We are in need of stations around the world to receive this telemetry and gate it to the APRS-IS...

An easier option: If you have a TM-D700 radio,... set [it] to work as a SatGate to help capture these packets. [by digipeating over to the national network...]

Although that is a very clever approach, unfortunately, there are 3 reasons why we do not recommend that except in extremely remote continents where there is no other way to get the packets.

1) The danger of someone missconfiguring their mobile and then digipeating BACK on 145.825, though small, is bad enough to reduce the satellite effectiveness by 50% for each mobile that forgets to properly set their TX frequency. These stations then would be jamming the uplink 50% of the time after each packet heard. This risk, though small, is not the kind of risk we like to take in space stuff where such a problem can block an entire continent.

2) We do not want packets from 145.825 digipeated over to national APRS networks, because once there, the packets cannot be determined to be from the Satellites and do not show up on the PCSAT web pages on FINDU. This causes frustration and confusion and takes time of key players to constantly troubleshoot and comment on.

3) Since anyone that can receive APRS on 144.39 or whatever national frequency can receive the satelltie just as easily themselves, there is little advantage to this process.

Now #2 might not be as big a problem as I fear, because presumably if a -real- satgate gets the packet first, then that copy may be the one that FINDU see's and then it will ignore all others [which are delayed by the digipeat (but unmarked as being via the satellite)]. But it seems not worth the risk.

But thanks for your enthusiasm! I suggest a parked vehicle with a D700 would be a great candidate for an RS-232 cable from the driveway through a window to a PC running as an Igate would also work when parked at home if one has a clear horizon. The mobile antenna will possibly do better than the base station because it has a shorter less lossy coax run.

De WB4APR, Bob

You do not need an Internet connection at all for this setup. See details here:

http://aj3u.com/aprs/aj3u-10.php

Here is the operations website for ANDE and RAFT:

http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html

Access for digipeating is not granted until their primary

mission is

complete. Look for an e-mail from Bob (WB4APR) for a go-ahead

to

start digipeating.

-- A.J. Farmer, AJ3U http://www.aj3u.com

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