I was watching the Canadian Space Agencies BROLL video of the CASSIOPE satellite due to launch in a few days and noticed a neat antenna. The video link below starts at the appropriate point in the video (feel free to watch the whole video too). For what looks like it is essentially steel tape measure metal... that's quite an intense antenna and deployment! I'm used to seeing these on cubesats and other small satellites but this is very neat to see too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WGD4cWnpcto#t=2...
Bryce KB1LQC
On 9/28/13, Bryce Salmi [email protected] wrote:
I was watching the Canadian Space Agencies BROLL video of the CASSIOPE satellite due to launch in a few days and noticed a neat antenna. The video link below starts at the appropriate point in the video (feel free to watch the whole video too). For what looks like it is essentially steel tape measure metal... that's quite an intense antenna and deployment! I'm used to seeing these on cubesats and other small satellites but this is very neat to see too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WGD4cWnpcto#t=2...
It looks like it's the descendant of what was used on Canada's first satellite, Alouette-1:
http://www.spacenet.on.ca/data/pages/canada-in-space/alouette.html http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/alouette.asp
Many years ago, there was a documentary about the early days of Canada's satellite program and I remember this was mentioned. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the name was.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
While I was monitoring the 136-138 satellite sub-band a couple of months ago with a RTL2832U based cheap SDR dongle I founded weird doppler shifted signals not matching any known transmitting satellite. After reporting it on the HearSat mailing list and posterior confirmation from Mike Kenny in Australia the best match was Canadian old satellite Allouete-2 launched in 1965.
It is amazing how solar panels, antennas and transmitters stages are functioning after 48 years!!! It can be heard on: 136.076 +- 2 KHz with high instability, strong. 136.589 with unmodulated sub-carriers, weak. 136.981 Continuos Wave.
All three transmitters are alive after many years. It seems that due to some unknown reason it started to transmit again. May be the very same UFO which un-plug the batteries from the AO-07 bus ran across that oldie historical satellite and push the "ON" button HI HI HI HI HI!!!
All the bests and 73,
Raydel, CM2ESP
----- Original Message ----- From: "B J" [email protected] To: [email protected] Cc: "Amsat BB" [email protected] Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2013 12:12 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: CASSIOPE's Foldable Antennas
On 9/28/13, Bryce Salmi [email protected] wrote:
I was watching the Canadian Space Agencies BROLL video of the CASSIOPE satellite due to launch in a few days and noticed a neat antenna. The video link below starts at the appropriate point in the video (feel free to watch the whole video too). For what looks like it is essentially steel tape measure metal... that's quite an intense antenna and deployment! I'm used to seeing these on cubesats and other small satellites but this is very neat to see too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WGD4cWnpcto#t=2...
It looks like it's the descendant of what was used on Canada's first satellite, Alouette-1:
http://www.spacenet.on.ca/data/pages/canada-in-space/alouette.html http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/alouette.asp
Many years ago, there was a documentary about the early days of Canada's satellite program and I remember this was mentioned. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the name was.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. 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 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite
Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
That's interesting because there was no mention of it in the news here.
While I was monitoring the 136-138 satellite sub-band a couple of months ago
with a RTL2832U based cheap SDR dongle I founded weird doppler shifted signals not matching any known transmitting satellite. After reporting it on
the HearSat mailing list and posterior confirmation from Mike Kenny in Australia the best match was Canadian old satellite Allouete-2 launched in 1965.
It is amazing how solar panels, antennas and transmitters stages are functioning after 48 years!!! It can be heard on: 136.076 +- 2 KHz with high instability, strong. 136.589 with unmodulated sub-carriers, weak. 136.981 Continuos Wave.
I'll have to see if I can hear it.
All three transmitters are alive after many years. It seems that due to some
unknown reason it started to transmit again. May be the very same UFO which
un-plug the batteries from the AO-07 bus ran across that oldie historical satellite and push the "ON" button HI HI HI HI HI!!!
Maybe there's hope for some of our other silent OSCARS, such as AO-51.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
<snip>
On 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite
Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
Thanks for the tip.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
Nope, It was only announced on the HearSat mailing list and only few enthusiastics replied. On this world of new space probes with S band downlinks very few are interested in monitoring old birds which comes back to live spontaneously.
However the happiness and enjoy I felt after re-discover that old historical spacecraft is beyond compare.... It is like space archeology.... An U.S. ham re-discovered LES-1 several months ago and some media wrote a news report, but the original owner/builder of the satellite didn't reply to his e-mail....
About Allouette-2, the interesting was the international collaboration, Cuba and Australia are almost in opposites part of the world, but Mike Kenny and I still exchange information and collaboreted for confirm the re-discovery, and that my friend is the true ham spirit....
73,
Raydel, CM2ESP
----- Original Message ----- From: "B J" [email protected] To: "Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP)" [email protected] Cc: "[email protected]" [email protected] Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2013 10:17 AM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: CASSIOPE's Foldable Antennas
On 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite
Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
That's interesting because there was no mention of it in the news here.
