Maralal (KJ81IB)

On 14th May 2023 Eddy OE3SEU a radio amateur from Austria who was travelling Africa in a camper made camp outside Maralal and made contact with a number of radio amateurs in Europe via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 satellite transponder including Jussi OH5LK in Helsinki, Finland.

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 Jussi 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.

Eddy gave his QRA locator as KJ81IB. On the southern outskirts of the town of Maralal the administrative centre for Samburu County in northern Kenya. Maralal is a market town and was where Jomo Kenyatta was detained.