May 2008 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

DELFI-C3 rx report 2008-05-01
by Rob Hardenberg PE1ITR 01 May '08

01 May '08

Hi, Today tracked 7 passes of delfic3 all with good signals. The transmitter on 145.930 is random on and off each pass but its always present. Tracking NORAD# 32787 matches AOS and LOS very well. Interesting was pass 4 and 5 with low elevation. Signals where good and I could decode some packets on pass 4. Received signals on pass 5 but decoded nothing because the tx switched on to late (just before LOS). I noticed in RASCAL a correlation between the distortion on the downlink system and the OBC System bus voltage value. When the voltage showed 7~8 volts the distortion was present. It looks like the distortion intervals has also a correlation to the satellite spin cycle. 1. 1-5-08 07:55:22 08:05:45 2. 1-5-08 09:30:49 09:44:21 3. 1-5-08 11:07:24 11:19:16 4. 1-5-08 12:45:09 12:50:32 elevation < 2 5. 1-5-08 17:25:08 17:30:02 elevation < 1° 6. 1-5-08 18:56:13 19:07:54 7. 1-5-08 20:31:01 20:44:31 73 Rob PE1ITR http://www.pe1itr.com

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C3 heard at KM17VX at 1-5-2008 20:33 utc
by Kostas Ioannidis 01 May '08

01 May '08

C3 heard at 145.930MHz sending tlm. 73 de sw1ixp

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C3 heard at KM17VX at 1-5-2008 18:55 utc
by Kostas Ioannidis 01 May '08

01 May '08

C3 heard at KM17VX at 1-5-2008 18:55 utc and it was transmitting tlm at 145.930MHz. Transmission started as soon as the spacecraft went out of eclipse. Tlm captured and uploaded to the server. 73 de sw1ixp

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Cute-1.7 + APDII and Compass-1 over West Malaysia
by Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) 01 May '08

01 May '08

Dear All, Below is the recording for Cute-1.7+APDII and Compass-1 suddenly coming in simultaneously with Cute-1.7+APDII. Tracking Object J at 2326 Local or 1526 UTC. Maximum Elevation, 17 degrees. Sorry but missed the earlier evening pass due to a date error in my unattended tracking system. http://www.9w2qc.net/amsatbb/cutecompass01may2326.mp3 73, Sion Chow Q. C., 9W2QC.

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AMSAT/TAPR dinner
by Martha 01 May '08

01 May '08

To date, 52 people have paid for the banquet. If you have not paid, please call me at 1-888-322-6728 and make your reservations. Time is running out! -- 73- Martha

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01052008 1603UTC Delfi_c3 packets copied
by Mark L. Hammond 01 May '08

01 May '08

As per subject--Delfi-c3 copied on 145.930 on a noon-time pass over Eastern US, FM05pj at N8MH. This was a descending pass! (I wasn't at home, so no observations to make). Question---is the packet count in the upper left region cumulative for the entire database? Or is it just for my station during the recent session? I'm tending to think it's cumulative, and that lower right packet count is for that RASCAL session. Can anybody comment/confirm? Thanks and 73, -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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DELFI C 3
by Luc Leblanc 01 May '08

01 May '08

The 0400Z pass was all OK even if it was a low one 20 packet decoded and DELFI was in full illumination since 0342Z a good 15 minutes before the pass and everything seems normal. I guess the problems appears just went the satellite is emerging from eclipse and that the power is just starting to flow in. I will try to recheck in the evening pass if i got the same results as yesterday evening. At the end of the pass another carrier with doppler appear i try to check who was the culprit but VO-52 who is on a similar orbit was on the other side of the earth. I run a simulation on all the other active satellite around 0400Z to see which one will be the best candidate but none of them was in range!!! Another phantom of the opera signal? I just hope one of the other 8 cubes does not also share the same downlink frequency! "-" Luc Leblanc

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Ham Radio Deluxe with linear xpndrs?
by Dave hartzell 01 May '08

01 May '08

Just wondering if anyone is using Ham Radio Deluxe with the linear birds (e.g. VO-52). While it seems to work fine with the FM sats, I think there may be an issue adjusting the frequencies to find oneself in the passband. For example, I can manuually tune the RX downlink while TX'ing and find myself, but shortly after the offset gets reset to the calculated frequency.... Thanks and 73, Dave n0tgd

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Delfi-C3 heard over TN, FINALLY
by Alan P. Biddle 01 May '08

01 May '08

After a couple of days with nothing heard, I got a great pass today, with ~400 blocks of data uploaded. AOS and LOS were within a couple of seconds using the operations page keps. After an initial tweak, SATPC32 tracked the frequency within about 150 HZ through the whole pass. Another sign that the keps are good. Alan WA4SCA ----------------------------------- It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Sherlock Homes

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Delfi-C3 status update 1 May 2008 09:55 UTC
by Wouter Jan Ubbels 01 May '08

01 May '08

Hi all, another status update on Delfi-C3: 1. During the pass of 09:30 UTC over Europe, we have performed successful database dumps again, some of you may have heard these since the frames sound quite different compared to normal housekeeping / payload frames. These frames are also captured by RASCAL, displayed in the terminal and uploaded to our server 2. During this same pass, we have successfully switched the spacecraft to its primary radio on 145.870MHz temporarily, after this switch, the satellite came back on on the 145.930MHz downlink. Telemetry indicated that the primary radio on 145.870MHz is healthy and working fine so that is good news. Note that the satellite will normally transmit on 145.930MHz for the time being, unless we command her to go to 145.870MHz. This might occur more in the coming days when the s/c is in range of our groundstation, so listeners in Europe might want to check the 145.870MHz transmitter also when the 145.930MHz transmitter shuts down. We have noted that the 145.870MHz transmitter is a little (1kHz) low in frequency so actually on 145.869MHz. 3. Yesterday (April 30) we were able to successfully command on our backup command uplink so we have both command uplinks working nominally at this moment. 4. We are currently investigating the rotational behaviour of the satellite, your observations w.r.t. spin rate / signal strength are more than welcome, combined with telemetry we should be able to fully assess how the s/c is rotating. We suspect that this may actually give a clue to the TX dropouts experienced. 5. We have successfully gathered raw data from the wireless sun sensor payload 6. Note that we have locked the bootcounter value so it will always display 2273 from now on until we unlock it again 7. Although TLE's for object #32787 are listed on our webpage, we are not entirely sure that this is in fact Delfi-C3. We probably won't have confirmation until after a day or 3-4 when the satellites have separated a bit more. For now, object #32787 should be fine for tracking though, but your observations w.r.t. AOS / LOS times are welcome 8. Following the report from VE2DWE about the TX sounding distorted, we would like to ask everyone to record a wav if possible when this phenomenom is heard, you can send the wav files to missioncontrol(a)delfic3.nl . Our inbox has no problem with large file sizes. 73 on behalf of the Delfi-C3 team Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

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