October 2011 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

(no subject)
by andy thomas 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

By popular request (!) you can see the Russian geostationary satellite locator at: http://sites.google.com/site/andythomasorg/Home/russian-geostationary or go to www.andythomas.org then from the Home page take the sub page link at the bottom. 73 de andy g0sfj

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Jugnu (JNU) : Thanks and Updates
by Shashank Chintalagiri 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Hello, I'm the system engineer for the Jugnu nanosatellite project. This is the nanosatellite which is more generally known on this list as JNU, since that was the identifier sent along with the TLE. I've been lurking on this list for the past couple of years, ever since we started working on the nanosatellite. I did learn a lot from occasionally perusing through the posts here. Not being a licensed HAM myself, I apologize for intruding into your space here today. On behalf of the entire Jugnu team, I'd like to thank all of you for the beacon reports you've sent our way, both on the list as well as through Mani (VU2WMY). Its been a long couple of years on the project, but the last few days have been a much more intense roller coaster ride. The continuous stream of beacon reports from across the world surpassed all of our expectations, and were the mainstay of our emotional support while we were having difficulties recieving the beacon ourselves. If I do get to meet any of you in person, the beer's on me. The telemetry gathered by HAMs across the world has been extremely useful in our analysis of the spacecraft's condition. I hope to be able to release, atleast partially, the details of the format for the beacon string in a couple of days. In the meanwhile, we welcome any additional telemetry that you can send our way. Even information about the AOS/LOS has been very useful in trying to figure out where exactly the satellite is. NORAD / celestrak has released 5 TLE's tagged with the PSLV C-18 launch (2011-058<A-E>). We arent yet sure which one, if any, is Jugnu. We do know that SRMSat is one of the cluster of 3 objects (B,C,D). We've been able to recieve our beacon when we attempt to track C, but the signal strength is low and we generally see it clearly only near AOS. Due to reasons I'm probably not allowed to discuss in public, we have reason to believe that Jugnu is moving away from the other objects (SRMSat, VesselSat, and until later today, MT) at a velocity of approximately 1.5 to 3 meters per second since separation from LV. We expect this velocity to be tangential to the orbit. If you're trying to track Jugnu, I would suggest that for the moment, C is a good starting point, and it may be better to track a little ahead of it. We will be trying to do the same in some of the later passes ourselves. In the case of SRMSat, we've had good signals at object B until earlier today, but we think that C did a better job of it in the last decent pass we had earlier this evening, about 6 hours ago. I'd be more than delighted to try and answer any questions you may have about Jugnu, so please feel free to contact me on or off list if you would like to know more about it. Thanks and Regards, Chintalagiri Shashank Head, System Integration and Electronic Hardware Design, Jugnu Nanosatellite Project Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur http://blog.chintal.in

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SRMVU/JUGNU Keps
by Carl Rimmer W8KRF 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

I have been looking at Catalog numbers 37838U through 37842U and with no scientific or mathematical reason, but rather practicality, I am using 37841U for SRMVU and 37842U for JUGNU keps. When I used 37841U (2011-058D) during the last pass of SRMVU, I was just about right on with AOS/LOS times. However, all of that series are with in a minute or so. Just my observation. There is another pass coming up in 28 minutes so I will see how accurate I am again. I have all five showing in SatPC. 73, -- *Carl W8KRF*

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SRMVU 1138UTC pass at EN91ck
by Carl Rimmer W8KRF 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

SRMVU CW Telemetry: SRMVU C Z Z P P C Note: The AOS/LOS are almost 2 minutes off now. I have also noticed an upward shift in the frequency. I am receiving it at 435.426+. I am also having to adjust Doppler more often. Is this a side effect of the Keps being off? Will you be posting updated Keps? -- *Carl W8KRF*

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Re: Oscarlocator,
by K5OE 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Here's one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mechanical-Paper-Oscar-Locator-Amateur-Satellite-19… 73, Jerry, K5OE

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Re: Oscarlocator
by andy thomas 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

At the flea market in St Petersburg (Russia, not Fla!) this August I bought a Russian ex-ship "Oscarlocator"- type device for geostationary satellites in the Inmarsat series. It's a map of the world with the satellites marked on it along the equator, and a transparent plastic overlay from which you can read the az and el to the satellite from your position. It rotaes around a central screw. Obviously it'll work with any geostationary satellite once you have drawn it in. I have scanned all 3 components - map, overlay and Russian text - and translated the text. I sent it to amsat-uk for their bulletin but I don't think they are interested. Maybe nobody is. But if anyone is, let me know and I'll post it on my website. 73 de andy g0sfj

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Oscarlocator
by Kevin Deane 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Anyone want to get rid of one I'll send you a SASE! Kevin KF7MYK

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Tracking program performance post chicken little date. (SatPC32 and GPredict)
by Thomas Doyle 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

All the hype over the chicken little contest caused me to wonder how tracking programs will handle it. I was looked into the Cal Poly CP6 and HAWKSAT1 satellites. The TLE data is published on both Amsat and Celestrack lists. SatPC32 shows neither of the satellites as moving. An error is generated when trying to select either of them. I thought that perhaps they had decayed but had not been removed from the TLE lists. GPredict continues to track Az-El for CP6 in real time in the text display but shows the elevation and altitude as negative and the up/down direction as D (decayed) - it does not display CP6 on the map. I am assuming that CP6 has decayed. The elevation for CP6 goes up and down and the tracking value change over time. Since the elevation is always negative perhaps GPredict is tracking what would have happened if the earth was just a tiny point of mass and the satellite is able to continue its downward descent. HAWKSAT1 shows up as above ground and running in GPredict. Since ARISSAT1 is probably going to decay fairly quickly I took a look at predicting ahead using the great Preview tracking in SatPC32 to see how decay is handled. After a couple of really bad years the coverage map for ARISSAT1 looks better than ever starting just two years from now in 2014. Unfortunately I could not figure out how to get GPredict to predict more than 14 days in the future and did not want to fool around changing the system clock. I have wondered what the NORAD routines would do after decay and how tracking programs that use the NORAD model would deal with it. Does the NORAD model continue to track as if the earth was just a very small very heavy point in space. A transparent 3D earth display would be very interesting to use to view the post chicken little results - someone must have one. Anyone know for sure ? HAWKSAT1 is still a bit of a mystery. 73 W9KE tom ...

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JUGNU & SRMVU
by PY5LF 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Hi Signal of JUGNU and SRMVU a few minutes ago over GG54 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZAphQSmXA 73 PY5LF LUCIANO FABRICIO Curitiba-PR-Brazil GG54jm <http://www.qrz.com/db/py5lf> http://www.qrz.com/db/py5lf

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SRMVU Entire Pass Vedio Clip !
by Nader Omer 13 Oct '11

13 Oct '11

Congratulation to SRMVU team for the great succes Without a break to hold a breath ,A continous telemetry received with the same data. Srmvuczzpxc srmvuczzpxc srmvuczzpxcc srmvuczzpxcc srmvuczzpxcc srmvuczzpxcc etc Signal was stable and strong . INHO for such a simple telemetry they had missed to give a break for the transmitter .At least for a period of several seconds . SRMVU entire pass vedio clip see the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlLt49AMI1c 73's Nader / ST2NH

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