October 2015 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Fox-1A today...
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Hi! It was fun to see the launch this morning on NASA TV, even though there were too many clouds around the launch site to let me see any of the launch from outside my house here in the Phoenix area. Then I loaded the FoxTelem software on my Windows 10 tablets during the day at my office (along with Java), along with using my FUNcube Dongle Pro+ instead of my SDRplay SDR receiver, and tried copying some telemetry on a couple of passes tonight. The first pass, just after 0120 UTC, was a 13-degree pass here. I copied the voice announcement about the satellite being in safe mode, and a couple of data packets. I did not have Upload to Server selected (who reads the manual, when there's a new satellite to hear?!). I also ran HDSDR during this pass, so I could make an RF recording at the same time. I was able to play the HDSDR RF recording in FoxTelem to get my two data packets up to the server. The pass just after 0300 UTC was the best of the passes tonight. Again, FoxTelem and HDSDR on the tablet, and a 57-degree pass. For this pass, the voice announcement wasn't saying anything about safe mode, but I only copied one data packet. This time, it was uploaded to the server automagically. HDSDR made an RF recording. This time, the CPU on my 1 GB RAM 8-inch tablet was pegged at a few points in the pass. This leads me to believe I'm OK with either FoxTelem or HDSDR, but not both. HDSDR can make the RF recording in real time, then I can just play it in FoxTelem without needing to deal with virtual audio cables or (for some computers) Stereo Mix to pass the audio from one program to the other. I had one more shallow pass, around 0448 UTC, with a maximum elevation of 8 degrees. After seeing that the transponder was activated until 1000 UTC, I left the SDR stuff inside, and took a couple of HTs outside with me (KG-UV9D, KG-UV8D) with my Elk antenna. I heard the voice announcements every couple of minutes, but never heard anyone through the satellite during this pass. I had the KG-UV9D connected to the Elk, and an audio splitter to feed an earpiece and my Sony audio recorder. Since I was not able to hear myself - or anyone else - talking through the satellite, I did not connect the KG-UV8D to the antenna. That will come soon enough, hopefully - along with a few other radios that don't work full-duplex with SO-50, but may work fine with Fox-1A that way. The two RF recordings from the earlier passes, the MP3 audio recording from the late pass, and lots of photos and screengrabs were uploaded to my Dropbox space. Some of the photos show the settings I used in FoxTelem and HDSDR. Those files are located at: http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/ Look for the folder "20151009-AO85_Fox1A" for these files. (refresh the page or hit F5, if my Dropbox public folders don't come up straight away) You can run both FoxTelem and HDSDR at the same time, provided they use the same center/LO frequency and HDSDR has an input bandwidth of 192000 (192 kHz) from the FUNcube Dongle Pro+. A computer with more CPU horsepower should not have issues with these two programs running at the same time, but the Windows 10 tablets may have occasional challenges. Thanks to Chris Thompson for quickly answering my e-mail question about the bandwidth FoxTelem uses when receiving data from a FUNcube Dongle Pro+! I have previously run the FUNcube Dashboard and HDSDR at the same time, as long as I kept the two programs in sync with the same center frequency and input bandwidth. This was a great day for AMSAT, and for satellite operators around the world. Almost 6 years to the day the AMSAT Fox project was unveiled at the 2009 AMSAT Space Symposium in Baltimore (that happened on 10 October 2009 during the annual general meeting), we now have the first of a series of Fox-1 satellites in orbit. Some have even been able to talk through the satellite, with many more hearing the voice announcements and copying telemetry. Congratulations to all who have had a hand in building and launching Fox-1A today, and thanks to everyone who has supported the Fox project over the past 6 years! 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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Fox-1A Telemetry Results using TS-2000
by Brad Schumacher 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

I've been reading this list for a while, decided it's about time I posted something. I attempted to decode the Fox-1A telemetry on 2 passes over Arizona today (approx. 0130 and 0300 UTC) using my Kenwood TS-2000 without success. I configured it for 9600 packet operation, monitored the audio out of ACC2 connector and could see over 20 Khz of audio bandwidth using software based audio spectrum analyzer. Audio response looked good from 0 to 20 KHz so I thought I would be good to go. Nope. I fed audio into 2 different sound card devices - one being the RigBlastger Advantage set to 48 KHz sample rate and the other audio device being my Laptop's built in sound card mic input set to 48K and 96K on different attempts. Audio levels were adjusted so as not to be excessive and sounded clean when played back through the speaker. When attempting to decode, I could see a very nice eye pattern in the telemetry decode software but the data square waves were pointy looking as if some high frequency filtering was being applied to them. I' not conclusively saying the TS-2000 won't work but I did everything right and tested as thoroughly as possible prior to the actual satellite passes with no success. I'll try again and see if I missed something and report back. What DID work for me was decoding the signal via SDR. In this case It was an RTL-SDR dongle in direct sampling mode connected to the 10.695 Mhz IF of the TS-2000. HDSDR was used with output bandwidth set to 96 Khz. Audio was piped to Fox telemetry decoder via VB Virtual Audio Cable software. Brad, KG7NXH

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Does AMSAT want AO-85 decoded frames after the fact?
by Zach Leffke 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

