YOTA Month: Book Your GB25YOTA Operating

Youngsters on the Air Month takes place in December, and the RSGB would love you to take part in this annual event. Special call sign GB25YOTA will be active throughout the month. Whether you are an individual, club, school, university or social group, this is a fantastic opportunity to host the call sign and get young radio amateurs active on the amateur bands. The Society would love to see Scouts, Girlguiding and Cadet groups taking part too.

The YOTA Month Coordinator has changed the procedure for booking operating slots this year, so it is easier to see availability. Go to rsgb.org/yota-month and click on the schedule to see which slots are free. These aren’t fixed and can be adjusted to suit your timings. You’ll then need to email RSGB YOTA Month Coordinator Jamie, M0SDV, via yota.month@rsgb.org.uk to register as a GB25YOTA host and book your slot. Jamie can also help with any questions about taking part for the first time. The Society is aiming for the call sign to be hosted every day during December to enable more youngsters to have a taste of amateur radio.

Is AO-7 Still the Oldest Satellite?

AMSAT-OSCAR 7, or AO-7, is the second Phase 2 amateur radio satellite constructed by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). It was launched into Low Earth Orbit on 15 November 1974 and remained operational until a battery failure in 1981. After 21 years of apparent silence, the satellite was heard again on 21 June 2002 – 27 years after launch, and it continues to be used by amateurs daily even now. For a couple of decades, AMSAT has been able to proudly boast that this bird is the oldest operating satellite in space.

However, that record has been challenged. After 47 years of silence, LES-1, a satellite launched by the U.S. Air Force and MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in 1965, began transmitting again. Its signals were detected by Phil Williams, G3YPQ, from North Cornwall in southwest England on 18 December 2012, verified by other members of the Hearsat group, Flávio A. B. Archangelo, PY2ZX, in Brazil on 22 December 2012, and Matthias Bopp, DD1US, in Germany on 27 December 2012.

According to Williams, LES-1 was determined to be tumbling with a rotation rate of once every four seconds, as determined by distinctive fading of the signals. It is possible that, after 47 years, the batteries failed in a manner that allows them to carry charge directly through to the transmitter on 237 MHz, allowing the satellite to resume transmissions when it is in sunlight. The satellite continues to be operational as tracked by the SatNOGS network.

Latvia’s Hams Honor Nation’s First Broadcast Radio at 100

The broadcast and the amateur radio worlds have often overlapped, especially sharing many of the same people behind the microphone or behind the scenes. In Latvia, hams are taking part in a celebration that marks 100 years of that nation's first radio station. 

The hams who were calling CQ as YL100LR until the 2nd of November were sharing the story of Rigas Radiofons, which went on the air in 1925 with a 2 kW transmitter, two 45-meter-high antenna towers and equipment purchased from France. From its studio inside a post office building in Riga city, the state-owned station began its life on the air with a two-hour broadcast that included the Puccini opera, "Madame Butterfly", and a speech by Minister of Transport J. Pauluks.

The evolution of radio broadcasting in Latvia is closely tied to that of amateur radio there: When the Latvian Radio Society helped create the Radio Subscribers Law, they created a category for radio experimenters who eventually became the nation's hams. From the start, hams were big supporters of the newly created broadcast station. In fact, by 1926, a spare transmitter at the station was being used for ham radio communications. The relationship remains strong to this day, and many amateur radio operators in Latvia are also broadcast radio professionals.