On 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Nope, It was only announced on the HearSat mailing list and only few enthusiastics replied. On this world of new space probes with S band downlinks very few are interested in monitoring old birds which comes back to live spontaneously.
When the 50th anniversary of Alouette 1 came and went, there wasn't much on the news about it here in Canada or, at least, I didn't see much. I guess it wasn't as fancy as a Blackberry.
However the happiness and enjoy I felt after re-discover that old historical
spacecraft is beyond compare.... It is like space archeology.... An U.S. ham
re-discovered LES-1 several months ago and some media wrote a news report, but the original owner/builder of the satellite didn't reply to his e-mail....
About Allouette-2, the interesting was the international collaboration, Cuba
and Australia are almost in opposites part of the world, but Mike Kenny and
I still exchange information and collaboreted for confirm the re-discovery,
and that my friend is the true ham spirit....
I've been listening to the archived recordings of The Space Show at:
and one point the host often makes is that space has been one realm in which different nations have largely co-operated and have generally remained peaceful.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
On 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite
Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
While I was monitoring the 136-138 satellite sub-band a couple of months ago
with a RTL2832U based cheap SDR dongle I founded weird doppler shifted signals not matching any known transmitting satellite. After reporting it on
the HearSat mailing list and posterior confirmation from Mike Kenny in Australia the best match was Canadian old satellite Allouete-2 launched in 1965.
I found a tracking URL for it:
http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=25058
Apparently it re-entered on 1999-12-15 and NASA has nothing on it:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1965-098L
Alouette-1, on the other hand, is still in orbit:
http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=424
and here's what NASA has on it:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1962-049A
Now you've got me interested.....
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
Hi Bernhard and all,
I guess you are looking into the wrong catalogue number. Allouette-2 is 1965-098-A, not "L" which is what you looked for. I download its TLE regularly from Space-Track. NORAD Number is 01804.
The TLE I am sending you is from 4 days ago are still good, in a previous e-mail I sent the frequencies:
0 ALOUETTE 2 1 01804U 65098A 13267.80431926 .00000325 00000-0 11085-3 0 4491 2 01804 079.8011 254.0639 1347527 258.0698 086.6578 12.24267898109332
Mike Kenny has a nice page with old ages and historical 136-138 MHz band emitters. I don't remember the address, but you can Google it.
By the way, my apologize to the rest of the AMSAT-BB readers, as it is not a 100% ham sat topic....
73,
Raydel, CM2ESP
----- Original Message ----- From: "B J" [email protected] To: "Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP)" [email protected] Cc: "[email protected]" [email protected] Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2013 9:29 PM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: CASSIOPE's Foldable Antennas
On 9/28/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Regarding Canada's Space Program, did you know that Canada's oldie satellite
Allouette-2 is back to live???, or at least its transmitters.....
While I was monitoring the 136-138 satellite sub-band a couple of months ago
with a RTL2832U based cheap SDR dongle I founded weird doppler shifted signals not matching any known transmitting satellite. After reporting it on
the HearSat mailing list and posterior confirmation from Mike Kenny in Australia the best match was Canadian old satellite Allouete-2 launched in 1965.
I found a tracking URL for it:
http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=25058
Apparently it re-entered on 1999-12-15 and NASA has nothing on it:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1965-098L
Alouette-1, on the other hand, is still in orbit:
http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=424
and here's what NASA has on it:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1962-049A
Now you've got me interested.....
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
On 9/29/13, Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) [email protected] wrote:
Hi Bernhard and all,
I guess you are looking into the wrong catalogue number. Allouette-2 is 1965-098-A, not "L" which is what you looked for. I download its TLE regularly from Space-Track. NORAD Number is 01804.
The TLE I am sending you is from 4 days ago are still good, in a previous e-mail I sent the frequencies:
0 ALOUETTE 2 1 01804U 65098A 13267.80431926 .00000325 00000-0 11085-3 0 4491 2 01804 079.8011 254.0639 1347527 258.0698 086.6578 12.24267898109332
Mike Kenny has a nice page with old ages and historical 136-138 MHz band emitters. I don't remember the address, but you can Google it.
By the way, my apologize to the rest of the AMSAT-BB readers, as it is not a
100% ham sat topic....
I stand corrected. I gathered what I found before was information about Alouette 2's debris, which I assumed was referring to an inactive satellite. There's also an entry for 1965-098K, which is also debris.
The correct URLs for Alouette 2 would be:
http://n2yo.com/satellite/?s=1804 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1965-098A
There's more information on Alouette 2 at:
http://astronautix.com/craft/alouette.htm
Also, I found these links to be useful:
http://planet4589.org/space/space.html http://planet4589.org/space/log/launch.html http://planet4589.org/space/log/satcat.txt
By the way, your comments prompted me to look up the HearSat mailing list and I signed up for it earlier this evening. Thanks for the tip. Now I have another way to have fun with satellites!
Perhaps listening for old satellites might be a suitable topic for a Journal article.
73s
Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL
participants (3)
-
B J -
Bryce Salmi -
Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP)