Satellite Fans,
I pointed my 2 x XP28 moonbounce antenna at AO-91 today. The AO-91 pass was nearly directly overhead in FN20. The FM signal quality was so high - you can hear the room acoustics in the recording of the child's voice. Very cool.
Here is a YouTube link - https://youtu.be/gepcNt2sW2g
73 - Paul - W2HRO
That is a nice recording, Paul.
I would like to state for the record that the ID is not actually a "child", Veronica Monteiro was just starting in college when we made the Fox-1x recordings. Because of the need to sharply filter the recordings with a 350 Hz high pass to eliminate any audio in the DUV telemetry frequency range, it does have the effect of making her sound younger. That coupled with whatever your particular SDR or transceiver filtering adds creates the rather common misconception that the recordings were of a young child.
Veronica Monteiro is the daughter of the late Tony Monteiro AA2TX, who as AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering brought the Fox-1 1U CubeSat concept and project to the Board of Directors and "sold" the Fox-1 Program that has now produced 5 (OK 4 1/2 until Fox-1E is complete) Fox-1 CubeSats. The concept included a Morse Code ID for the beacon of the FM repeaters, as stated in the System Requirements:
3.9.6 If the downlink transmitter has been un-keyed for a period of 5 minutes, the satellite shall send " HI THIS IS AMSAT FOX " in Morse code via a keyed audio tone on the downlink transmitter.
When designing the software for the ID back in 2014 after I was appointed VPE, the Fox-1 Team thought it would be a nice idea to use a voice ID instead of Morse Code given the abilities of the IHU and available memory. In kicking around ideas about who would record the ID it came to us that it would be a nice tribute to Tony if Veronica were the voice ID. Fox-1 software engineer Burns Fisher, who lives near Tony's family, contacted them. Veronica graciously agreed, and Burns set out with his recorder to capture Veronica to become the voice of the Fox-1 FM satellites.
From their many clips I was able to assemble the various Safe Mode and
Transponder Mode IDs for each satellite/name, so I guess I'm to blame for the processing I did that makes her sound like a child...
I listened to Veronica's IDs I'll bet hundreds if not a thousand times in testing the Fox-1 engineering model and Fox-1A through D, and I still get a kick and a smile from it every time I hear her - especially from orbit!
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 11/19/2017 12:57, Paul Andrews wrote:
Satellite Fans,
I pointed my 2 x XP28 moonbounce antenna at AO-91 today. The AO-91 pass was nearly directly overhead in FN20. The FM signal quality was so high - you can hear the room acoustics in the recording of the child's voice. Very cool.
Here is a YouTube link - https://youtu.be/gepcNt2sW2g
73 - Paul - W2HRO _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
What a wonderful tribute to Tony AA2TX!
73,
John K2ZA AMSAT #22683
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 20, 2017, at 00:59, Jerry Buxton [email protected] wrote:
That is a nice recording, Paul.
I would like to state for the record that the ID is not actually a "child", Veronica Monteiro was just starting in college when we made the Fox-1x recordings. Because of the need to sharply filter the recordings with a 350 Hz high pass to eliminate any audio in the DUV telemetry frequency range, it does have the effect of making her sound younger. That coupled with whatever your particular SDR or transceiver filtering adds creates the rather common misconception that the recordings were of a young child.
Veronica Monteiro is the daughter of the late Tony Monteiro AA2TX, who as AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering brought the Fox-1 1U CubeSat concept and project to the Board of Directors and "sold" the Fox-1 Program that has now produced 5 (OK 4 1/2 until Fox-1E is complete) Fox-1 CubeSats. The concept included a Morse Code ID for the beacon of the FM repeaters, as stated in the System Requirements:
3.9.6 If the downlink transmitter has been un-keyed for a period of 5 minutes, the satellite shall send " HI THIS IS AMSAT FOX " in Morse code via a keyed audio tone on the downlink transmitter.
When designing the software for the ID back in 2014 after I was appointed VPE, the Fox-1 Team thought it would be a nice idea to use a voice ID instead of Morse Code given the abilities of the IHU and available memory. In kicking around ideas about who would record the ID it came to us that it would be a nice tribute to Tony if Veronica were the voice ID. Fox-1 software engineer Burns Fisher, who lives near Tony's family, contacted them. Veronica graciously agreed, and Burns set out with his recorder to capture Veronica to become the voice of the Fox-1 FM satellites.
From their many clips I was able to assemble the various Safe Mode and Transponder Mode IDs for each satellite/name, so I guess I'm to blame for the processing I did that makes her sound like a child...
I listened to Veronica's IDs I'll bet hundreds if not a thousand times in testing the Fox-1 engineering model and Fox-1A through D, and I still get a kick and a smile from it every time I hear her - especially from orbit!
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
On 11/19/2017 12:57, Paul Andrews wrote: Satellite Fans,
I pointed my 2 x XP28 moonbounce antenna at AO-91 today. The AO-91 pass was nearly directly overhead in FN20. The FM signal quality was so high - you can hear the room acoustics in the recording of the child's voice. Very cool.
Here is a YouTube link - https://youtu.be/gepcNt2sW2g
73 - Paul - W2HRO _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (3)
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Jerry Buxton -
John Zaruba Jr -
Paul Andrews