General question for those at AMSAT watching the data come in on the server. Are frames decoded after the fact useful to you guys, or does it just confuse the servers and mess up time stamps? I've been messing around with my GNU radio setup and have low speed mode pretty much figured out. For the high speed mode pass earlier, I got nice strong signal but failed to decode. Pretty sure thats all my fault and I need to go back and tweak my flowgraphs. I did make a raw IQ recording of the pass so that I can go back and play around with GNU Radio until I get high speed mode decoding on FoxTelem. So the question is, while I'm messing around with that would you prefer that I upload to the server or not? Eventually I hope to dig out the missed frames (they're in there on my hard drive, I just need to coax them out!), but I don't want to muddle up the time stamps on the AMSAT Server. Are the telemetry frames uniquely coded in some way that you can tell that I uploaded it 4 hours after it was overhead (like when I upload sequence number 12, and everyone else is on sequence number 482? for example)? Or are the timestamps based on the receiving computer's clock, and I should be sure to uncheck the 'upload to server' block when I go back to play with IQ recordings so as not to inject false timestamps to the server? And by the way: Go AMSAT!!!! Congrats all around! Exciting day today. Thanks in advance, -Zach, KJ4QLP

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Congratulations to AMSAT for launching FOX!
by Wouter Weggelaar 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Hi All, On behalf of AMSAT-NL I would like to congratulate the FOX team at AMSAT for their successful launch and the first telemetry received. I understand that Jan PE0SAT in the Netherlands already successfully uploaded telemetry to the servers. Well done. I wish the team lots of FUN in space, and FOX-1A a long and prosper life. Regards,. Wouter PA3WEG AMSAT-NL

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Installing Sat Telem decoding such as FoxTelem.exe
by Bob KD7YZ 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Among others, today I installed FoxTelem.exe and XW2a.exe for decoding telemetry from recent launches. Both, when run, display a familiar Error-Burp about an "mschrt20.ocx" being missing or not registered. Per the install directions on the FoxTelem page, I followed the link to install VBrun. Having done that, I got the same error. I followed a link from that to the M/S Visual-Studio page and downloaded/installed that. Which, BTW, took 30 minutes. After sys re-start, STILL the same runtime error about missing OCX file. Search of ALL hard drives here and the OCX file is not at my place. Now what please? -- 73, Bob KD7YZ www.qrz.com/db/kd7yz AmSat LM#901

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Fox-1A is in Transponder Mode
by Jerry Buxton 09 Oct '15

09 Oct '15

Fox-1A will be in Transponder Mode until about 10:00 UTC October 8, 2015. Jerry N0JY

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Fox-1A, Grace, or AO-85
by Loon - 08 Oct '15

08 Oct '15

Using Keps that were found on the Amsat-BB, below are the passes I found for over the east coast forabout the next 24 hours Which Keps set are for Foz-1A ... Grace 1, Grace 2, Grace 3, Grace 4, Grace5? 2015-10-09 04:22:57 FOX-1A 346.1 10.0 ecl 2389 67.6 -32.52015-10-09 04:27:41 FOX-1A 44.7 27.9 ? 1452 68.6 -31.62015-10-09 04:32:15 FOX-1A 103.4 10.0 ? 2305 69.5 -30.8 2015-10-09 06:03:15 FOX-1A 318.1 10.0 ? 2378 86.0 -14.12015-10-09 06:08:34 FOX-1A 244.1 50.9 ? 968 86.9 -13.12015-10-09 06:13:35 FOX-1A 169.3 10.1 ? 2242 87.7 -12.1 2015-10-09 20:17:08 FOX-1A 198.6 10.0 ? 2130 278.6 -19.52015-10-09 20:21:58 FOX-1A 118.3 63.6 ? 808 279.4 -20.42015-10-09 20:27:14 FOX-1A 38.2 10.1 ecl 2315 280.3 -21.4 2015-10-09 21:59:03 FOX-1A 266.8 10.0 ? 2220 298.8 -37.72015-10-09 22:03:04 FOX-1A 318.6 22.5 ecl 1590 299.7 -38.42015-10-09 22:07:17 FOX-1A 9.8 10.0 ecl 2347 300.7 -39.1 Thanks

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First impressions of Fox-1A/AO-85/Grace2
by Tom Schuessler 08 Oct '15

08 Oct '15

>From EM12 Oct 8-9, 2015; 2348 UTC pass 2.8 degrees max elevation. HT and Arrow antenna, Satellite showed up on time and could be heard despite low elevation and obstacles. 0124 UTC pass 60 degrees. HT and Elk antenna, Signal went from full quieting to lots of noise. Limited observation is that the spin/tumble rate must be rather fast. I am sure it will take a bit for the magnetic stabilization to get a hold of the magnetic lines of force and stabilize the cube. First impression is the deep fades will be reminiscent of working LituanicaSat-1/LO-78 which had deep nulls. The pre-launch Keps seemed pretty accurate at least close enough for FM work. Looking forward to the real thing. Just curious and so I can characterize the orbit to some folks who expressed interest, What level of inclination does AO-85 have? It seems by just looking at a depiction on a map of over 80 degrees or am I observing wrong. Anyway, big congrats to Barry, Jerry and the whole Fox design/implementation team for a wonderful job well done. Fox has got me reinvigorated. Tom Schuessler, N5HYP

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Fox-1A Heard in Los Angeles
by Bryce Salmi 08 Oct '15

08 Oct '15

A bunch of us stopped building rockets for a few minutes and listened to Fox-1A as it passed over Los Angeles! Congrats. Bryce

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Fox-1A Telemetry Today
by Nicholas Mahr KE8AKW 08 Oct '15

08 Oct '15

I managed to get about 11 packets of data today on Fox-1! Im using HDSDR feeding into fox tlm program. As far as I can tell all the telemetry looks good. And nice to see the transponder turned on soon! Spent most of my day today setting up sdr and tweaking the program to getting decodes on fox. Lets grab more frames tomorrow and maybe the transponder guys. 73's Ke8akw Nick

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