D68RS – Satellite Activity October 1994

Dxing via Satellite - a chance for "nocoders".

1. The Announcement

From OCT 21 until NOV 11, 1994 I'm going to stay with my wife on the GRANDE COMORE - main island of the REPUBLIQUE FEDERALE ISLAMIQUE DES COMORES.

We are there for vacation, but - as you can imagine - I would like to become qrv on satellites OSCAR 13/(10 ?) a bit. This is not a new one on satellites - 1990 D68GA was qrv from about the same location on the island. But I think there is a lot of guys who were not qrv atthat time or missed Don for what reason so ever. I have applied for a licence, but do not have one in hand. So I need to go tothe TELECOM in Moroni after arrival. If I'm lucky to get a licence the earliest date to show up is saturday 22 Oct in the evening.

The circumstances are unfortunately not too good during these 3 weeks :

If the power budged allows the transponder will be on from MA 150 to 030. But this schedule may be shortened on lack of sufficient solar power.And as far as OSCAR 10 is concerned I have no idea whether this one will be usable again during that time ( it is not under control anymore ).

So all I can promise is to try. In case everything is ok ( licence, place to put the antenna up, transponder "on"-time, ... ) here are the details :

CALL : D68RS ( ?? )

IOTA : AF-007

WAZ : 39

ITU: 53

QTH: LH28EH -- Mitsamiouli - Grande Comore Republique Federale Islamique des Comores

QSL: DC8TS -- direct with SASE ( return postage for overseas is 2 US$ ) or via the DL-QSL-Bureau

2. The Results

15NOV94

Call: D68RS

Op.: DC8TS

QRV: 25.10.94 - 10.11.94

Sat.: AO-10 & AO-13

QTH: Mitsamiouli, Grande Comore - LH28EH

WAZ : 39

ITU: 53

IOTA: AF-007

Handicaps :

Schedule AO-13

Availability of AO-10

Radio horizon for satellite operation

Equipment :

RX : FT290R + LNA145-preamp -- TX : TR851E + 4M70G PA ( 60 Watts ) -- Antenna : JBEAM 6X/2m - X12/ 70cm

After arrival in the hotel we got a very nice room with no radio horizon. So I tried and got a day later another room in the upper floor with a balcony towards east ( palm trees allowing operation for elevation > 20 degs ). This balcony allowed to work between AZM 10 to AZM 170.There was only a very limited chance to work towards the west. To do so I had to put the antenna on the gangway which was the only way to the rooms in the upper floor and was also used for fire escape.I could block this gangway only between midnight and morning hoping that nobody was returning later to his room.

I did that 3 times : 29.10.94 ( NA ), 31.10.94 ( SA ) and tried another time for NA on 9.11.94 - every time from MA 150 onward.On the 9.11.94 I was qrv at 0310 local time ( MA 150 ) but could hear only the beacon. No station was heard and I could not tune to my own signal. I was believing that there was a schedule change and went to bed again. ( You should keep in mind that this was vacation - not a dxpedition and my wife could not sleep when I was qrv during the night !! - Besides that I was hoping all the time not to wake up other people in the next rooms by talking too loud into the microphone. )

Keeping the above in mind here are the results :

	*OSCAR-10*	*OSCAR-13*		*OSCAR-10*	*OSCAR-13*
*Prefix*	*Number*	*Number*	Prefix	*Number*	*Number*
4S	1		PA	1	8
A4		1	PY		2
CT		1	RV	1	1
DL	5	52	S5		1
F	1	4	SM		2
G	1	2	TI		1
GW	1	2	VE		4
I	1	6	VK		1
JA	8	25	W		19
LX	1		YO		1
OE		5	ZL		4
OH		2	ZS	3
OZ	2	2

And as a summary : -> Worked : WAC / 25 DXCC countries

That is not much but compared with all my handicaps not too bad. Surprisingly enough that there is a great number of Europeen countries not in my log.