|
Fall 2004 Issue |
|
|
SATELLITES The First Days of AO-51 . . . and more |
|
|
First let me introduce myself. I was first licensed in August of 1953 as WNØQMG in Dodge City, Kansas. I listened for, but did not hear, Sputnik I in October of 1957. College at Kansas State University and the start of my career in Aerospace and Airborne Avionics Systems at General Dynamics (later Lockheed Martin Aeronautics) kept me away from the amateur radio satellites until 1982, just before the launch of AO-10. Since 1982, these satellites have become a major part of my life. Involvement in the amateur radio satellite program is the best way I can think of to combine radio communication technology with computer technology and gain first-hand knowledge about the space program.
My RF interests have moved from HF to VHF,
UHF, and on to the microwaves. Computer knowledge has grown from a little
FORTRAN programming at work to using computers to do orbital prediction,
station control, telemetry processing, digital imaging, etc. Best of all,
I have had fun and learned a lot in the process! The Summer 2004 issue of CQ VHF had an excellent article on the launch of AO-51 by Lee McLamb, KU4OS, entitled “From ECHO to OSCAR 51.” Since the launch on 29 June 2004 much progress has been made. Checkout of all basic hardware, verification of power budget, software loading, and functional inter-operability testing by the command stations occupied the first month in orbit.
Click here to return to Fall 2004 highlights Click here to subscribe to VHF _________________ © Copyright 2004, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.
|
 Operating AO-51 in the driveway from W5IU’s mini-van. |