th April 92 Hopefully, most readers will have seen DB2OS's additional remarks to my Satgen 159 about interference and possibly other problems with RM1 and Oscar 13. Lots of Amateurs seem to be reporting interference and the RM1 controllers clearly have a big problem, but at the moment we seem to be rather short of useful clues. RM1 went off the air again sometime Wedneday/Thursday 15/16 April 92. The controllers had reset it ON, the previous Sunday night, ( and report they will try to do this every Suday night). They have programmed it to send a very simple repeating 5 minute menu consisting of 3 minutes of digital voice using the immortal tones of HAL the computer in Arthur Clarke's Odyssey 2001 , intoning " I am completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly ". This is followed by 2 minutes of 400bps Oscar 13 type telegraphy , then HAL comes on again for the next 5 minute cycle. What is important is that anyone hearing this RM1 145.987 MHz beacon go off suddenly. Should note the time UTC and the date, and report this and their station location data , to :- DB2OS @ DK0MAV by terrestrial packet or via Uo22 or to DG2CV @ DK0MWX " " " " " " " This last week RM1 was heard at IHJ from Monday am to 1441 on Wednesday 15th, then I had to go across GM to the MACPAC meeting. When I next looked at 1127ut on 16th RM1 was not transmitting on 145.987 MHz. So something took it off. If you hear radar on satellite uplink or downlinks, Do not simply report RADAR heard. It is easy to get clues from radar. WHAT IS ITS AZIMUTH BRG WHAT IS THE REPETITION RATE OF ITS PULSES ( between 50 - 1000 per second?) WHAT IS ITS BANDWIDTH AND CENTRE FREQUENCY ( use AM or FMwide for best Rx) IS ITS ANTENNA SWINGING PAST YOU , OR IS IT STATIONARY ( electronic scan) DOES IT FADE, THEN REAPPEAR AT RANDOM OR DISCRETE INTERVALS All these feature can be recognised by EAR. If you have a scope you can also get pulse length and discover whether the pulse has internal frequency modulation. GIVEN THESE "FINGERPRINT" CHARACTERISTICS ANY RADAR CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS TO TYPE AND PROBABLE OWNER. Please remember it does not have to be military . In USA NOAA use Wind Shear radars on 449MHz . Over the Arctic Ocean Experimental Auroral and Ionospheric radars are operating from Sonderstrom Greenland, Tromso Norway , and have operated from Sweden and UK. If you add the known military installations at Fylingdale UK, Thule Greenland, East ,South and Western USA, plus a group of experimental radars and Ionosphere heaters in Alaska. You will appreciate why DB2OS and the other RM1 controllers need all the help you can give them. So please do not sit back . Put a receiver on 145.987. Remember it is not just the satellite boys who will lose out if this continues. These problems afflict the packet satellites which bring terrestrial packeteers their international bulletins. So we all have a stake in finding out what is causing this. 73 de John GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN