David, I have added a text file to the ANDE web page with all the laser info...

Thanks Bob

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande/lasers.txt

-----Original Message----- From: G0MRF@aol.com [mailto:G0MRF@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 9:47 AM To: bruninga@usna.edu; amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ANDE and Amateur Astronomers?

Hi Bob.

That sounds very interesting.

I and several friends have laser reception equipment and telescopes to go with it.

What is the modulation or switching frequency of the lasers? What is the divergence of each beam?

If they are switched on and off at an audio frequency you can detect very low levels using an audio analysis programme such as Spectran or Argo from www.weaksignals.com.

This may be a good opportunity to increase my 'best dx' from

76km

e.g. http://www.g0mrf.freeserve.co.uk/laser5.htm

I understand that the laser experiment on AO-40 had a station equipped to receive it on the island of Teneriffe.

Regards

David G0MRF

In a message dated 08/12/2006 21:59:55 GMT Standard Time, bruninga@usna.edu writes:

The next Amateur Satellite, ANDE, to be launched any day

now

will have six lasers on board that we can turn on at any

time.

But the lasers are each dispursed over at least 45

degrees so

the actual illumination is no brighter than a common red

LED.

I doubt anyone will be able to see it, so don't bother

trying.

However, there are a few very dedicated amateur

astronomers that

have the high precision tracking capability that have

taken

photos of the Shuttle and the ISS. They might want to

take a

crack at it.

I'm looking for someone with a foot in that camp to be a

focal

point of contact for such an effort.

It would not be soon after launch, but a little while

after they

have developed a really good track on it.

Bob Bruninga, WB4APR