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

Re: [Re: Prospero] Commanding Error
by Hacken Paste 28 Oct '11

28 Oct '11

Hi Roger, I think only 8 of the OrbComm satellites are on 137.56.. It sounds like it may be worth contacting OrbComm though- I'll give them a call. Dale On 28/10/2011 10:39, g.shirville(a)btinternet.com wrote: Hi Roger, All understood..I have put the currently 28? active Orbcomms into Nova here and almost all of the time there is at least one above my horizon and I can hear the chuffing noises..will be listening again this evening Do you have details of the on board power system? For instance what are the batteries? If the batteries have failed short circuit will they be clamping the bus to 0volts? Can the power system work with open circuit cells? What is/was the default power up operating mode? good luck! Graham G3VZV From: Roger Duthie Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 10:25 AM To: Tony Abbey Cc: pe0sat(a)vgnet.nl ; g.shirville(a)btinternet.com ; Phil Guttridge ; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org ; g8nsv(a)ntlworld.com ; Dale Potts ; Barry Hancock ; Richard Cole ; mailto:[email protected] ; Alan Smith ; Graham Kimbell (G3TCT) Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: [Re: Prospero] Commanding Error OK - so that's definitely Orbcomm (from the spectrogram). Have you got audio of this? We hear a chuffing sound intermittently (ie., it comes and goes in interval of minutes), which happens when neither Orbcomm nor Prospero is reported by our software to be above the horizon (is this the pager stuff you're talking about?). We also heard another thing a couple of days ago, though we're still not 100% on what that might have been (it appeared to be fading as Prospero receded to the North - though was it an aeroplane on 137.56?). Someone yesterday has supposedly heard something that's wasn't Orbcomm during the early evening pass. We'll look into it. The pass we're going to try today (for the sake of ceremony, really) is (again, times in BST = UT + 1): 28 Oct 7.4 15:53:18 10 S 16:00:22 86 W 16:08:28 10 N - Roger m0rja Tony Abbey wrote: Hi Roger Once Graham told me the noise was Orbcomm this morning, I added the TLEs for their satellites (http://www.orbcomm.com/Collateral/Documents/English-US/o11292.tle) to my SDR Radio software satellite definitions. Here's a pass I recorded from one of them this morning, and you can see that the "chuff-chuff" on the left hand side has structure which is kept vertical by the doppler correction. The other crap and pager cross talk etc bends with the doppler correction. I think that proves the point. Tony Abbey - Senior Research Fellow (retired) Space Research Centre Dept of Physics and Astronomy University of LeicesterUniversity Road SRC Web page: http://www.src.le.ac.uk LEICESTER LE1 7RH, United Kingdom Spectrogram removed by RJAD (might ahve been bad for the amsat-bb board) On 27 Oct 2011, at 16:17, Roger Duthie wrote: We're hearing these 'chuff-chuff swooshes' too, though at times when our software is not showing Orbcomm over our horizon. Our TLEs may be slightly out-of-date, though I think it would be a marginal thing. Can it be definitely confirmed that these noises are Orbcomm? - Rr. Tony Abbey wrote: Nothing heard from Prospero here in Leicester, that pass just finished (at 14:57Z) Just the Orbcomm swooshes. Tony Abbey - Senior Research Fellow (retired) Space Research Centre Dept of Physics and Astronomy University of LeicesterUniversity Road SRC Web page: http://www.src.le.ac.uk LEICESTER LE1 7RH, United Kingdom On 27 Oct 2011, at 13:33, Roger Duthie wrote: Well, we're hearing something like that. Though we hear this a lot, we also wonder whether we''re seeing an envelope during the Prospero pass times. The passes for today (BST) [from Heavens-Above]: 27 Oct 7.2 15:42:26 10 S 15:49:21 77 E 15:57:21 10 NNE 27 Oct 8.7 17:28:31 10 WSW 17:34:45 31 WNW 17:41:39 10 N Also, I've started a Twitter hashtag for anyone using this mode of communication: #Prospero40 Add this to any Twitter messages you might write about Prospero or related subjects. -Roger PE0SAT wrote: Hi, I have a spectrogram and a recording of that "chuff chuff" on http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/satellite/sat-history/prospero/ Is it the same you guys heard? 73 Jan PE0SAT On Thu, October 27, 2011 10:04, g.shirville(a)btinternet.com wrote: Hi Tony, The chuff chuff noises are from space...they are a sort of beacon carried on every Orbcomm satellite. They are 125msec long pulses of 57.6kb data and have a bandwidth of around 50kHz. They are quite distinctive when you only hear one at a time but sometimes one can hear two or more signals at the same time and that sort of changes the sound:) 73 Graham G3VZV -----Original Message----- From: Tony Abbey Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 8:56 PM To: rjad(a)mssl.ucl.ac.uk Cc: Phil Guttridge ; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: [Re: Prospero] Commanding Error Hi Roger Nothing other than the chuff- chuff on the 1600 pass. And as you said, its also there with Prospero over the horizon. I 'm not using a beam presently - using a 360deg parasitic Lindenblad for circular polarisation, but it is susceptible to all the high power pager stuff nearby. Its just strange that there are elements shifting in frequency in the chuff chuff like a signal from a real satellite. Have just come back from a Rosat re-entry celebration! Tony Abbey - Senior Research Fellow (retired) Space Research Centre Dept of Physics and Astronomy University of Leicester University Road SRC Web page: http://www.src.le.ac.uk LEICESTER LE1 7RH, United Kingdom On 26 Oct 2011, at 16:17, Roger Duthie wrote: Tony - We heard something intriguing after about 14:43:40 UT as the tracking said the satellite was on it's way off to the north pole. The 'chuff-chuff' description reminds me of a sound we seem to hear quite a lot. Quite often it coincides with a pass, though I think we hear the same (or very similar) during times when Prospero is over the horizon. We are going to try the next pass at ~16:00UT if you want to listen in again. Our new ploy is to wait for the last most opportune moment to command, as the power _may_ be at it highest (longest charging of batteries, potentially). So, we'll do short commanding at above 30o el, and listen. -Rr. Tony Abbey wrote: Hi Roger I could hear some "chuff-chuff" noises on the last pass and they show a related doppler shift (although I am not correcting sufficiently) as you can see in the attached plot. Maybe its some other noise but you never know. On 26 Oct 2011, at 13:39, Roger Duthie wrote: Commanding went well, from as far as we could make out. We're not sure if we're getting anything back, however. We'll be doing this pass today, hopefully: 26 Oct 7.3 15:31:43 10 S 15:38:26 60 E 15:46:11 10 NNE [Times in BST = UTC + 1] -Roger _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! 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SRMSAT TLE
by SANDEEP MANI TRIPATHI 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Hi All SRMSAT and Jugnu TLE's has been updated and ID has been provided by SPACETRAK, please find the same at celestrak/NORAD http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt 73's KF5HDB Sandeep Mani Tripathi Team SRMSAT Chennai,India +919884858514 *Life is a Journey.....not a Destination. Enjoy the Trip !!!*

