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| A QSL card from 2004, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the launch of OSCAR-7. (Courtesy AMSAT) |
It's an amazing
story that just keeps getting more amazing. OSCAR-7, part of the first
generation of amateur radio satellites, was launched in 1974 and operated until
its batteries short-circuited in 1981. Twenty-one years later, in 2002, the
satellite incredibly came back to life. AMSAT officials speculate that the
batteries somehow went from a short-circuit condition to open-circuit, allowing
the satellite's solar panels to power its radios when in sunlight.
Ten years after
returning to the air, AO-7 is still going strong, with uplinks on 2 meters and
70 centimeters and downlinks on 10 meters and 2 meters, respectively. It
switches between bands randomly each time it starts up on re-entering sunlight,
and is currently the only amateur satellite providing really long-range
communications. In fact, the AMSAT News Service reports that two new distance
records were recently set via AO-7, with contacts 7849 kilometers (4877 miles)
and then 7903.55 km (4911 mi), just short of the satellite's theoretical
maximum range of 7907 km (4913 mi).
