December 2006 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

ANDE, RAPT, NMARS, FCAL Keps
by Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

Hello All, I would be glad if someone could provide me with the latest preliminary keps of the four satellites (ANDE, RAPT, NMARS and FCAL) that will be launched tomorrow. Also, if possible could someone provide or point me to a list of deployment time and date of the four satellites? I would like to try to receive them on the first pass over West Malaysia. Thank you very much in advance and sorry for the bandwidth. 73, Sion Chow Q. C., 9W2QC. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.21/589 - Release Date: 12/15/2006

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New to Sats Leicester
by Peter 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

Hi Stephen You are in a unique position being in Leicester as you have the National Space Museum on your doorstep. If you make contact with the on site radio station, they have a Satellite setup and I am sure you would find someone who would help. Have a look at the Amsat UK and Amsat NA web sites, they are full of information. I can certainly recommend Martin Davidoff's Satellite experimenters handbook, it was always within arms reach when I started. Peter G0bhp -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.25/593 - Release Date: 19/12/2006

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CI-V for ICOM 910 Memory
by Gregory Dober 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

I am having trouble getting memory channels programmed in HamRadio Deluxe software for memory channels for the 910. This includes satellite memory channels as well. The software has the memory buttons but no channels. I believe the command is 08 for memory channels, but I am having trouble getting proper sub commands in the software. Any help please? Greg N3MVF

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Re: Shuttle and Station Together
by Jerry W 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

Yes here in South St Paul, MN about 0035 UTC. nice visual of two "lights" from west south west to northeast. Should have caught it sooner, but lights to the west from MSP airport degraded the view. Jerry - K0HZI

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Re: Shuttle and Station Together
by Tony Langdon (ATC) 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

> At about 1801 tonight (local VA time), the XYL and I had a > tremendous view of the Shuttle and Space Station zipping > across the night sky. I arrived home from work only minutes > before and thus did not know the Shuttle had departed the > station this afternoon. That fact became obvious when we > obtained our first glimpse. The typical bright, singular > "dot" was quite oblong in shape. At the highest elevation > (about 40 degrees), two points of light became discernible > with the naked eye. Using a pair of 9x63 binoculars...two > very distinct points of light were easily visible throughout > the pass. If you have a visible opportunity coming your way, > take a look! I get a rush from that kind of thing...but then > I must be weird! Not at all, a few years ago, we had the neighbours (on both sides!) spellbound watching ISS and the Shuttle moving across the sky. And these were a couple of elderly women at that. No, I think you'll find you're pretty normal. :-)

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APRS USER TELEMETRY Plan for ANDE and RAFT
by Robert Bruninga 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

