Saint Helena Island (IOTA Ref: AF-022 and QRA IH74DB)

At 13:27UTC on Saturday 10th June 2023, Garry ZD7GWM a radio amateur living on Saint Helena made contact via the Qatar-OSCAR 100 satellite transponder with Mike 9A/OE3MZC/P an Austrian radio amateur holidaying on the Croatian coast.

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.

Garry gave his QRA locator as IH74DB.

Saint Helena is a volcanic island in the south Atlantic which is situated on the mid-Atlantic ridge and is over 1,200 miles from the nearest landmass. It was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese having previously been uninhabited. The island is part of the British Overseas Territory which also includes Ascension and Tristan da Cunha islands.

Ringed by precipitous cliffs the interior has areas of barren deserts, pastureland and cloud forest.

In 1502 the island was a pristine wilderness, boasting six endemic land birds and extensive forests of endemic plants. Despite the natural environment being degraded by settlers and wild goats, the renowned 19th Century English naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin claimed Saint Helena had no biological parallel anywhere in the world.

In 2012 the British Government’s UNESCO World Heritage site submission noted that the island’s long period had allowed 400 endemic plants and invertebrates including Wirebird to evolve, and of the higher taxa was unique to the Island.