Diwata 2 (PO-101, Philippines-OSCAR 101)

Diwata 2 (PO-101, Philippines-OSCAR 101)

Diwata 2 was developed by the University of the Philippines Dillman and Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the Department of Science and Technology under the PHL-Microsat Program. PHL-Microsat Program was succeeded by STAMINA4Space program and as per their request, AMSAT has designated it as Philippines-OSCAR 101 (PO-101). It is a microsatellite weighing 56 kg and measures 50 cm × 50 cm × 50 cm. It was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. Couple of Japanese Universities also participated in the development. In addition to scientific instruments for other purposes, it has an amateur radio transponder, which is of interest to the Ham radio satellite enthusiasts.

Though I could not locate the specific switching on schedule for the satellite, according to the AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page, it is not always reachable from all locations. There are intermittent red and blue columns on the status page. PO-101 has an altitude of about 600 km and is U/V FM satellite, with uplink on 437.500 MHz downlink on 145.900 MHz. Unlike many other satellites which require a CTSS tone of 67 Hz, PO-101 needs an FM tone of 141.3Hz. Of course, Doppler tracking is needed as well as a directional antenna tracking the movement of the satellite. Though I do track Doppler using Argentinian Amsat webpage, I am yet to achieve a setup for directional antenna tracking the movement of the satellite. For that reason, I have not been successful with PO-101 so far, though I could have contacts through the voice transponders of International Space Station, Tevel 3 and Tevel 7. Moreover, my vertical VHF antenna naturally has higher SWR on UHF than on VHF, limiting my transmissions to short periods on low power for this U/V satellite.

Twitter page of Diwata 2: https://twitter.com/Diwata2PH

QRZ page of DW4TA: https://www.qrz.com/db/DW4TA