Kasungu National Park (KH66NW)

At 16:16 UTC on Saturday 24th June 2023 Eddy (OE3SEU) a radio amateur from Austria who was travelling Africa in a camper made camp in the Kasungu National Park and made contact with a number of radio amateurs in Europe via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 satellite transponder using the callsign 7Q5SE/P. One of the early contacts that Eddy made was with Harri DL4FBZ in Kassel, Germany.

The transponder has an uplink on 2.4GHz and a downlink on 100GHz and was a joint project between the Qatar Satellite Company, Qatar ARS and AMSAT (Deutschland). It is on board the Es-hail-2 satellite which was launched in 2018. The satellite is in geo-stationary orbit above the equator at 26 degrees East.

Both Eddy and Harri were clearly heard via the WebSDR hosted at Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall. The WebSDR allows anyone around the world to listen to satellite transponder downlink and Eddy went on to make many more contacts.

Kasungu National Park In the west of Central Malawi, covers an area of 800 sq mile (2100 sq km) bordering Zambia. Most of the park is natural woodland and bush but there are occasional areas open grassland.

Within the park visitors can see elephants and a number of species of antelope, There are also small herds of zebra and buffalo. The main predator species are leopards, hyenas and jackals.

The lake at Lifupa offers the chance to see buffalo and there are excellent birdwatching opportunities.