We just noticed that PSAT is in full sun. We want to know its spin rate but seaman Murphy is visiting the shack rignt now… and our UHF seems to have an intermittent…

Passes are in the afternoon approaching sunset (and of course in the morning around sunrise… that’s why its in full sun all the time, because its orbit is near the day/night terminator right now…)

So, simply tune in 435.350 +/- 10 KHz doppler and listen to the SWISHES of the UHF FM downlink and count SWISHES per minute.

SWISHES are the nulls you might hear in the UHF antenna pattern on an FM receiver. Hold your squelch open so you don’t get confused.

It might be swishing at above 10 RPM which would be a swish every 6 seconds.

Of course, if no one is transmitting PSK31 on 28.121 MHz then the PSK31 transponder might not be up…. So this is a good time to dust off the PSK31 Ten meter transmitter. Just transmit PSK31 in the 28.120 to 28.122 MHz passband and it should bring up the transponder.

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Bob Bruninga, WB4APR