Operating the microsats was a completely hands-free procedure. You
told your groundstation what sort of files you were interested in, and
went out to lunch. While you were away, the bird came up over the hill,
rotors rotated, frequencies dopplered, and by the time you got back, the
pass was over, your outgoing files were gone, your inbox was full of
interesting stuff, and your gear was idle. Once you were all set up, it
was brilliant. No 'operating' in the conventional sense, but absolutely
effortless transfer of files and messages.
But transfer rates were relatively low, passes were short, and it could
take several passes for in/outbound files to complete.
And the birds had huge data capacities, like 4 megabytes total. Yes,
meg. So you had to keep your files small. But they could be anything
you like, text or binary. Images, software, etc.
I met and became friends with a guy in England via the microsats, and
when he was coming to 8P he sent me a JPEG so I would recognize him at
the airport.
There were other types of BBS flying, too. The Fuji birds were pretty
much exactly like terrestrial packet boards. Once you got ***CONNECTED
you could ask for a menu and issue commands in the normal way.
On 02/25/2013 01:15 AM, Bryce Salmi wrote:
Hey All,
I want to throw out a question about the Bulletin Board Systems that
have flown on several amateur radio satellites in the past. A majority of
these flew prior to my involvement in ham radio (licensed in 2004) and for
many years I haven't had a great setup for satellite work, largely due to
funds as a high school student back in the day and nowadays since I move
around quite often from home to college. I would like this conversation to
stay on-topic since I realize this could stray pretty easily!
What was it like to have an orbiting BBS? What types of
files/information were sent and how convenient was it? Was it just text or
could people send small images? I may not be aware of a currently working
BBS, the last one I know of off-hand was on AO-51 if I am not mistaken. I
am simply fascinated with the ability to send and receive data to and from
an orbiting satellite in this fashion. I look forward to hearing any
responses.
Bryce
KB1LQC
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--
73, de Gus 8P6SM
Barbados, the easternmost isle.
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