El 10/11/16 a las 00:54, Alan Kung escribió:

CAS-2T a technical verification satellite for CAMSAT CAS-2 series amateur radio satellite launched at 23:42 today, It is an 2U Cubsat and will not be separated from the final stage of rocket, so the orbital life may be 10 to 30 days since the final stage of rocket will be re-entry atmosphere.

Hi guys,

I listened for CAS-2T on the 17:30 UTC pass over Europe (an overhead pass).

The CW beacon is easy to copy, but it seems that there is much QSB. Perhaps the satellite is spinning fast.

The FM transponder doesn't work properly. It is weak, and it seems that it tries to modulate, but it doesn't modulate well and it shuts down, and continues doing this on and on as long as someone tries to active it. I would say that it responded to my PTT (using 5W to 3el) well, but I can't be sure, as there were a handful other stations trying.

Finally, the statement that CAS-2T will not be separated from the final stage rocket and will re-enter in 10 to 30 days doesn't make any sense at all. First, in the image of CAS-2T shown on AMSAT-UK, it just looks like a regular cubesat, so no way that antennas and solar panels would work fine without separation from the rocket.

Second, the TLEs for this launch are already in Celestrak and Space-Track. There are 6 objects tracked (A through F). Mike DK3WN says that object E is a good match for the Doppler profile of CAS-2T CW beacon. My observations on the 17:30 pass agree with him. Objects A through D are on 512km x 492km orbits. Objects E and F are on 1030km x 504km orbits. There is no way that any of these objects (especially E and F) will decay in less than a month.

For comparison, according to Space-Track, NORAD ID 41559, which is a CZ-4B rocket body that was launched 30th May, sending its payload into a 500km circular orbit, and is currently on a 360km x 240km orbit, will decay around 15th December. This is 6 months to decay for the rocket body of a similar launch.

Hopefully Alan BA1DU will be able to give us more accurate information about this launch.

73,

Dani EA4GPZ.