Hi Chris, The golden days of the Pacsat Store/forward operations appear to be gone for now, if not for good...I am still addicted, and wish everyday for a rebirth...
The old pacsat birds are up there, just not functional. For a while a few years ago, we had AO-16 running in voice mode (FM up, side band down)! That was fun. But it only works when the bird is warm from full sunlight--which won't occur for like 10 more years...sigh. LO-19 emits a very low level carrier (most can't see it, or deny it's there...but it is ;) ) WO-18 is like AO-16--transmitter won't stay on. IO-26 is stuck in bootloader mode, emitting bursts of telemetry from time to time. Now, the GOOD news--read about Delphi3C and ISIS. There is some digital downloading/telemetry that will be available perhaps by the end of the year on a few new birds. Then, add Fucube-1 and -2, and there will be more digital telemetry to collect. But the Pacsat BBS operations as you remember them don't exist now. But there IS a lot of telemetry to be collected. The good news is that many of these will be using software based modems, available free of charge! 73, Mark N8MH (admitted digital nut) On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Chris Maness <ch...@chrismaness.com> wrote: > About 12 years ago, I was really into amateur radio satellites (the > analog birds). I always wanted to try the PacSats, but I was a > college student, and could not afford all of the necessary hardware. > I tried to do it in software (and ended up falling in love with > Linux). Now I have a good source of income, and was looking into > dabbling in the PacSats, but looking at the Amsat website, it looks > like none of the old birds are up. So are there any plans to restore > store and forward messaging capability in future ham radio birds? Is > this currently still possible and I am just missing something? > > Thanks, > Chris Maness > KQ6UP > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@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 -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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
