Hi Bob,

I don't think we have any "beep boxes" out there. If that is what you call cubesats, nano and picosats, I would highly discourage you to even look at them. Now having said that, let's assume you want to receive data from these satellites, there is NO one tutorial. On the other hand you could write one :-)

It is all about you doing your own homework, compiling information, learning along the way and using resources like Mike Rupprecht's beautiful website: http://www.dk3wn.info/satellites.shtml for more information.

What you do with the data is totally up to you. Many of us help these teams and forward telemetry information to them. Some teams have developed special software to decode the data and allow us to actively monitor the status of the satellite and any experiments.That's the beauty of this hobby that we can do some technical stuff, learning about the satellite etc. and are not reduced to mindless rag chewing with someone who could care less what my cats name is. Actually I only have a dog

Regarding the keps, maybe you should look up all the great stuff that comes out of Celestrack and look at: http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/cubesat.txt and that is just one source (Google here I come....)

Hope that helps,

Stefan VE4NSA

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 2:48 AM, Bob- W7LRD [email protected] wrote:

Where can I find a good tutorial on "how to" monitor/decode the many and ever increasing beep boxes up there. Then, what do you do with data? Also is there a place where the keps for these little gizzmos can be easily accessed and downloaded into Satpc-32 work them till they drop 73 Bob W7LRD _______________________________________________ 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

Looks to me like the program will decode the packets right on the client software. Packets copied, decoded. Then, there's always the documentation on the web. Isn't this what you say isn't there?

What is so secret?

http://fspace.edu.vn/F_1_packet_for_radio_operators/F-1_Telemetry_Decoder_Us...

F-1’s AX.25 packet format Beacon Data format: No Data Description Size (bit) 1 Date time Date: dd/mm/y: 5/4/3=12 bits 29 Time: hh/mm/ss: 5/6/6=17 bits 2 Battery voltage Battery voltage multiplied by 100, divide by 100 to get actual value 11 3 Solar cells voltage Solar cells voltage multiplied by 10, divide by 10 to get actual value 8 4 Temperature 1 oC (side 1) 8 5 Temperature 2 oC (side 2) 8 6 Temperature 3 oC (side 3) 8 7 Temperature 4 oC (side 4) 8 8 Temperature 5 oC (side 5) 8 9 Temperature 6 oC (side 6) 8 10 Temperature 7 oC (inside solar cell) 8 11 Temperature 8 oC (onboard) 8 Total 112 bits = 14 bytes Note: - Temperature reading from sensors, will be added with 100 before transmission to ensure a positive number so please subtract 100 to get actual value - 112 bits, divide to 14 chunks of 8bits, each chunk becomes one byte - years beginning from 2012, current year = 2012 -> Y = 0 Mark N8MH

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Gordon JC Pearce [email protected] wrote:

On 26/09/12 11:40, Stefan Wagener wrote:

...

What you do with the data is totally up to you. Many of us help these teams and forward telemetry information to them. Some teams have developed special software to decode the data and allow us to actively monitor the status of the satellite and any experiments.

I'd love to get involved in that, and indeed I think a lot of the current thread was spawned by a discussion of tracking the F-1 sat. Unfortunately, there is only a Windows binary available of this software. I know amateur radio is a technical hobby, but I haven't the inclination to be a computer nerd as well, and I haven't the time, inclination or money to buy another computer and a copy of Windows and all the expensive training courses.

I do wonder if having the telemetry in an unpublished format counts as using a "secret code"?

-- Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ _______________________________________________ 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

At 03:44 AM 9/27/2012, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:

I'd love to get involved in that, and indeed I think a lot of the current thread was spawned by a discussion of tracking the F-1 sat. Unfortunately, there is only a Windows binary available of this software. I know amateur radio is a technical hobby, but I haven't the inclination to be a computer nerd as well, and I haven't the time, inclination or money to buy another computer and a copy of Windows and all the expensive training courses.

Well, the modern ham does need some level of computer expertise, though not necessarily programming. You still have a few options. The software may run under WINE (which runs on Linux and OS X) - if this is the case, you're in luck, you don't need Windows, or there's a number of virtual machine options - both free and commercial that you could load a copy of Windows in. Virtualbox is a free option, VMware is a commercial one that is no cost for Linux (VMware Server), some cost for Macs. Parallels is another commercial Mac alternative. Of course, with this approach, you'd need a copy of Windows to install into the virtual machine.

Sadly, a lot of ham radio apps do require Windows. I have the same issues, but VMware Fusion (with Windows 7) on the Mac gets around that quite nicely.

73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com

Hi

There are also telemetry decoders available for various satellites on the Carpcomm website. For example:

http://carpcomm.com/satellite/fspace1 http://carpcomm.com/satellite/swisscube http://carpcomm.com/satellite/csswe http://carpcomm.com/satellite/horyu2

Just click "Submit data", enter the morse characters or hex data frame that you've received, and it will be decoded and the latest telemetry values will be displayed on the page for everyone to see. We're continuously working on adding decoders for all the new satellites.

Regards, Timothy HB9FFH http://carpcomm.com/

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 8:18 PM, Mark L. Hammond [email protected] wrote:

Looks to me like the program will decode the packets right on the client software. Packets copied, decoded. Then, there's always the documentation on the web. Isn't this what you say isn't there?

What is so secret?

http://fspace.edu.vn/F_1_packet_for_radio_operators/F-1_Telemetry_Decoder_Us...

F-1’s AX.25 packet format Beacon Data format: No Data Description Size (bit) 1 Date time Date: dd/mm/y: 5/4/3=12 bits 29 Time: hh/mm/ss: 5/6/6=17 bits 2 Battery voltage Battery voltage multiplied by 100, divide by 100 to get actual value 11 3 Solar cells voltage Solar cells voltage multiplied by 10, divide by 10 to get actual value 8 4 Temperature 1 oC (side 1) 8 5 Temperature 2 oC (side 2) 8 6 Temperature 3 oC (side 3) 8 7 Temperature 4 oC (side 4) 8 8 Temperature 5 oC (side 5) 8 9 Temperature 6 oC (side 6) 8 10 Temperature 7 oC (inside solar cell) 8 11 Temperature 8 oC (onboard) 8 Total 112 bits = 14 bytes Note:

• Temperature reading from sensors, will be added with 100 before

transmission to ensure a positive number so please subtract 100 to get actual value

• 112 bits, divide to 14 chunks of 8bits, each chunk becomes one byte
• years beginning from 2012, current year = 2012 -> Y = 0

Mark N8MH

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Gordon JC Pearce [email protected] wrote:

...

On 26/09/12 11:40, Stefan Wagener wrote:

...

What you do with the data is totally up to you. Many of us help these teams and forward telemetry information to them. Some teams have developed special software to decode the data and allow us to actively monitor the status of the satellite and any experiments.

I'd love to get involved in that, and indeed I think a lot of the current thread was spawned by a discussion of tracking the F-1 sat. Unfortunately, there is only a Windows binary available of this software. I know amateur radio is a technical hobby, but I haven't the inclination to be a computer nerd as well, and I haven't the time, inclination or money to buy another computer and a copy of Windows and all the expensive training courses.

I do wonder if having the telemetry in an unpublished format counts as using a "secret code"?

-- Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ _______________________________________________ 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

-- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

---

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