Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] RAFT Packet Operator assistance needed
In about a week the CAPE team work load will drop off and we will be able to help. In the mean time we can on a night or two send a few commands to the sats.
That would be great. We only have a few days left during this operating period, because RAFT only works well in the DARK and it is getting earlier every day. We have been in orbit for 4 months have not found anyone in the Southern USA to do this simple test. (needs an OSCAR array). You did not mention where you are located..
There is only one viable pass per day per location in the early evening. Not knowing where you are, here are the Times CENTRAL Daylight Time are:
24th 9:57:36 PM West of Texas 25th 8:56:36 PM East of Texas 9:55:24 PM West of Texas 26th 8:22:42 PM East of Texas 9:52:06 PM West of texas 27th 8:19:18 PM East of Texas 9:49:12 PM West of Texas 28th 8:15:42 PM West of Texas 29th 8:11:56 PM West of Texas 30th 8:07:48 PM West of Texas 1st 8:03:36 PM West of Texas
The trick is to command the satellite to turn on its downlink carrier and Radar receiver exactly 30 seconds prior to passing through the fence and then having an audio recorder running to "hear" the tone when we pass through the radar beam.
Commands are a ssimple CONNECT XXXX at the cmd: propt, then an exchange of passwords, and then sending a simpel typed command.
RAFT can he HEARD just fine on ALL passes and 5 of them occur every day before this last one. So you can test your RECEIVE capability on any pass, but can only command in the dark (due to overchargin on batteries makes uplink receier deaf)...
Bob
nick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Bruninga" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 12:32 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] RAFT Packet Operator assistance needed
We need AMSAT operator help with the RAFT satellite Test.
We need somone with a 2m beam and familiarity with packet
that
lives in the Southern USA from Arizona to Georgia (AZ, NM,
TX,
OK, MS, ALA, GA).
RAFT is at its mission life time half-way point, and we have
not
been able to find anyone in the above footprint to help us conduct the primary mission which was for the satellite to detect its own passing through the DOD's radar fence. When
it
flies through the North American Space-Object fan beam, we should hear about 1 second tone that anyone can hear on the downlink.
Due to its low orbit and small footprint, turning on the
Radar
Transponder can only be done in the shared footprint between
the
radar transmitter in North Texas and the command station.
The
ideal command station has these atributes:
- Lives in AZ, NM, TX, OK, AK, LA, MS, AL, GA, W.FLA
- A reasonable 2m beam for ops on 145.825
- A packet TNC
- A familiarity with dumb-terminal TNC operations such as
A. Connections, Converse, UNPROTO, etc B. Remote sysop logon to a Kantronics TNC
The objective of these southern command stations is to
logon,
send the command to activate the RAFT Radar receiver for 1 minute in anticipation of passing through the fence. Then hopefully recording any audio heard on the downlink
(145.825).
Of course, once the radar receiver is on, everyone in the footprint should be able to hear it.
For info, see the ANDE-RAFT operations page: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html
Several AMSAT hams built this tiny Radar receiver as a
possible
common device for all future HAMsats, and we would like to
get
feedback on its performance. But they all live up North.
If
you have a beam and familiarity with TNC's please let us
know.
Bob, WB4APR. US Naval Academy Satellite Lab
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of
the
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of the author.
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