I was happy to make a QSO on the FM repeater of XW-1 tonight during the 0210utc 21 Dec 2009 pass, and tried some packet too.
Signals were S9 or better (didn't really look carefully). Audio was loud and clear on all stations I heard.
I was able to get connected to the BBS, but unable to upload a small file. A directory request was given a -2 error a few times, too. So, it will take some tweaking, but it's working!
Bravo,
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
I think Drew (KO4MA) and I had the pleasure of completing the first QSO on the FM repeater of XW-1 tonight from North America. Signals were extremely strong, yet unfortunately very few stations were heard on the downlink.
Just seconds after Drew and I chatted, we heard/worked Jay (AA4FL), Rick (WA4NVM) and John (K8YSE). Luc (VE2DWE) has some magic in his antennas, as I consistently heard him pretty much all through the pass.
I heard Drew mention that perhaps due to the PL tone and the large number of stations trying to use the repeater, very few stations were able to make a QSO.
The satellite rose from the south, and since I'm probably the southernmost USA fixed station active on the birds, I had the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time I guess.
All in all, XW-1 is a great addition to the ever growing fleet of ham radio satellites, and I offer my thanks to all the hams in China who made it possible.
73 de W4AS, EL95 Sebastian
On Dec 20, 2009, at 9:36 PM, Mark L. Hammond wrote:
I was happy to make a QSO on the FM repeater of XW-1 tonight during the 0210utc 21 Dec 2009 pass, and tried some packet too.
Signals were S9 or better (didn't really look carefully). Audio was loud and clear on all stations I heard.
I was able to get connected to the BBS, but unable to upload a small file. A directory request was given a -2 error a few times, too. So, it will take some tweaking, but it's working!
Bravo,
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
Sebastian wrote:
I think Drew (KO4MA) and I had the pleasure of completing the first QSO on the FM repeater of XW-1 tonight from North America. Signals were extremely strong, yet unfortunately very few stations were heard on the downlink.
Just seconds after Drew and I chatted, we heard/worked Jay (AA4FL), Rick (WA4NVM) and John (K8YSE). Luc (VE2DWE) has some magic in his antennas, as I consistently heard him pretty much all through the pass.
I heard Drew mention that perhaps due to the PL tone and the large number of stations trying to use the repeater, very few stations were able to make a QSO.
It was really reminiscent of the first week or so on AO-51. Signals were great, especially considering the altitude/slant range. However, and no offense to the designers, the sheer number of folks trying to access the satellite illustrates the fatal flaw with this sort of PL system. Two or more signals of nearly the same strength at the same time, and no one gets through, which leads to some users holding the mike down until they do. I also wonder how many unattended packet beacons there are out there on 145.825, with no tone. We might take a listen sometime with AO-51 to get an idea. What we did with AO-51, although we haven't implemented it yet for other reasons, is to use the PL decoder output to tell the flight computer to turn the transmitter on for n minutes, and pass all audio regardless of tone. This will let us use the PL to conserve power when no users are there, but mitigates this logjam effect somewhat. This is where full duplex really becomes worthwhile, to prevent QRMing other users.
I of course have no idea if the hardware on XW-1, or SO-67 for that matter, would support this sort of system if reprogrammed, but it would be nice to see it designed into future spacecraft. This was part of the lessons learned paper I presented at symposium this year.
After the newness wears off and the crowd thins, the problem won't be so bad.
Congratulations and thanks again to Alan and the AMSAT-China group for a fine spacecraft, with a really fine orbit.
73, Drew KO4MA
Hi,
I missed the transponder pass, but managed to catch the FM/BBS pass last night. As others have said, it was a real kick. I had Wisp running, but with TX off, and was able to see part of N8MH's connect efforts. Fortunately the deviation of the packet downlink was not so high that it was unbearable. Still, at some point I hope they will, at least for a test period, separate out the voice and packet modes, as well as drop the PL if possible on the packet.
A great new project. Congratulations to CAMSAT!
Alan WA4SCA
A minor correction. I see that XW-1 is now officially Hope Oscar 68, HO-68. Well deserved.
Alan WA4SCA
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Alan P. Biddle Sent: 21 December, 2009 07:40 To: 'Andrew Glasbrenner' Cc: 'AMSAT BB' Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: XW-1 QSO and packet attempt
Hi,
I missed the transponder pass, but managed to catch the FM/BBS pass last night. As others have said, it was a real kick. I had Wisp running, but with TX off, and was able to see part of N8MH's connect efforts. Fortunately the deviation of the packet downlink was not so high that it was unbearable. Still, at some point I hope they will, at least for a test period, separate out the voice and packet modes, as well as drop the PL if possible on the packet.
A great new project. Congratulations to CAMSAT!
Alan WA4SCA
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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
On 20 Dec 2009 at 22:05, Sebastian wrote:
Date sent: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:05:48 -0500 From: Sebastian w4as@bellsouth.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: XW-1 QSO and packet attempt To: AMSAT BB AMSAT-BB@amsat.org
Luc (VE2DWE) has some magic in his antennas, as I consistently heard him pretty much all through the pass.
