Amateur Radio satellite HO-68 - operating schedule

Alan Kung, BA1DU has released the latest operating schedule for the amateur radio satellite HO-68 covering January 3-10.

HO-68, also known as Xi Wang 1 (Hope 1), was launched on December 15. It's linear transponder is proving very popular and provided hundreds of SSB and CW contacts over the Christmas-New Year holiday period.

Due to Doppler shift the CW beacon can appear to be up to +/- 9 kHz from its nominal frequency of 435.790 MHz and you need to tune your receiver to follow it during the pass. The beacon has been received on simple antennas such as a ¼ wave ground plane but for best results try a small yagi with about 8 elements.

To reduce the effects of Doppler the SSB transponder is inverting. This means that a LSB signal on the uplink becomes a USB signal on the downlink. You don’t need much power to work through the satellite, many contacts have been made using 5 watts output. Always use the lowest power possible and ensure your downlink signal is never stronger than the beacon.

Newcomers to amateur satellites will find the article 'Getting started on Amateur Radio Satellites' by John Heath G7HIA is well worth reading, see http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/408/168/

Operating Schedule

03 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
16:35...Turn On
India,Middle East Asia, Europe, NA
17:20...Turn Off

03 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
18:35...Turn On
South Africa,Europe,NA,North Pole,North Asia
18:55...Turn Off

04 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
10:30...Turn On
Australia,South Pole, New Zealand
10:55...Turn Off

04 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
13:11...Turn On
Europe,NA,South America
13:45...Turn Off

04 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
16:20...Turn On
India,Middle East Asia, Europe, NA
17:05...Turn Off

04 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
19:50...Turn On
South Africa, NA,North Asia
20:35...Turn Off

05 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
10:20...Turn On
South Pole, Australia,New Zealand,East Asia
10:50...Turn Off

05 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
13:50...Turn On
South Pole, Australia,New Zealand,South Asia
14:02...Turn Off

05 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
16:05...Turn On
India,Middle East Asia, Europe, NA
16:50...Turn Off

05 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
21:20...Turn On
South Africa,Europe,NA,North Pole,North Asia
22:05...Turn Off

06 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
10:00...Turn On
South Pole,Australia, New Zealand,North Asia,
Europe,North Pole
10:45...Turn Off

06 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
11:45...Turn On
South Pole, Australia,New Zealand,Est Asia,
North Asia
12:20...Turn Off

06 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
16:10...Turn On
Europe, North Asia,NA,North Pole,South America
16:35...Turn Off

06 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
19:15...Turn On
South Africa,Middle East Asia,Europe,North Pole,
NA,North Asia
20:00...Turn Off

07 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
11:52...Turn On
South Asia,East Asia,North Asia
12:07...Turn Off

07 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
14:10...Turn On
Europe,NA,North Pole,South America
14:40...Turn Off

07 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
18:55...Turn On
South Africa,Europe,Middle East Asia,NA,North
Pole,North Asia
19:40...Turn Off

07 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
21:45...Turn On
South Africa,Europe,Middle East Asia,NA,North
Pole,North Asia
22:30...Turn Off

08 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
11:36...Turn On
South Asia,East Asia,North Asia
11:51...Turn Off

08 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
12:04...Turn On
Europe,NA,North Africa,South America
12:44...Turn Off

08 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
18:40...Turn On
South Africa,Middle East Asia,Europe,North Pole,
NA,North Asia
19:25...Turn Off

08 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
22:35...Turn On
North Africa,Europe,North Pole,NA,North Asia,East
Asia,North Australia
23:20...Turn Off

09 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
10:55...Turn On
South Pole,Australia,East Asia, North Asia,
Europe,North Pole
11:35...Turn Off

09 Jan. 2010
HO-68 FM and Digital Transponder
11:40...Turn On
North Asia,Europe,North Pole,NA,North Africa,
South America,South Pole
12:20...Turn Off

09 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
16:45...Turn On
India,Middle East Asia, Europe, NA
17:30...Turn Off

09 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
22:05...Turn On
West Africa,East South America,Europe,NA,
North Pole,North Asia
22:50...Turn Off

10 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
10:40...Turn On
South Pole,Australia,New Zealand,East
Asia,North Asia
11:15...Turn Off


10 Jan. 2010
HO-68 Linear Tansponder
11:20...Turn On
North Asia,Europe,NA,South Africa,South
America,South Pole
12:05...Turn Off

Amsat China (CAMSAT):
http://www.camsat.cn/ 

HO-68 video by PA3GUO : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oDgUTHCwg

HO-68 Real Time Tracking (tick draw footprint): http://www.n2yo.com/?s=36122

Getting started on Amateur Radio Satellites PDF http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/408/168/

AMSAT-UK publish a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, that is full of Amateur Satellite information. Join online at https://secure.amsat.org.uk/subs_form/