I hope to be able to catch it at some point. I was on the 09:51 UTC pass over the Atlantic, but only heard the familiar telemetry bursts of the satellite in it's default mode.
Keep in mind that this transponder is entirely done in software - the second software defined linear transponder to fly after the ARISSat-1 transponder. Being non-inverting adds a bit of a challenge for manual operators, but nothing that can't be handled.
LilacSat-2 is a neat satellite. When turned on it's been in FM transponder mode most often, but the on-board SDR also has programming for an APRS digipeater as well as a linear transponder as we've seen the past couple of days. Unfortunately, it suffers from periodic resets and resets to a telemetry only mode, so you never really know whether or not it will be on when it comes over.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Tue, Jul 12, 2016 at 9:18 AM, KO6TZ Bob my.callsign@verizon.net wrote:
Clayton,
Thanks for the "Heads-Up" worked perfect. A couple of taps on the "-" key and SatPC32 tracked the satellite perfect. Had a QSO with Glenn. Nice sounding transponder.
KO6TZ Bob
I should have been a little more clear in my email earlier. The transponder on LilacSat-2 active today was not the normal FM one but rather a SSB transponder. It is experimental and has no AGC according to the reports from Twitter. I'd suggest paying attention to the AMSAT OSCAR status page (http://www.amsat.org/status) and following BG2BHC on Twitter for operational updates.
I was using manual control but you can add this line to your DOPPLER.SQF. It will need some minor calibration:
LILACSAT-2,437200.0,144362.0,USB,USB,NOR,0,0,SSB Transponder
73 Clayton W5PFG
On Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 9:26 AM, Clayton Coleman <kayakfishtx at gmail.com> wrote:
This morning, Glenn AA5PK, and I had a QSO via the experimental transponder activated on LilacSat-2. It was very interesting and fun. A non-inverting mode J transponder was new to me.
Using manual tuning to adjust for Doppler shift proved to be a small challenge as I am more accustomed to operating on a transponder like FO-29. Running SDR in parallel to my Icom IC-9100 gave me a good visual representation of the transponder pass band.
You can listen to a brief clip of our QSO here:
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