AO-51 Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Special Event 20th July 2009

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing AMSAT-NA arranged for a number of ground stations to transmit, via AO-51, a short compilation of audio sound bites and a SSTV image in acknowledgement of that great achievement 40 years ago.

The transmissions were scheduled for early evening on the 20th July 2009 which meant that the UK and Europe were some of the first to receive them.

The UK was well placed with an almost overhead pass at 17.22 utc.

To the credit of the uplink station, Dave (G1OCN), this produced excellent signals for virtually the whole pass although there was some QRM on the L Band uplink frequency later identified by Graham Shirville, G3VZV, as the aeronautical high power radars with which we share the band.

Several UK stations reported receiving strong signals including Ken (GW1FKY), Andy (G0SFJ) and myself but the best report came from Angel (EA4DUT) who, during the previous pass over Europe, describes receiving an excellent signal on his home-made arrow antenna at his vacation site by the Mediterranean shore at JN00DF in Spain.

With a maximum elevation of only 8 degrees he recorded the voice and SSTV transmission as the satellite passed above his deep sea blue horizon....

Our thanks and appreciation goes to all those involved in making this event happen and, of course, to the many thousands whose achievements 40 years ago allowed two men to stand on the Moon.

David Barber, G8OQW