Toyo san,
One last idea.... Every D710 APRS mobile is automatically a digipeater by default 1) by its own callsign, and 2) in support of TRACEn-N.
So if someone is in a disaster or otherwise out of range of the normal WIDEn-N network, he can always send his packet via TRACE7-7 and he might get lucky and hit a nearby D710 or other APRS mobile.
Only the D710 comes with that enabled by defualt (so we can count on it always being there).. But since 2004 we have requested ALL APRS mobiles that can digipeat (includes tens of thousands of D700's) to set UITRACE TEMP so that all mobiles support this path. But not very many people have done this, so we do not have this reliable invivible backup network in many places.
To understand how it works, see www.aprs.org/TEMPn-N.html
Bob, WB4APR
---- Original message ----
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 11:28:39 -0400 (EDT) From: [email protected] (on behalf of "Bob Bruninga " [email protected]) Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: ISS Digipeaer over Japan To: [email protected]
Toyo san,
A few more ideas. It is easy to manually estimate ISS pass times every day once you have heard a pass. See: http://aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html
ISS over Japan today is between about 0830 to 1830 JST.
When you hear the first pass, then you will have additional passes every 91 minutes or so that day.
Each day a given GOOD pass is 23 minutes later.
But overall-long-term pattern is moving earlier every other day by 51 minutes.
So in one week from now, the time window will be 0600 to 1600
The pass pattern is about the same. First 2 passes peak to the SE, then NW. Then a low northern pass, then the last two passes are NE and then SW.
You can get EXACT pass times from http://heavens-above.com and select a city. However, this web page does not show the 1 or 2 low passes each day below 10 degrees elevation.
The problem with using the ISS digipeater is that the survivors in the devistated area do not know the frequency (145.825). One way to solve this is to look for opportunity for someone to take a portable digipeater on an airplane over devistated area. The new TH-D72 HT can digipeat now! So have someone with a D72 catch a ride in an aircraft one day.
The D72 can BEACON on 144.64 a MESSAGE BULLETIN with info about the ISS digipeater and the time-window. WHile it is aloft, it can also act as a digipeater on Japanese APRS channel 144.64 and can also capture a list of any APRS stations or mobiles on the air.
The short bulletins might say something like this:
TO: BLN1 MSG: ISS Digi on 145.825 between 0830 to 1830
TO: BLN2 MSG: Passes are 6 min long every 91 minutes
TO: BLN3 MSG: Every day, passes are 23 minutes later
TO: BLN4 MSG: Time window moves EARLIER 51m every 2 days
Keep bulletins to under 45 characters to make sure that every radio display can see the full bulletin (D7 screen limit).
But in small area like Japan, I think it might be easier just to try to drive APRS mobiles (acting as digipeaters) to nearby hill tops on 144.64 normal APRS Japanese Frequency and keep everyone on same frequency without confusion.
Bob, WB4APR
Sent via [email protected]. 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