RAFT Re-entry Campaign Continues:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/craft/save-raft.html
Deorbit is happening.. Today RAFT is 132 miles up. It comes over 20 seconds earlier then even day old KEPS predict. We have not seen any significant temperature rise yet however. But we DO hope someone will capture the LAST telemetry packet! Lets all listen. Feed your data live into the APRS Satgate system if you can, so that the on-line telemetry plotter will see it and so will everynoe else.
DAYTIME TESTS NEEDED: RAFT is deaf during the day, so we only get two good RADAR-TEST passes per night between midnight and 2 AM. We think RAFT is deaf due to an overcharge battery voltage which causes the discriminator to distort in the Sun. We theorize that a station with LOW deviation might still be able to get in. If you can easily adjust your XMTLVL and try digipeating packets via RAFT during the SUN time and are successful at lower deviation, PLEASE LET US KNOW. . This will double our access times. TRANSMIT nothing in the Southern USA during the two midnight to 3 AM local command passes! Anytime else, and anywhere else is fine. The packet-to-voice synthesizer should be on.
THIS MORNING: Both command stations got a connect, but did not get time to complete the logon. They will try again in the morning. RAFT is very fast, and ahead of predictions because she is really zooming in to lower altitudes. RAFT beacons its telemetry every 10 seconds, so she is easy to find.
Bob, WB4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga Subject: [amsat-bb] RAFT Re-entry campaign and Radar Test
Can you explain what happened with last night's pass? I see a frowney face on the web page...
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/craft/save-raft.html
Well, lots of -sleep was invested by several people, and a good effort was made. I am very encouraged by the efforts of these volunteers!
Being the first attempt by both stations, there were lessons learned. I think they are going to try again tonight... But we do want to welcome backups to join the team. Especially those that have done a remote- logon to a KPC-3+ TNC before.
The web page tells all about how to do it. But we must coordinate so that only the best available station makes the attempt each pass. Ill try to keep the web page up to date in real time.
Bob, WB4APR