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Two Opportunities to Copy Direct ARISS School Contacts From ISS
by JoAnne Maenpaa 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Hello everyone, Here is a bit of news which would be "border-line late" if we waited for the weekend ANS news cycle: Two opportunities, one over Europe, and one over the United States to directly receive the ISS downlink on 145.800 MHz FM will occur early next week: + Kantonsschule Zug, Zug, Switzerland, direct via HB9KSZ on Mon 2011-10-31 14:56:19 UTC 39 deg elevation. + Sundance Elementary School, San Diego, California, direct via KI6ZUM on Tue 2011-11-01 20:00:45 UTC 42 deg elevation. In a recent communication of Fiscal Year 2011 accomplishments to the NASA education community, NASA Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin highlighted the accomplishments of ARISS: "10,743 curious students and 778 motivated educators participated in direct communication with International Space Station (ISS) crews via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), sparking their interest in STEM." -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service

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ARISSATTLM Website
by Carl Rimmer W8KRF 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

It appears that the TLM website is not being updated. I have been submitting frames for the past three passes today (10/27) and the website is still showing frames from 0159UTC. Does anyone know the status of the live update server? 73, -- *Carl W8KRF*

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Re: E1Pu2 & RAX2 downlink conflict?
by Armando Mercado 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Hello, RAX-2 will be using 437.345 MHz 9600 baud, RHCP http://rax.engin.umich.edu/?page_id=138 73's Armando N8IGJ

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70 MPH S-band dish
by Bob Bruninga 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Besides the occasional MDS dishes, is there a source now of larger commercial 2.4 GHz wire or mesh dishes? We want to outfit a van with a 4' dish for Balloon Tracking live downlink video and not have it blow off the roof at 70 MPH. I'm considering changing over many of our student projects to high altitude "cubesats" that can be completed in one semester and actually LAUNCHED (by balloons), as opposed to the occasional once every 3 or 4 year satellite missions which spend more time in bureaucracy than engineering for the students. Given that we only have the students for one semester. Bob, Wb4APR

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AO-51 Contact
by Carl Rimmer W8KRF 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

I just worked an AO-51 pass at 1957UTC and had a contact with N4HML at EL98. I am unable to find this call sign in the QRZ database. In the FCC database, that call is registered to PRESCOTT JR, RICHARD H and the status is Expired 02/27/2007 and Canceled 02/28/2009. So, either the FCC is wrong or we have a bootlegger on the sats. Can anyone confirm this? -- *Carl W8KRF*

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expired call on the satellites
by K4FEG 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

TODAY A CALL SHOWED UP ON THE AO51 SATELLITE THAT APPEARS IN THE FCC DATA BASE AS EXPIRED. THE CALL IS: *N4HML* /*THE FCC DATA BASE SHOWS THE LICENSE EXPIRED ON 02/27/2007 AND CANCELED ON 02/28/2009*/ IT MAY BE POSSIBLE THAT THE PERSON MAY NOT REALIZE THEIR LICENSE HAS EXPIRED, IF ANYONE KNOWS THIS PERSON THEY MIGHT GIVE THEM A CALL. IT MAY ALL BE AN OVERSIGHT OR ERRONEOUS DATA. THAT'S MY 2 CENTS WORTH FOR THE DAY K4FEG

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how it is done without amateur radio
by R Oler 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/teachingfromspace/students/downli…

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Satellite QSO's and LoTW
by Jeff Welsh 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Morning all, I was curious what the standard was for Logbook of the World (LoTW) reporting. Which band do you log your QSO with, Uplink or Downlink? I've been seeing mix results coming back via LoTW, where HRD Log defaults to using the downlink frequency although I've had some QSO's report back using the uplink. I do also log the satellite, mode and propagation type. Thanks, --jeff N3QO

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