UO-14
Satellite Declared Dead
NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 11, 2003--The UO-14
satellite has been declared officially dead. The Mission Control Centre at the
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) Center for Satellite Engineering
Research reports that the venerable and popular bird "has reached the end of
its mission after nearly 14 years in orbit." Launched in 1990, UoSAT-OSCAR-14
pioneered the PACSAT communication concept as the first 9.6 kbps Amateur Radio
data communications satellite, although it became best known in recent years as
an FM "easy sat" repeater.
"Since launch, UO-14 has completed over
72,000 orbits and as many charge/discharge cycles of its on-board NiCd
battery," said AMSAT-UK Chairman Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. "However recently one
of the battery cells has become exhausted and can no longer support continuous
operation of the repeater." Sweeting said UO-14's transmitter shuts down
shortly after it is commanded "on" due to undervoltage, so the microsatellite's
mission has been terminated.
"Thank you UO-14 for your long service!"
Sweeting concluded.
AMSAT-NA Board
Member Bruce Paige, KK5DO, an enthusiastic UO-14 user, called the AMSAT-UK
announcement "sad news." He said the lost of UO-14 leaves amateurs with SO-41
and SO-50 as the only two LEO FM voice satellites now in operation, although he
noted that the planned 2004 launches of the OSCAR-ECHO and VUSAT could help
fill in the void.
The popular and heavily used FM satellite
quit working in August, but hope remained within the amateur satellite
community that UO-14 somehow could be revived. Ground controller Chris Jackson,
G7UPN, at one point was able to reset the satellite, but he later determined
that UO-14 had suffered a primary power system failure that was causing the spacecraft
to shut down during some eclipses.
 Operators
using handheld transceivers often were able to make QSOs via UO-14. Here ARRL
Headquarters staffer Joe Bottiglieri, AA1GW, works UO-14 with a handheld
dualband transceiver and the popular Arrow antenna. |
During its active lifetime, UO-14 served
several roles. After some 18 months in orbit as a PACSAT, UO-14 was switched to
non-amateur frequencies for humanitarian use by Volunteers
In Technical Assistance, which used it for messaging into Africa. After the
store-and-forward communications computer proved no longer able to perform that
task, UO-14 was turned back to amateur use as a single-channel FM voice
repeater, the role for which it was best known. UO-14 worked as an "FM bent
pipe repeater satellite" in full duplex mode.
Click here to listen to the UO-14 downlink on a busy
pass. [1:28] (Thanks to Steve Ford, WB8IMY, for providing this audio clip.) |
|
UO-14 again served a humanitarian role in
early 2001 when hams assisting with earthquake relief operations in the Indian
State of Gujarat took advantage of the satellite to provide communication from
the stricken region.
The beauty of UO-14 was that it required
minimal gear to make contacts--typically 5 W and modest antennas would do the
trick. Operators with dualband handheld transceivers and "rubber duckie" antennas
often could make QSOs via UO-14.
AMSAT-NA has said that its new ECHO
satellite, planned for launch next March 31, will take over the role of the now-defunct
AO-27 and UO-14 low-Earth-orbiting satellites.
Page last modified: 08:06 AM, 12 Nov 2003 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2003, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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