FOX-1B (RADFXSAT AO-91) Amateur Radio Satellite

FOX-1B (RADFXSAT AO-91) Amateur Radio Satellite

AO-91 was a favourite ‘bird’ among the FM Amateur Radio LEO Satellite operators earlier. Many of them still keep the audio recordings of their contacts through AO-91. Though AO-91 was thought to be inactive by many, it is not so. It is still active during daylight passes. Argentinian Amsat website which we use for manual Doppler tracking specifically mentions: “Don’t use at night” for AO-91, due to the poor battery status. Today I was able to hear someone on AO-91 for a short period during a daytime pass in our region. I could also hear the YL synthesizer voice announcement as the satellite beacon.

Of course if you use a directional cross yagi pointed in the azimuth and elevation of the satellite, you will hear it much better. But currently I do not have such a setup. I have only one antenna and one full duplex radio, with manual tracking of Doppler using the live display on Argentinian Amsat website. AO-91 is a U/V satellite with uplink frequency 435.250 MHz, requiring 67 Hz CTCSS tone and downlink frequency 145.960 MHz, with of course a need for Doppler tracking like all LEO satellites. AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page shows that the satellite is active intermittently, possibly because of the low battery status.