ANDE and RAFT are operatonal. There is a local TV clip now on the web page where the students discuss their satellite projects. See http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html
Both signals are weak and require a beam and high elevations to hear them. As of this time, RAFT speech is enabled for special testing only in accordance with the User Service Agreement: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt
During a 58 degrees max elevation pass, at about 45 degrees elevation, PA3GUO reports a successful voice packet via RAFT. The MP3 file is on the ANDE-RAFT-OPS web page above. A high elevation pass usually required.
PLEASE NOTE! RAFT is underpowered for this voice mission, and so this capability should only be used by special demo stations and for special events or tests. The downlink is very weak and needs a beam and a high elevation pass to hear it. DO NOT TRANSMIT A VOICE PACKET IF YOU CANNOT HEAR THE DOWNLINK. You must adhere to the user service agreement above to use this capability.
When ACTIVATED, RAFT will speak an APRS formatted MESSAGE addressed to the callsign of TALK. This APRS Message packet was Transmitted by PA3GUO:
PA3GUO-8>APRS,RAFT*::TALK :henk says hello
First the packet is digipeated (lets you know it received it). Then (up to 10 seconds later), it should SPEAK the packet. In this case RAFT spoke:
"PA3GUO" + "says" + "henk says hello"
Although the Speech synthesizer is ENABLED, it is normally OFF. To use it, someone in the footprint has to activate the voice module with a CONNECT REQUEST to "RAFT". On hearing a connect request, (the connecting station can do nothing else), RAFT responds in voice with "Welcome to TextSpeak". At that point, RAFT will speak any APRS formatted MESSAGES from anyone to TALK. Again, notice that if you see the successfully DIGIPEATED packet, then it will speak it, although there might be up to a 10 second delay. If you see such a successful APRS MESSGE to TALK digipeated, then everyone should hold off until it gets a chance to speak it.
Notice the APRS MESSAGE format carefully. The callsign TALK is bracketed with colons and is padded to 9 characters with 5 spaces on the end.
Oh, This speech was enabled with simply the connection of an off the shelf $200 text-to-speech module connected to the serial port (monitor) of the spaeccraft TNC. Kantronics made a slight software mode to replace the normal packet header with "CALLSIGN SAYS" before the packet is sent out the serial port. With this mod, you can use a radio, TNC and this voice module to create "voice at a distance"... But the high cost of the voice module will probably prohibit much terrestrial applications..
Bob Bruninga, WB4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab.