The Bromley and District Amateur Radio Society

Amateur Radio satellite Oscar 7 still going strong after 32 years
by AMSAT

Oscar 7 was launched on 15th November 1974 but despite the loss of it's Nicad batteries it's still providing excellent service when the solar panels are illuminated by the sun.

Note it's 70cm uplink is 432.125 - 432.175 MHz because when it was built the 435-438 ITU Amateur Satellite Service allocation didn't exist!

Drew KO4MA posted the following report to the AMSAT Bulletin Board:

Yesterday afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of working some DX on AO-7 mode B from here in subtropical Florida.

I caught a 4 degree max pass to the northeast that eventually covered a good bit of northwestern Europe, and had the pleasure to catch G1WPR in IO93 finishing up with K3SZH. Signals were 55 with some QSB on my uplink, probably due to all the energy wasted in heating the neighborhood palm trees. My QTH does not have what anyone could consider a clear horizon!

As I was going LOS, I also heard I believe W3JZ working G1WPR. At the time the footprint extended across the US from Idaho to Central Florida, and just about all of Canada, so the opportunity to work some satellite DX is there for many.

The 24 hour timer continues to change modes while the satellite is in continuous illumination, with the mode change occurring around 1130 UTC.

Eclipses return April 3rd, 2007, and we expect the timer to be interrupted near this date. A good website to check to quickly find out what mode it is in can be found at: http://oscar.dcarr.org/