Unfortunately because of some financial issues, I'm going to have to sell my TS-2000X. I've avoided it and tried to figure some way around it but the sad reality is that it's got to go. I was thinking that I'd be leaving the satellite game for awhile but then it occured to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM. I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Yaesu Ft11R handheld. Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band? Would it take both radios or just one? Are their other things I could do like possibly monitoring beacons or decoding telemetry and such. I have no TNC but I could use AGWPE with my soundcard. I'd just like something to "scratch the itch" so to speak till I can go back to a more fully equipped station. Thanks, Michael, W4HIJ
P.S. If I owe any of you QSL cards, please be patient, I am getting to them!
I haven't seen anyone reply to you so here's my 2 cents...
Bob Bruninga is keeping Satellite APRS and it's accompanying UNPROTO alive on 145.825 1200 baud AX 25. ISS, when they get it put back together, will be maintaining the 145.800 frequency for Packet contacts and in-band voice contacts. Currently all School contacts are on 145.800.
If you know CW, you even could combine keying the rig on 2m and listening on 10 meters to work AO-7 when it shows up in that mode. While it might be "chirpy," there are not so many users that it would offend anyone who needs you for a new contact.
AO-7 could get you WAS, VE and XE and maybe across the pond. ISS and 145.825 UNPROTO would probably yield half the states and VE.
For now...leave one rig (that's all you need)hooked up to your AGWPE program on 145.825 and watch RAFT, ANDE, and PCSAT come up on the screen, get used to them and then work them UNPROTO.
See Bob's website (google: UNPROTO PCSAT-1) for uplink instructions. and ENJOY!
Roger WA1KAT
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Tondee" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 7:34 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] What can I do with just 2 meter FM equipment??
Unfortunately because of some financial issues, I'm going to have to sell my TS-2000X. I've avoided it and tried to figure some way around it but the sad reality is that it's got to go. I was thinking that I'd be leaving the satellite game for awhile but then it occured to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM. I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Yaesu Ft11R handheld. Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band? Would it take both radios or just
one?
Are their other things I could do like possibly monitoring beacons or decoding telemetry and such. I have no TNC but I could use AGWPE with my soundcard. I'd just like something to "scratch the itch" so to speak till I can go back to a more fully equipped station. Thanks, Michael, W4HIJ
P.S. If I owe any of you QSL cards, please be patient, I am getting to
them!
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
I'd be leaving the satellite game... but then it occured to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM. I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Ft11R handheld. Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band?
Yes, there are two APRS satellites on orbit with 1200 baud AX.25 packet on 2 meters FM. You only need one radio since it TX's and RX's on 145.825. But they are kinda weak and do need a beam to hear them on most of their 6 passes a day. Right at the middle of one pass a day, you might decode them on an omni as long as you have a short cable and virtually no cable loss. You can see their activity and user packets on http://pcsat.aprs.org
And you can send packets to them and they will SPEAK by voice using a text-to-speech synthesizer.
RAFT has the easier to use, always-on speech system, but only hears users in the dark. Fortunately over the next several weeks we are entering a period of evening passes, so RAFT should get back to better use.
ANDE works any time day or night, but needs to be woken up. It only wakes to listen for activity 1 sec out of every 16, so someone has to hit it with a packet at the right time to wake it u p. Once awakened, it will stay awake until 1 minute after the last packet heard. For details, see the ANDE RAFT operations page: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html
And for operations details see: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt
And of course, even with out the voice, y ou can make QSO's with other users by sending and receiving digipeated packets with others. The VIA path for these satellites is VIA ARISS, the same as the ISS uses so that people do not need to change their paths for the different satellites.
Bob, WB4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab
Would it take both
radios or just one? Are their other things I could do like possibly monitoring
beacons or
decoding telemetry and such. I have no TNC but I could use AGWPE with my soundcard. I'd just like something to "scratch the itch" so to speak till I can go back to a more fully equipped station. Thanks, Michael, W4HIJ
P.S. If I owe any of you QSL cards, please be patient, I am getting to them!
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:
Michael
Others have mentioned the APRS satellites ANDE-1 and Raft, both of which operate on 145.825 MHz up and down. Both are easy to use although ANDE requires care because of its limited and finite power budget.
PCsat also operates on 145.825 MHz (up and down) and the ISS is on 145.800 MHz down and 145.990 MHz Up. PCSAT is waiting for better sunlight and the ISS is currently off.
There are a couple of others you may also like to listen for.
