Amsat P2D (Phase 2D, AO 8, Oscar 8)

Amsat P2D (Oscar 8) [Amsat]

Amsat P2D (Oscar 8) was a radio amateur satellite launched on the 5th March 1978 at 1754UTC on a Delta-2910 with Landsat 3 and PIX 1 from Vandenberg AFB into a 903 × 917 km orbit inclined at 98.99 degrees. It was box shaped with dimensions 380 × 380 × 330 mm and weighs 27.2 kg. It was built by radio amateurs in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan, and used many of the parts left over from the Oscar-7 (Amsat P2B) project.

The primary mission was to provide an educational tool, and amateur communications. It contained a 145.90-146.00/435.1 MHz (inverted) and 145.85-90/29.4-5 MHz transponder using a circularly polarized VHF/UHF canted turnstile antenna system, and contained telemetry beacons on 435.095 MHz and 29.402 MHz using an HF dipole antenna. The battery finally failed in the middle of 1983.