When AO-51 changes modes, what time is the change generally done? For example, the schedule says that AO-51 will start broadcasting 9600 baud telemetry on 3/10 (today).
Is this done in the morning on the east coast, is it preprogrammed to happen at some specific UTC time, or what? When are these changes actually made? It would be nice if the schedule announcement had some additional precision, something like: on orbit-xyz during the pass over the abc groundstation, the mode switch is planned.
thanks, jeff AD6EO
It is generally done manually on the evening passes over the command stations in the US, which is 0000Z-0200Z of the specific date. But...sometimes things happen. We may wait an orbit to collect some further whole orbit telemetry. We may not get everything done in one pass to reconfigure completely. Last month I had a very pushy Verizon FIOS salesman that showed up 5 minutes before the pass that couldn't take a hint other than the door in his face.
I wish we could be more specific on exactly when the mode change occurs, but the simplest way is to just listen. If it's going to be delay for more than an orbit we'll generally let folks know via amsat-bb.
73, Drew KO4MA
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Mock" jeff@mock.com To: "AMSAT-BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 1:37 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 mode changes
When AO-51 changes modes, what time is the change generally done? For example, the schedule says that AO-51 will start broadcasting 9600 baud telemetry on 3/10 (today).
Is this done in the morning on the east coast, is it preprogrammed to happen at some specific UTC time, or what? When are these changes actually made? It would be nice if the schedule announcement had some additional precision, something like: on orbit-xyz during the pass over the abc groundstation, the mode switch is planned.
thanks, jeff AD6EO
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
Hello Jeff and BB,
You are correct that it would be good to have a specific time for the change over. That being said, I (and the other commnad stations) do the change over generally during the eastern US passes and close to the new UTC day. Things come up for me (and the other volunteer command stations) and I can't always do the mode changes when I plan to a week before. Most often the changeover occurs during one or both of the evening eastern US passes on the UTC date given in the schedule.
73, Gould, WA4SXM AO-51 command station
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Mock" jeff@mock.com To: "AMSAT-BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 1:37 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 mode changes
When AO-51 changes modes, what time is the change generally done? For example, the schedule says that AO-51 will start broadcasting 9600 baud telemetry on 3/10 (today).
Is this done in the morning on the east coast, is it preprogrammed to happen at some specific UTC time, or what? When are these changes actually made? It would be nice if the schedule announcement had some additional precision, something like: on orbit-xyz during the pass over the abc groundstation, the mode switch is planned.
thanks, jeff AD6EO
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
Thanks for the quick reply. The scheme sounds reasonable, especially seeing as the mode changes are done manually by volunteers, so I'm sure that a wide variety of factors can impact scheduling.
It's good to know that the changes are generally done during "east coast evening passes" as a rule of thumb. I'm new enough that I'm never really sure if my own stuff is working properly, and 9600 baud sounds like white noise to me...
I'm really enjoying all of the mode changes on AO-51, it's great fun to try and get things working with the more challenging modes.
jeff AD6EO
Gould Smith wrote:
Hello Jeff and BB,
You are correct that it would be good to have a specific time for the change over. That being said, I (and the other commnad stations) do the change over generally during the eastern US passes and close to the new UTC day. Things come up for me (and the other volunteer command stations) and I can't always do the mode changes when I plan to a week before. Most often the changeover occurs during one or both of the evening eastern US passes on the UTC date given in the schedule.
73, Gould, WA4SXM AO-51 command station
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Mock" jeff@mock.com To: "AMSAT-BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 1:37 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 mode changes
When AO-51 changes modes, what time is the change generally done? For example, the schedule says that AO-51 will start broadcasting 9600 baud telemetry on 3/10 (today).
Is this done in the morning on the east coast, is it preprogrammed to happen at some specific UTC time, or what? When are these changes actually made? It would be nice if the schedule announcement had some additional precision, something like: on orbit-xyz during the pass over the abc groundstation, the mode switch is planned.
thanks, jeff AD6EO
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 (3)
-
Andrew Glasbrenner -
Gould Smith -
Jeff Mock