UO-11. Transmits ASCII at 1200 b/s. Clive Wallis is always keen to receive signal reports for this satellite. The Tx is currently off, but will switch on around 31 March. Clive isn't sure exactly when this will happen, so it is fun to listen for it at around that time. You can decode UO-11 using MixW, although I use a hardware decoder built mostly from junkbox parts.
You could also listen for Pehuensat. I heard this one only once, shortly after it was launched. It should transmit UI packets (1200 b/s AFSK) but I only ever heard a recorded voice message. I'm not sure of the current status of this satellite, but since I have gear up and running on 145.825 MHz I watch for this one too.
You'll need to make an interface to go between your rig and your computer if you want Tx to the satellites. This can be very simple and easily built from stuff in your junk box. If you just want to copy the telemetry, you need only couple the audio output of your rig to the line-in jack on your soundcard.
On 2 metres, I use a homebuilt 6 element horizontally polarised antenna. It's currently horizontally mounted and is steerable only in azimuth. That works okay with LEOs.
You can also experiment with various software packages that can copy the 1200 b/s AFSK signal. You already have AGWPE and UISS is a great program to use when working satellites via AGWPE. You might also try UIview which allows you to run an Sgate (even over a dial up connection) and of course the powerful MixW.
I generally run both AGWPE and a hardware TNC in parallel since I find that one sometimes decodes packets that the other misses. You can also run UISS and UIview simultaneously with both receiving data from AGWPE.
Sil - ZL2CIA
Michael Tondee wrote:
Unfortunately because of some financial issues, I'm going to have to sell my TS-2000X. I've avoided it and tried to figure some way around it but the sad reality is that it's got to go. I was thinking that I'd be leaving the satellite game for awhile but then it occured to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM. I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Yaesu Ft11R handheld. Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band? Would it take both radios or just one? Are their other things I could do like possibly monitoring beacons or decoding telemetry and such. I have no TNC but I could use AGWPE with my soundcard. I'd just like something to "scratch the itch" so to speak till I can go back to a more fully equipped station. Thanks, Michael, W4HIJ
P.S. If I owe any of you QSL cards, please be patient, I am getting to them!
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
Thanks Bob and thanks to everyone else who has answered my query as well. Actually I plan on keeping my homebrew AZ/EL tracking system that I run with SatPC-32. I have a homebrew 4 element vertically polarized yagi on the two meter side of it. I could build one larger if necessary. I've never used AGWPE, I just got as far as downloading it. I also downloaded and registered UIview awhile back. I've built soundcard radio interfaces before as well. Guess I'll start snooping around my junk box and see what I can maybe cobble up. 73, Michael, W4HIJ Robert Bruninga wrote:
I'd be leaving the satellite game... but then it occured to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM. I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Ft11R handheld. Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band?
Yes, there are two APRS satellites on orbit with 1200 baud AX.25 packet on 2 meters FM. You only need one radio since it TX's and RX's on 145.825. But they are kinda weak and do need a beam to hear them on most of their 6 passes a day. Right at the middle of one pass a day, you might decode them on an omni as long as you have a short cable and virtually no cable loss. You can see their activity and user packets on http://pcsat.aprs.org
And you can send packets to them and they will SPEAK by voice using a text-to-speech synthesizer.
RAFT has the easier to use, always-on speech system, but only hears users in the dark. Fortunately over the next several weeks we are entering a period of evening passes, so RAFT should get back to better use.
ANDE works any time day or night, but needs to be woken up. It only wakes to listen for activity 1 sec out of every 16, so someone has to hit it with a packet at the right time to wake it u p. Once awakened, it will stay awake until 1 minute after the last packet heard. For details, see the ANDE RAFT operations page: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html
And for operations details see: http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt
And of course, even with out the voice, y ou can make QSO's with other users by sending and receiving digipeated packets with others. The VIA path for these satellites is VIA ARISS, the same as the ISS uses so that people do not need to change their paths for the different satellites.
Bob, WB4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab
On Mar 27, 2007, at 9:30 AM, Roger Kolakowski wrote:
If you know CW, you even could combine keying the rig on 2m and
listening on
10 meters to work AO-7 when it shows up in that mode. While it
might be
"chirpy," there are not so many users that it would offend anyone
who needs
you for a new contact.
Actually it never bothered anyone when there were a lot of users on Oscar 7. The first time around for Oscar 7 lots of guys got their start keying the PTT on their 2M handie talkie for a CW up link. Everyone worked these guys encouraging them in their first satellite efforts. These guys usually moved up to a real CW rig. - Dr. Megacycle KK6MC/5
-
James Duffey -
Michael Tondee -
Robert Bruninga -
Roger Kolakowski -
Sil - ZL2CIA