December 2009 - Amsat-florida (INACTIVE)

Net
by Andrew Glasbrenner 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

Just a reminder, no net tonight unless Cameron wants to do it. Drew

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XW-1 15Dec2009 1702Z Signal Report
by John Papay 15 Dec '09

15 Dec '09

XW-1 was again heard over western North America with an excellent signal. The new keps provided by Nigel G8IFF/W8IFF were used for Object A and found to be spot on. I set SatPC32 for automatic operation with the TS2000 in the CW mode and the computer clock synchronized with NIST. I never touched the radio dial or the antennas during the entire pass and as you will hear on the recording, the CW tone never changed. The TS2000 was updating the frequency every second. Again I found polarization shifts but the bird did best on Left Hand during most of the pass. This was a 22 degree pass for me to the west. One of the three letter code groups changes on every string of CW starting with BJ1SA XW XW etc and ending with XW XW. For example, the 3 letter groups for some successive transmissions were: TNE TDT AAE ATE 4VE A6E TBT 4VE T6E ATE. Every other code group in the string stayed the same, at least during this pass. I started the recording late. It is much better than my first recording with the older keps on the amsat webpge. http://www.papays.com/XW-1_15Dec2009_170842z.mp3 Let's hope we can start using the v/u transponders for voice/cw soon. Thanks again to all who were involved with this satellite. It is operating very well. 73, John K8YSE EN91dh

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XW-1 over North America 15Dec2009 1517z
by John Papay 15 Dec '09

15 Dec '09

The XW-1 CW Beacon was heard over North America this morning with an excellent signal and tone quality. It sends a long string which changes a bit on every transmission. The keps are a bit off since the bird went over the horizon prior to the prediction. I lost it when it was still at 2.7 degrees according to SatPC32. The doppler correction is off as well indicating changing keps. Hopefully we will get some better keps soon. A recording of XW-1 is on my webserver: http://www.papays.com/XW-1_15Dec2009_1517z.mp3 At one point the antenna had to turn around. I had some copy on this bird while the antennas came around 180 degrees indicating a strong signal. I noted that there were polarity shifts between right and left hand circular. At one point I tuned to the packet frequency to see if there was any activity. I heard none but only listened for a short time before returning to the beacon frequency. Congratulations to the Chinese Team that designed, built and launched this satellite. It is off to an excellent start. We look forward to having it operational soon and for many years to come. 73, John K8YSE EN91dh John Papay john(a)papays.com

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XW-1 Beacon
by Scott Schmautz 15 Dec '09

15 Dec '09

Nice strong signal from the XW-1 CW beacon, 1520 UTC, 435.790 Mhz. Scott/WB2UZR

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XW-1 Satellite Launched
by Scott Schmautz 15 Dec '09

15 Dec '09

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/12/china-completes-2009-schedule-by-lau… >From NASA Spaceflight.com. Scott/WB2UZR

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Net tonight
by Andrew Glasbrenner 03 Dec '09

03 Dec '09

To all AMSAT-Florida net participants: Recently, the KG4YZY repeater that provided the Echolink connection into the wide area NI4CE repeater system was permanently disconnected from the network, and temporarily removed from service. As the AMSAT-Florida net relied on that Echolink connection as the hub for all our participating repeaters from Miami to Gainesville, as well as worldwide individual participants, we are left in quite a jam until we reestablish a hub system. Further complicating the situation is that the three active net control stations rely on being able to use a real RF connection to run the net, assisted by Echolink in the background. For tonight's net I propose that Echolink users connect to K4ZPZ-R 44310 in Orlando, 443.100 on RF. Our Orlando NCS is unavailable tonight, so depending on conditions I will attempt to be NCS either via RF or Echolink. This might get very "interesting", and the net will likely be more informal than usual. We can reevaluate and reintegrate NI4CE when they restore Echolink connectivity. What I do not think should happen is the net splitting into two entities. That, IMO, is a recipe for failure and burnout. So, please join us on K4ZPZ-R tonight for the AMSAT-Florida net, Echolink node # 44310, RF 443.100 MHz. 73, Drew KO4MA

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