ANDE, RAFT and MARScom Telemetry Plan: The first few days of ANDE, RAFT and MARScom will focus on capturing whole orbit telemetry. User packets are not authorized (except for authorized command station checkouts). But we do welcome TELEMETRY and LOG capture files for any data that did not make it through the Satgates and APRS Internet System. We make these telemetry requests: 1) Make sure your TNC or logging clock is within a second or so of UTC time. It can be LOCAL time if you clearly tell us whether to ADD or SUBTRACT X hours from the time indicated. If you send us the file, include your statment of the accuracy or offset of your clock in the first line of the file. 2) Please compare your packets to the raw packets captured at the bottom of the live FINDU downlink page: http://pcsat.aprs.org . We only need a copy of the raw packets that you captured that are -not- on that list (at the bottom of the page). You will have to make your comparison within an hour or so, depending on activity, so that the packets of interest do not scroll off the page. 3) It would be very helpful to our data team if you edited out all the dupes and only send us the packets that are not on FINDU. CAUTION: Since the FINDU page normally does not have a time stamp and only shows the relative age of a packet (but no reference) it is obsolete the moment you view it. So it is best to either annotate the time at the instant that you refreshed the page, or better is to click on the LINK that says "clickhere to see times in UTC". It will download another page with complete time stamps. FREQUENCY: Monitor 145.825 MHz 1200 baud packet for ANDE and RAFT. Monitor 27.965 SSB 1200 baud AFSK packet for NMARS. Notice, you may also hear UO-11 on the same 145.825 frequency. NMARS is lighter and will eventually lead RAFT. TELEMETRY NOTES: The telemetry from all three satellites are in standard APRS telemetry format of the KPC-3 TNC's: T#SSS,111,222,333,444,555,11111111,000. There are several easy observations: 1) It is important to note that T#SSS is a serial number and that these serial numbers are helpful for determining dupes or absolute time. For RAFT and NMARS, these are once a minute and will count up to 999 and then roll back to 000. That takes about 16 hours unless we take some high rate data. 2) ANDE, however, does a COLD boot on every pass. So for ANDE, the T#SSS is every 50 seconds and will tell you how long the TNC has been up since it last awoke. Hopefully it will only be awake for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, though while it is in range of the pesky RAFT's telemetry, it may be kept awake for hours until RAFT gets out of range. WHAT TO LOOK FOR: For RAFT and NMARS you can visually decode the 5 channels of telemetry (see format above). 111 - is Voltage in 0.1 volts. (80 ==> 8.0 volts) 222 - is Solar current in 2 mA's. Multiply by 2 for mA 333 - is Battery current in 2 mA's. Multiply by 2 for mA 444 - is Load current in 2 mA's. Multiply by 2 for mA 555 - is temperature (a cubic, but 128 is about room temp) A healthy spacecraft will be above 8.0 volts and will see consistent solar current while in the sun. ANDE is more complicated because it has a total of 20 telemetry channels divided up among four separate packets. So it takes 3.3 minutes to get a complete set. You can tell which set you get by the first 2 digits of the 8 bit number at the end. 00XXXXXX, 01XXXXXX, 10XXXXXX and 11XXXXXX. ANDE runs on primary batteries and no solar power, so it either works or it doesn't. But the most important data is the spin rate which we hope to derive from the 6 solar sensors. These packets are the 11XXXXXX packets. For more info on telemetry, check these pages: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/craft/RAFTeqns.gif http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande/ANDEeqns.txt And for up-to-date info about this mission, please check the main operations page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html Bob Bruninga, WB4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab > -----Original Message----- > From: aprssig-bounces(a)lists.tapr.org > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga > Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 6:58 PM > To: aprssig(a)lists.tapr.org > Subject: [aprssig] APRS USER Operations Plan for ANDE and RAFT > > RAFT and ANDE are APRS satellites to be deployed on Thursday. > > We ask that ALL radio amateurs (except for command stations) > refrain from any transmissions until after the spacecraft have > been opened for general use. There are many stations involved > in the checkout, so wait until you see specific authorization > for general use before using the digipeater. If all goes well > in a few days, we hope to open the satellites up for general use > in accordance with the User Service Agreement. See: > http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt > > The success of these digipeaters is protocol driven and depends > on user adherence to published operating parameters. Please > check the User Service Agreement before operating and > periodically throughout the short life of these satellites. > Basically it says you are authorized for these initial beacon > rates: > > Unattended, beacon one APRS packet per 5 minutes only > Attended Base, beacon one Position packet per 2 minutes > Mobile, beacon no higher than 2 minutes > Attended 5W HT, is authorized to beacon at a 1 minute rate. > > To aid everyone in understanding the statistics of this channel, > please include your Effective Radiated Power (ERP) and beacon > rate in your packet. Example: !DDMM.HHN/DDDMM.HHW-Bob,50W,2min > mobile. > > Remember that ERP is your TX power plus your antenna system > gain. > > Operating authorization will change as we learn the demands on > the uplink and the load on the systems. Keep up to date on WEB > page that covers all three satellites (ANDE, RAFT and NMARS). > See: > http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html > > All of these new satellites have less than optimum antennas and > so they will probably be harder to operate than PCSAT-1. We do > hope that PCSAT-1 will come out of hybernation the first week of > January for some multi-satellite opportunities. Stay tuned. > > Bob Bruninga, WB4APR > USNA Satellite Lab > > > > _______________________________________________ > aprssig mailing list > aprssig(a)lists.tapr.org > https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig >

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Shuttle and Station Together
by Gary Memory 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

At about 1801 tonight (local VA time), the XYL and I had a tremendous view of the Shuttle and Space Station zipping across the night sky. I arrived home from work only minutes before and thus did not know the Shuttle had departed the station this afternoon. That fact became obvious when we obtained our first glimpse. The typical bright, singular "dot" was quite oblong in shape. At the highest elevation (about 40 degrees), two points of light became discernible with the naked eye. Using a pair of 9x63 binoculars...two very distinct points of light were easily visible throughout the pass. If you have a visible opportunity coming your way, take a look! I get a rush from that kind of thing...but then I must be weird! Gary, N7BRJ

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SO50 Satellite
by EB3JT - Jordi 19 Dec '06

19 Dec '06

SO50 Satellite four years in orbit, congratulations !!! 73 de Jordi. EB3JT --------------------------------------------------------------- - EB3JT - (ex EB3GEK) JORDI TARRIDA SUBIRANA C/ NORD 16 (TIENDA) 08720 VILAFRANCA DEL PENEDES BARCELONA (SPAIN) --------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.radioaficionats.cat/eb3jt LOCATOR FIJO: JN01ui LOCATOR PORTALE: JN01rk WAZ 14 - ITU 37 ---------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: PC-based filtering software?
by Dave hartzell 19 Dec '06

19 Dec '06

Paul, I think you meant http://flex-radio.com ... Does the Flex Radio software support filtering/processing of post-demodulated audio? I thought that the PowerSDR software did the signal demodulation after the sound card samples the IF signals. But not having used it much, I don't know if there is are audio processing capabilities for audio signals from other radios... 73, Dave On 12/18/06, Paul Lenharr II <kb3nds(a)gmail.com> wrote: > If you can manage to bring the audio in via sound card, Flex radio makes > some great software. www.flexradio.com > > Paul >

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PC-based filtering software?
by Dave hartzell 19 Dec '06

19 Dec '06

Does anyone know of any PC, Mac or Linux-based software that does audio noise filtering, enhancement, notching, etc.? Thanks and 73, Dave NøTGD

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