SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS004<br />ARLS004 SaudiSat 1-A (SO-41) now available for amateur use<br /><br />ZCZC AS04<br />QST de W1AW<br />Space Bulletin 004 ARLS004<br />From ARRL Headquarters<br />Newington, CT April 9, 2002<br />To all radio amateurs<br /><br />SB SPACE ARL ARLS004<br />ARLS004 SaudiSat 1-A (SO-41) now available for amateur use<br /><br />SaudiSat 1-A (SO-41) now is reported open for Amateur Radio<br />communication. According to information received by AMSAT-NA<br />President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, SO-41 has been configured for FM<br />voice repeater operation.<br /><br />Turki Al Saud, director of the Space Research Institute in Riyadh,<br />Saudi Arabia--the satellite's sponsoring agency--told AMSAT-NA that<br />SO-41 will automatically enable its UHF transmitter over Saudi<br />Arabia and the US for approximately 20 minutes each pass. The<br />spacecraft reportedly is configured for Mode J, with a VHF uplink of<br />145.850 MHz and a UHF downlink of 436.775 MHz. The spacecraft will<br />operate in this mode intermittently, as power and spacecraft<br />experiments permit, the announcement said.<br /><br />SO-41's downlink RF power is 1 W with left-hand circular<br />polarization. The uplink antenna--located atop the spacecraft--is<br />linear in polarization. Experiments and software development<br />continue with SaudiSat 1-B (SO-42), and that satellite is not yet<br />available to amateurs.<br /><br />SaudiSat 1A and 1B were launched along with TIUNGSAT-1 on September<br />26, 2000, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, aboard a converted Soviet<br />ballistic missile. Both satellites have been in various stages of<br />commissioning since then.<br />NNNN<br />/EX