Use of AO-51 During JOTA

[M5AKA]

The following information from Mike Kingery KE4AZN Amsat Vice President Operations, concerning the availability of the AO-51 satellite during JOTA.
73 Trevor M5AKA
Publicity Manager AMSAT-UK
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Use of AO-51 During JOTA

The annual Boy and Girl Scouts "Jamboree on the Air" Amateur Radio event
is scheduled for 15 and 16 October 2005. #As this is an International
Scouting event, amateur radio stations around the world are invited to
participate. The AO-51 command team is scheduling the satellite for
exclusive use by the Scouts, and Satellite operators communicating with
the Scouts, for this weekend. #Please allow the Scouts the opportunity
to make as many contacts as possible via AO-51 during this short time
period. #Base stations, please remember that most of the JOTA stations
will be portable, so please use minimum power. #The official times for
the JOTA event will be from 1200 UTC on October 15 until 1200 UTC on
October 17, 2005.

For the JOTA weekend, AO-51 will be configured in the Dual FM repeater
mode. This will provide two independent FM repeaters (separate uplink
and downlink frequencies) for use over the weekend. #Both repeaters will
be for use by the JOTA activity. #This mode will run Monday through
Friday before the event to allow amateur satellite stations to
familiarize and test this mode. The configuration of the satellite
frequencies for this mode is listed below.

AO-51 FM repeater #1
Downlink: #435.300 MHz
Uplink: #145.920 MHz with 67hz PL Tone

AO-51 FM repeater #2
Downlink: #435.150 MHz
Uplink: #145.880 MHz with NO PL Tone

Here are some web links for information on the JOTA weekend activity.

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/jota.html
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/ideas.html
http://www.scouting.org/international/jota.html

If your local club has a JOTA activity planned for the weekend please
consider volunteering your services to provide a satellite communication
station for the event.

Thanks for your support and participation.

73, KE4AZN
Echo Command Team
Amsat VP-Operations
-------------------

AMSAT-UK produce a newsletter "Oscar News" which is full of satellite
information. For membership details contact the secretary Jim Heck G3WGM
Tel: +44 (0)1258 453959
E-mail: g3wgm@amsat.org
Website: http://www.uk.amsat.org/
Online Satellite Pass Predictions:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/
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[W9JAB]

This is a very good way to get new hams hope all can help in some way.
JOE
W9JAB

[K0RFD]

A good use for AO-51.

Best of luck to the scouts.

[W2WRX]

Bravo to the AMSAT team ,Great to see such organization helping out with the Boys and Girl Scouts and getting them involved into the amateur radio communication and showing them how important is to educate the young students about radio communication and education of satellites radio systems on how and why we use communication from space satellites to communicate in different modes of aspects.

Who knows.maybe they'll be the next generation of astronauts to be up there having QSO's with them and doing scientific research on medical and technology designs of the future....

So stations out there that will be listening,give them the courtesy of good ham radio practice....
Carl W2WRX !!!!

[KI4GKW]

Well,

I participated in JOTA in 2001, I'm still a scout, almost to eagle. I thought that it was plum darn amazing. Dad was a ham at the time and had never done anything like that. Well here i sit now, thinking about putting up the dual band antenna just for this great event. If you can make this outing, do it, you'll make some kid enthused like I am. Althought we didn't make any contacts during the pass, it was fun to try and I learned alot.

Paul
KI4GKW

[KG4RUL]

In 2003, I brought a simple satellite setup to our JOTA consisting of my Kenwood TS2000X and an Arrow Dual-Band antenna mounted on a camera tripod. Two Scouts had the responsibility of keeping the antenna aimed at the birds while a third Scout read off the Az/El from Satscape.

However, the Alligators were out in full force and our minimal setup was lost in the weeds so to speak. The Scouts quickly became disinterested and the effort did not amount ot one single confirmed contact.

PLEASE, be courteous enough to suppress your need to make ragchew contacts during JOTA! This can be a one-time chance with these kids.

TNX
Dennis KG4RUL http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ko4ma]

Quote[/b] (KG4RUL @ Sep. 29 2005,09:48)]In 2003, I brought a simple satellite setup to our JOTA consisting of my Kenwood TS2000X and an Arrow Dual-Band antenna mounted on a camera tripod. #Two Scouts had the responsibility of keeping the antenna aimed at the birds while a third Scout read off the Az/El from Satscape.

However, the Alligators were out in full force and our minimal setup was lost in the weeds so to speak. #The Scouts quickly became disinterested and the effort did not amount ot one single confirmed contact.

PLEASE, be courteous enough to suppress your need to make ragchew contacts during JOTA! #This can be a one-time chance with these kids.

TNX
Dennis KG4RUL #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Be sure to try the 435.150 (TXA) repeater this time around. This transmitter is normally the digital side, so the "alligators" who don't read the schedule probably won't be here....no tone required on the uplink either.

Good Luck.

73, Drew KO4MA
AO-51 Operations Group

[K4CVR]

Kudos to JOTA! It's a great deal of fun to listen to the Scouts during the event making contacts and so forth. One can feel the magic from many leagues away. Great stuff! #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[WS2L]

I used to be active with JOTA for a few years back in the mid 1980's......We always had loads of fun.

[SQ6IU]

Hear you all on JOTA! Our RADIO SCOUT CLUB SP6YFU is now preparing for this SPECIAL EVENT. Our callsing -> SP0JOTA. We will be glad to make QSO's with all of YOU. Even if you are not scouts.

[PD5DJ]

Also take a look on ON4KST Satellite chat!

Great for making Sat skeds!

http://www.on4kst.com/chat

73' Bjorn PD5DJ