Author: SM0TGU

Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, har lmnat en del info om vad som hnder med PcSat just nu. Har ett utdrag:
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Bob Bruninga WB4APR announced that PCSat has turned DIGI OFF and all 1200 baud TLM off.

Although PCsat has been perfectly usable in the afternoons into early evenings, the satellite is still running the batteries down on every eclipse. So today I thought of one last low power mode I can try so we turned DIGI and TELEMETRY OFF to see if we can make it through just ONE eclipse. That s all we would need to recover PCsat back into a positive power budget.

I will try this for the daytime passes over the USA this week (which will affect the evening passes over Europe).

The lowest power mode of PCsat has been with all BULLETINS and all DIGIpeating turned off. Also we disable 9600 baud 1 minute telemetry as well. Thus the only thing remaining was the once per minute single 1200 baud telemetry packet which is required to keep the heart-beat fail-safe reset timer tickled. What s new, is that we realized that if we switched the 1/min TLM to 9600 baud instead of 1200, we would further reduce the minimum transmit duty cycle in our lowest power mode. Thus halving our transmit current drain.

Unfortunately, our TRANSMIT power is already less than 10% of the overall bus power, so this move will only gain us about 5%, but worth trying… Our minimum transmit average current drain (1 packet per minute) is only about 16 ma out of the nominal 160 ma low power mode. Dropping this in half saves us about 8 ma. Who knows, maybe it is the straw that can give new life to the camel?

Anyway, when PCsat is in this minimum mode, the ONLY thing you will hear will be a once a minute half second noise burst (9600 bd TLM) and nothing else.

Mera info p hemsidan:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pcsat.html
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Klla: ANS 202

Det pgr nu tester att frska kontrollera AO-7, ls mer nedan:
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I guess it s time for me to step forward out of the shadows. The behavior you re observing is being caused by me, N1JEZ. I m the so called Covert AO-7 Command Operator .

Before everyone gets all crazy, please let me try and explain a few things.

First, I asked to remain covert for a period of time because I did not want to have to deal with the inevitable flood of email that will result from my identity being known. At the time, I was in a critical phase of trying to command the bird and needed to concentrate on that task. There were a number of technical hurdles to overcome, not the least of which is dealing with 30 year old stuff.

I know I m going to get a lot of email, so I ve put together the following FAQ. Please read through it. Hopefully it will answer some of your questions and avoid you sending them to me.

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AO-7 FAQ

Q: Tell me how the commands work.
A: Sorry, I _will not_ discuss any of the command details. Don t even ask.

Q: Tell me how the hardware works.
A: Sorry, I _will not_ discuss any of the command details. Don t even ask.

Q: What are the plans for AO-7.
A: I haven t foggiest! My job is to investigate what commands work and what commands don t after 21 years. It s really exciting, but tedious work. Imagine the thrill of seeing this antique accept your first command after all these years! For me, this is similar to the experience I had not long ago hearing the AO-40 24 GHz K Band beacon the first time. I ve gone from techno to retro in a short period of time.

Q: I m doing a satellite demo next Monday night. Can you make sure AO-7 is in Mode B?
A: Sorry, as I stated above, my only job is to test various commands.

Q: When it comes to AO-7. I m mad as hell and I m not going to take it anymore! Just leave it alone!
A: OK, take one of your little yellow pills and then send off a note to your favorite AMSAT official. Honestly, if you have concerns, voice them to Robin, VE3FRH or one of the Board of Directors. Everyone here is trying to do the right thing.

Q: How can I help?
A: Of most interest to me is how AO-7 wakes up as it enters sunlight. Also, any observations of simultaneous multiple modes would be most valuable. Yoshi Imaishi, JF6BCC is compiling an excellent list of observations. Please send him whatever you have. jf6bcc@jarl.com
You can view the list at:
http://plaza16.mbn.or.jp/~palau/temp/AO7-mode-report.xls

Q: Can you tell us _anything_ about this satellite?
A: I can tell you that command attempts are successful. I ve only tested a very limited number of functions, but it s very encouraging. I hope to be able to do a write up on all the fun I ve been having. Maybe it will be in the AMSAT Journal or perhaps a presentation at the AMSAT Symposium later this year. (get your tickets now )
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I still have a ton of work to do. So please try and keep the email to a minimum. I ll try and answer what I can.

[ANS thanks Mike Seguin, N1JEZ, for the above information.]

Klla: ANS 202

Hej! satellitvnner

Av en hndelse s snurrade jag frbi 145 830 och hrde packet trafik, snabbt p med modemet och det var PCSAT-11 som snde, jag noterade EB3GEK och W3ADO-1 i meddelandet.

Det gr ju rtt mkt packet trafik frn ISS ocks som man kan titta p, frekvens 145800. Jag satt ven och lyssnade efter AO10 i kvll nr jag tyckte det borde vara ett bra lge men det r fortfarande tyst. (jag saknar en mode B sat i DX bana!!!)

Fr vrigt s fr jag det till att man borde kunna se ISS i slutet p mnaden som afton stjrna, runt den 28/7 om mitt program stmmer.

Avslutningsvis s kan jag nmna att jag krde I2FAK via EME med 100 watt och 2 antenner i gr kvll p random, visserligen har han 24 antenner!! men i alla fall, det r ju en otroligt svag signal som kommer tillbaka till honom, testa grna ngon gng med era Oscar stationer det gr att hitta honom runt 144038 vid aktivitets helgerna.

73 Hkan SM7WSJ

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Info frn SM0AIG:

Vid passagen 2015z ikvll var mode A aktivt med beacon p 29502 kHz. Svrlst telemetri pga QRN. Inga stationer igng trots att passbandet fungerade med fotavtryck som mot slutet tckte bde Kanada och USA:s stkust. Kunde hra min egen CW p nedlnken trots endast 10W till gp p 145.940 vilket landade p ca 29.490 med ngot svajig tonhjd.

Annars dliga passager utom 1428z med AO-7 i hgform p mode B. Kraftig beacon och starka signaler p passbandet. Kanonbra retur p CW men bara folk igng p SSB. QSO med DD9ZO.

Det finns en utmrkt telemetridekoder fr AO-7 i form av ett Excel-ark. Man fr in de tv sista siffrorna i varje grupp i kolumnen TLM count och fr direkt det analoga vrdet p olika parametrar. Som referens r inlagd telemetrin frn den allra frsta sndningen som upptcktes av G3IOR. Eftersom denna BB inte accepterar bilagor, kan jag bara snda den direkt till den som r intresserad. Liksom telemetri frn 1428-passagen.

Ingemar / SM0AIG

Lnk till Excel-arket:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/software/spreadsheet/AO7tlmSS.zip
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