This morning at 9 and 1030 AM EDT passes over the East Coast USA, we hope to do a student demonstration of APRS packets via GO-32.
If you have a D700 with built-in 9600 baud TNC, then set your mobile for these parameters while your car sits in the parking this morning.
Set APRS Baudrate to 9600 baud. Set A band to uplink on 145.93 Set B band to receive 435.225 Set Path to be via 4XTECH Set MYCALL to a unique SSID Set TX method to AUTO Set TX RATE 1 min for HT. 2 min for D700 Put something useful in your STATUS text maybe describing your setup: "50W mobile, 1/4 wave, 2m rate" or "5W HT, long whip, 1m rate"
Save in a PM for use anytime you are outside of the terrestrial APRS network.
SATELLITE OPERATING NOTES:
The uplink is on the order of 20 dB more effective than the downlink. Menaning it is easy to get in, but difficult
without
a beam to hear it.
See my GO-32 APRS operations web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/GO32-ops.html
ACCESS TIMES: GO-32 is sun synchronous and so it comes over everywhere at USA latitudes three times between about 8 AM to Noon and again between 8 PM to midnight local sun time.
During
these two windows at least one pass each will be an overhead pass which might also work for an HT. The other passes will
be
lower to the East or West and will work fine for a 50W mobile.
WHAT YOU HEAR: 9600 baud sounds almost exactly like open squelch, though the tuned ear can soon distinguish the difference. Before the pass, set your squelch normally to
quiet
the speaker. When you hear the satellite, the squelch will
open
and you may see up to 3 bars on your S meter. Tune to the
"best
sounding" noise.
DOPPLER: Depending on how low to the horizon you can see, the satelite approaches 10 KHz high at 435.235 MHz... But it is maybe 3000 km away. As it gets higher, and 6 dB closer, it
will
be on 435.230 MHz, passing through 435.225 published center frequency at the middle point, and then drop down through 435.220 and ending at 435.215.
But since it is 6 to 10 dB closer (and stronger) towards the center of the pass (800 km overhead), the mobile antenna is probably only going to hear the middle 435.230, .225, .220 portion easily. So I would start my receiption at 435.230...
UPLINK CHANNELS: GO-32 allows two APRS uplinks. One is exclusive to Mic-E formatted (Think D7/D700) tactical position reporting and the other exclusive to messaging. This is in hardware, not policy...
- All APRS messaging (or fixed station non-Mic-E positions)
must use the 145.85 uplink where GO32 only digipeats APRS packets with TOCALLs that begin with the usual "APxxxx".
(Even
the D7 and D700 use "APKxxx" for messages.)
- All APRS Mic-E position uplinks (D7, D700 and D710s) must
be
on 145.93 MHz and they must have the position comment set to "Committed, Special or PRIORITY"... With those comment
settings
then the TOCALL first LATITUDE digit will be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and only these will be accepted by GO32 for digipeating from 145.93.
DATA CARRIER DETECT: The D700 and non(g) model D7's will NOT
TX
if they are hearing the downlink at the same time due to
CARRIER
DETECT. The D7(g) model has DCD IGNORE that *will* let it TX anyway. So use separate rigs for TX and for RX if you want to see yourself.
Otherwise stick to the receommended TX rates and know that you are getting in if you stick to the protocol. Sticking to the recommended rates also keeps channel loading low, so that everyone gets in with less congestion.
The D7 can get in with a 19.5" whip during the center of the pass.
Here is a link to AMSAT's description of GO-32:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=14&r
etURL=/satellites/status.php
Good luck!
Bob, Wb4APR