Le Mans (JN08CA)

On 10th June 2023, Jean a member of the Sarthe Radio Club operating a special event station in the city of Le Mans in northwestern France made contact via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 satellite transponder with Michal OK1SIM in the Czech Republic.

The Sarthe Radio Club was operating the special event station (TM24H) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1923.

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.

Le Mans is located on the Sarthe River at its junction with the Huisne. It is the capital of the Sarthe Department and is within the Pays de la Loire region.

Jean gave his QRA locator as JN08CA in the city centre not at the racetrack.