Hi Bob, it's been a while since we worked together on the AMSAT/TAPR DSP-93 :)   My call was KC4EBR back then.  Still one of my favorite projects :)  Glad to be working on a common project again!  

I will plan to try to run Falconsat-3 for about 24 hours each weekend, with specifics dependent upon the time of day it's overhead, work, and recreation!   The orbit precesses about 30 mins every day, so the time of day for usable passes cycles. But basically a 24 hour uptime every weekend.  There's a pass around 1222UTC today 29 Oct 202, and I'll turn it ON with battery management OFF, hoping for about 24 hours of operations.   I'll continue this as long as I reasonably can.  Reentry is estimated to be in April 2022.  Telemetry suggests that one cell is very weak, continuous 24/7/365 operations are no longer possible. 

My best advice is to follow me on Twitter!  It's easy to post when I turn it ON/OFF, so lately that's been my preferred method of sharing the information. 

Also, please update your keps at least once per week, maybe more often.  It appears to change enough to warrant this for people using tracking/high gain directional antennas.   Here is the TLE source I'm using now:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/daily.all

Hope this schedule works for the team!  We have a number of users around the planet that use it, and they are happy as well to hear that operations will be scheduled.  I'll copy most of this email to the AMSAT-BB soon as well.  

If there are other requests for a specific day, just ask!  If I can support, I will...

73!

Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
AMSAT Director and Command Station



On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 8:33 PM Bob Stricklin via pacsat <pacsat@amsat.org> wrote:



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Stricklin <bstrick@n5brg.com>
To: "Mark L. Hammond" <marklhammond@gmail.com>
Cc: "pacsat@amsat.org" <pacsat@amsat.org>
Bcc: 
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:33:26 +0000
Subject: [pacsat] Re: Introduction and Falconsat-3 question
Mark,

Thanks for your offer to turn on Falconsat one day a week.

If you do this I will try to copy the passes I can see and will also work to upload a few messages.

If you find doing this for a full day every week is too taxing for you or for Falconsat-3 a lesser amount of on time would be fine also. Hopefully we could learn something from the effort and
get some more action out of the satellite before it derbies.

Thanks,

Bob N5BRG



> On Oct 25, 2022, at 10:45 AM, Mark L. Hammond <marklhammond@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello  PACSAT Team---it was great to learn about this project from Jonathan at the recent AMSAT Symposium.  I'm delighted to hear that you're working on a PACSAT version of something new...
>
> It was the original microsats/pacsats project and launch that got me interested in satellite communications, so I've been doing it for a while.  Happy to give opinions or suggestions when needed--don't be afraid to ask.
>
> My question--is there one day each week where you'd like me to turn ON
> Falconsat-3 for about 24 hours of operations?   I think it'll take this 'abuse' for a while; it's predicted to reenter around April next year, so we have a few months before it's gone....
>
> Putting the satellite on an operation schedule will help people know when to expect it to be on.  I though you all might enjoy listening/working it, making recordings, tests, whatever, while we still have it working.  A challenge is that the orbit precesses like 30 mins per day, so eventually it shifts where all passes are during the sleeping hours...so there will some weeks where it might not be turned on...
>
> So, can you all pick the day when you'd like it on?  I'll do my best to keep it going per schedule...Drew KO4MA is also on the list, and he'll help as needed I'm sure.   
>
> Both of us are interested in an outline/overview of what you all imagine.  I think I learned 1200 AFSK uplink (four frequencies/channels), 9600 baud FSK downlink.  My preferred is 2M uplink, 70cm downlink (since it's so quiet).  It'll take about 500mw to 1W on the downlink to be useable at 9600.  Even more is desirable or necessary if you want to go higher than 9600...  I think I'm one of the remaining dinosaurs that has experience and equipment to do 38k4 on the downlink...although wideband SDRs has changed that!
>
> 73!
>
> Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]  (formerly KC4EBR)
> AMSAT Director and Command Station
>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bob Stricklin via pacsat <pacsat@amsat.org>
To: "Mark L. Hammond" <marklhammond@gmail.com>
Cc: "pacsat@amsat.org" <pacsat@amsat.org>
Bcc: 
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:33:26 +0000
Subject: [pacsat] Re: Introduction and Falconsat-3 question
-----------------------------------------------
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