On Friday 2nd June 2023, Andrew F/G4VFL/P, a radio amateur from the UK who was holidaying in France set up a satellite dish on the summit of Les Rouquettes in the Massif-Central area of France near to the commune of Figeac and activated this summit for the Summits on the Air (“SOTA”) group.
Andrew made several contacts via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 satellite transponder including with Kris VU2NXG in Kerala, India at 14:48 UTC.
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.
The Massif-Central covers approximately 17% of the land area of continental France and is the only mountainous regions of the country which lies entirely within its borders.
Mountains, Misc, Nature - Scenic
Links: www.sotadata.org.uk, sotl.as, en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.qrz.com, www.qrz.com
By: Mike_bjm
){kind=small}
