AMSAT-1 VO-52 - Dutch Amateur Radio transponder switched on

The Dutch transponder onboard VO-52 has been activated and is working well producing strong signals.

It uses these frequencies:
Uplink : 435.225MHz to 435.275MHz LSB/CW
Downlink: 145.875MHz to 145.925MHz USB/CW
Beacon : 145.860MHz 12WPM with CW message

The following emails about the switch-on have been posted by William PE1RAH and Mani VU2WMY.

73 Trevor M5AKA

This morning I woke up some earlier than normal to listen to the HAMSAT-1 (VO-52) downlink, to hear if my
transponder was switched on.

Tuning on 145.860MHz I could clearly hear the CW beacon with the message I programmed in it. The whole CW beacon and transponder survived those 6 months in space without any problems :o)

I had only a short pass off ~2 minutes, but I was able to check the main signals and I even worked ES1RF. He is my first station via my own transponder in space, many thanks to him for all the waiting.

I hope you all have lot of fun with it and can use it for your experiments and qso's.

Please also listen to the CW beacon on 145.860MHz.

73 de PE1RAH
William Leijenaar

Message from VU2WMY

Hi all,
CONTRATS WILLIAM, PE1RAH. Your long wait is over.

As a member of the Payload On Orbit Testing & Evaluation team and on behalf of Raghavendra VU3GTI (Committee member), I wish to inform with great pleasure that the second payload ( Dutch transponder built by William PE1RAH) was switched ON this morning at 10:34 hrs IST.

The Command for payload switch over from the Indian to the Dutch transponder was issued from ISTRAC (ISRO Tracking Ranging and Command Network) Bangalore.

Again it was VU2POP, the first station for me to work through the Dutch Transponder from ISTRAC. Congrats to you POP. Of course, I managed to work VU2GUR Guru and VU2RMS Ramesh also during the testing. The CW message beacon was really strong.The second pass was also monitored and the initial measurements and the test results indicates the normal performance.

In the mean time, we look farward the feedbacks from the Hams all over the World and the same can be posted on the Amsat-India web site. Two of my collegues Amal VU2GDX and Durai VU2DUC were also with us in the control room during this great event.

On behalf of the entire HAMSAT project team in ISRO, I thank William PE1RAH (Dutch Transponder designer), members & office bearers of AMSAT-INDIA OM Suby VU2UV President, Ramesh VU2RMS Vice-President, Prathap (POP) VU2POP Secretary, Kumar VU2BGS and all others who contributed to this project for this grand sucess. I also thank Project Director Mr.J.P.Gupta and the entire ISRO team for the job done well.

73 de Mani.VU2WMY
Secretary & Station-In-Charge
Upagrah Amateur Radio Club. VU2URC
ISRO Satellite Centre
Bangalore.

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