John K8YSE wrote: It could have been that the BBS stops the voice repeater but there were times that VE2DWE was making it (although noisy) and my signal was not there at all. Maybe the amount of deviation on the tone makes a difference when there are a lot of competing signals on the input.
As the bird sank low on the horizon on the way north, it was again possible to get into it. Normally there are not many who get into any satellite that is in northern Canada. Less congestion on the input gives you a better chance.
I heard Drew mention that perhaps due to the PL tone and the large number of stations trying to use the repeater, very few stations were able to make a QSO.
Three problems: as with AO-51 the CTCSS tone is blocking a lot of station it was the same when ISS cross band repeater was on too. When XW- 1 was over central USA his footprint was covering nearly all the Northern continent including central america and the Carribean island with all the Northern satellite station in the same footprint it should be a challenge at the satellite receiver to have one station able to make it through that's the second one and for the third one the packet BBS also is competing at the receiver and i'm guessing at the transceiver too as i never heard the packet transmission over a phone transmission. Without any knowledge of the ways the transmitter is voting or who's got the priority first it is hard to tell if this packet turn over is not also a contributing factor as many of my transmissions where shut down to just get a packet burst afterwards?
I missed the linear transponder but i'm guessing it will be "The mode" on XW-1 as per what i heard from the recordings.
It is a great sat and as i wrote a nice christmas gift with SO-67 as a suggestion the FM/BBS mode can be put in service in light traffic pass as it is permitting less traffic than the linear transponder, but it can be an alternance of both. Let see what the european pass will give as the whole europe will be in the same footprint!!!.
For the magic in my antennas there is none that i know but operating in full duplex is a big help as you can choose when to key the TX but as we cannot get a constant TX from the satellite we probably often transmit over each other Letting the receiver only activated by the carrier will at least make us hear through the capture effect and it will tell us when it's time to TX? It will not solved the tailgating problem but it will help.
P.S. There is also a trick on XW-1 as there was one on SO-67 i will have to check it again but he's not much nicer than the one i discover on SO-67 fighting against the 3 seconds timer... Just remember i wrote "fighting"!
"-"
Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe DSTAR urcall VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE
Luc, Please look at Mike DK3WN's post to the -bb on 19th December. The FM and the AFSK Digital are operational at the "same" time. If you no longer have that mail please listen to the audio at http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=10091 Best regards, Colin VK5HI.
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org]On Behalf Of Luc Leblanc Sent: Monday, 21 December 2009 15:25 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Cc: eu-amsat@yahoogroups.com Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: XW-1 QSO and packet attempt
On 20 Dec 2009 at 22:05, Sebastian wrote:
Date sent: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:05:48 -0500 From: Sebastian w4as@bellsouth.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: XW-1 QSO and packet attempt To: AMSAT BB AMSAT-BB@amsat.org
Luc (VE2DWE) has some magic in his antennas, as I consistently
heard him pretty much all through the pass.
John K8YSE wrote: It could have been that the BBS stops the voice repeater but there were times that VE2DWE was making it (although noisy) and my signal was not there at all. Maybe the amount of deviation on the tone makes a difference when there are a lot of competing signals on the input.
As the bird sank low on the horizon on the way north, it was again possible to get into it. Normally there are not many who get into any satellite that is in northern Canada. Less congestion on the input gives you a better chance.
I heard Drew mention that perhaps due to the PL tone and the
large number of stations trying to use the repeater, very few stations were able to make a QSO.
Three problems: as with AO-51 the CTCSS tone is blocking a lot of station it was the same when ISS cross band repeater was on too. When XW- 1 was over central USA his footprint was covering nearly all the Northern continent including central america and the Carribean island with all the Northern satellite station in the same footprint it should be a challenge at the satellite receiver to have one station able to make it through that's the second one and for the third one the packet BBS also is competing at the receiver and i'm guessing at the transceiver too as i never heard the packet transmission over a phone transmission. Without any knowledge of the ways the transmitter is voting or who's got the priority first it is hard to tell if this packet turn over is not also a contributing factor as many of my transmissions where shut down to just get a packet burst afterwards?
I missed the linear transponder but i'm guessing it will be "The mode" on XW-1 as per what i heard from the recordings.
It is a great sat and as i wrote a nice christmas gift with SO-67 as a suggestion the FM/BBS mode can be put in service in light traffic pass as it is permitting less traffic than the linear transponder, but it can be an alternance of both. Let see what the european pass will give as the whole europe will be in the same footprint!!!.
For the magic in my antennas there is none that i know but operating in full duplex is a big help as you can choose when to key the TX but as we cannot get a constant TX from the satellite we probably often transmit over each other Letting the receiver only activated by the carrier will at least make us hear through the capture effect and it will tell us when it's time to TX? It will not solved the tailgating problem but it will help.
P.S. There is also a trick on XW-1 as there was one on SO-67 i will have to check it again but he's not much nicer than the one i discover on SO-67 fighting against the 3 seconds timer... Just remember i wrote "fighting"!
"-"
Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe DSTAR urcall VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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
participants (6)
-
Alan P. Biddle -
Andrew Glasbrenner -
Colin Hurst -
Luc Leblanc -
Mark L. Hammond -
Sebastian