Clive, Thank you for sending this out - this may answer something I was wondering about a few weeks ago....
I was out during a morning 1300-1400z HO68 pass about 3-4 weeks ago, and as I was doing the pass, I noticed the S-meter on my TRANSMIT HT was peaking at about S7 (I was using one HT to receive the 435.675 downlink, and the other for the 145.825 uplink). I turned the volume up on the transmit HT to see what it was, and I heard the EXACT same audio that you have on your webpage of Oscar-11's telemetry beacon on 145.826 (1 kHz off of the uplink for HO68). I am assuming that what I heard on my transmit HT was probably the Oscar-11 beacon - could anyone confirm that? 73, Zack KD8KSN EN80sd -------------------------------------------------- From: "Clive Wallis" <cl...@g3cwv.co.uk> Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 11:54 AM To: "amsat" <amsat-bb@amsat.org> Subject: [amsat-bb] OSCAR-11 Report > > OSCAR-11 REPORT 30 September 2010 > > > This report covers the period from 30 March to 30 September > 2010. During this time the satellite was silent until it was > heard by JA0CAW on 29 August. Since then, it was heard until > 08 September and from 18 to 29 September. Excellent signals > have been reported from stations located around the world, > and good copy obtained from decoded telemetry frames. > > There has been a significant change since the previous > period of activity which ended in March 2010. The on-board > clock is now very stable. It's gained only three seconds in > 30 days. This is comparable with its accuracy when the > satellite was fully operational. During its first 21 years > it gained approximately one minute per year. However, there > is still an accumulated loss of 309 days, which has occurred > during eclipses of the last few years.! > > The other change is that it's now transmitting during > eclipses, although signals are weaker at those times. This > indicates that there is still some capacity remaining in the > battery. > > These two changes suggest that some part of the system may > have recently failed 'open circuit' thus reducing the > overall power drain of the system, and allowing more power > to be available during eclipses. There was an unexplained > current drain observed when analogue telemetry was last > transmitted. This fault might have cleared. Interestingly, > the status telemetry shows that the Digital Store & Readout > experiment has switched off, since the satellite was > previously heard in February. > > The satellite appears to be operating for ten days on, > followed by ten days off, so it should start transmitting > again around 09 October. > > The Beacon frequencies are - > > > VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry > > UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF > > S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF > > Reception reports have been received from Bernard FY1LE, > Roland DG1EBR, Mike DK3WN, Tetsu JA0CAW, Adam SQ8MFC, > MM0DNX, Tony VK3KKP/G8HIM, Martin DC1MAR, John M0BIC, > Etienne F1GRR and Carlos KD6GRF. Many thanks to everyone. > > Many reports have also been added to the live satellite > status page, on the website set up by David KD5QGR and Bob > WB4APR. This is a very convenient and easy to use facility, > which shows the current status of all the amateur > satellites. Strongly recommended for future reports! The > URL is http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php > > For the benefit of new listeners, here is a short history > of OSCAR-11. It was lauched in 1984, providing telemetry > and other digital services for amateur radio and educational > users. During its many years of operation it survived long > periods of eclipses and continuous full sunlight. > > In 2002 the satellite reverted to its default mode of > operation, controlled by the watchdog timer. In 2005 all the > analogue telemetry channels failed. Solar eclipses also > started to cause the watchdog timer cycle to reset, which > switched off the satellite for approximately 15 days. > > In 2008 solar eclipses became a permanent feature of every > orbit, causing the satellite to switch off for about 15 > days, probably after only one orbit of transmission. Thus > the satellite was not expected to be heard again for any > continuous period until 2019, when there will be some > eclipse free periods. However, the satellite started > transmissions unexpectedly in November 2008. These continued > until March, when it was followed by silence until until the > recent period of activity. > > OSCAR-11 transmits on 145.826 MHz., set receiver to NBFM. > The satellite has a characteristic sound, rather like raspy > slow morse code, sending "di di dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" > sent over a period of five seconds. If you are receiving a > very weak signal, switch the receiver to CW or SSB. You > should hear several sidebands around the carrier frequency > and should be able to hear the characteristic 'morse code > like' sound on at least one sideband. > > Please note that you need a clean noise-free signal to > decode the signals, and your receiver must be set to NBFM > mode, for a decoder to work. > > If you need to know what OSCAR-11 sounds like, there is an > audio clip on my website www.g3cwv.co.uk/ which may be > useful for identification and as a test signal for decoding. > > The current status of the satellite, is that all the > analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have > failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. The > real time clock is showing a large accumulated error, but is > now incrementing accurately to within a few seconds per > month. The day of the month has a bit stuck at 'one' so the > day of the month may show an error of +40 days for some > dates. The time display has switched into 12 hour mode. > Unfortunately, there is no AM/PM indicator, since the time > display format was designed for 24 hour mode. > > The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system > have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is controlled > only by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite > is free to spin at any speed. > > The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The > ON/OFF times have tended to be very consistent. The average > of many observations have shown this to be 20.7 days, ie. > 10.3 day s ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. > > Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my > website. If you need to know what OSCAR-11 should sound > like, there is a short audio clip for you to hear. The last > telemetry received from the satellite is available for > download. The website contains an archive of news & > telemetry data which is updated from time to time. It also > contains details about using a soundcard or hardware > demodulators for data capture. There is software for > capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is > www.g3cwv.co.uk . > > If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, > please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT149.CWV, to > prevent duplication. > > 73 Clive G3CWV xx...@amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv) > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via amsat...@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 > _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@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
