[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Question
Hi Peter. Thanks for your mail. The transponder has been on every day When and where are you listening? When: During eclipse, so a night time pass. You should have 3 passes, usually around 7pm to 11pm local time. Where: 145.950 to 145.970USB / CW for additional info, please have a look at www.funcube.org.uk Regards and good luck David G0MRF -Original Message- From: Peter Budnik kb1...@comcast.net To: AMSAT-BB AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Sent: Fri, 27 Dec 2013 5:21 Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-73 Question Dear Felloe Satellite Hams I've been listening to AO-73 Telemetry beacon for about 2 weeks now and never hear any radio contact going on. Is there any activity on the new satellite or is that mode not functional at this time? Thanks for any help. 73 Peter,KB1HY ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: Help with SATPC32 (maybe groups) please
Burns, Sounds good. There are various ways to combine the source files, but they are all external to SatPC32. I have just gotten so used to using different groups that my fingers are already programmed with that macro. :) I like the description of groups as aliases! I will steal that for future explanations. 73s, Alan WA4SCA -Original Message- From: Burns Fisher [mailto:bu...@fisher.cc] Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 8:06 PM To: Alan Biddle Cc: AMSAT BB Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Help with SATPC32 (maybe groups) please Hi Alan, Ok, so let me play this back. First, I understand the source files. And I think I understand now that in a sense groups are aliases for the source files. I can set it up so that Diverse is kind of the same as tle.new if I wish. I'm really not sure what good that is, but ok. And I do understand that standard is the default group when you start it up. And short of manually mixing source files, there is no way to assign the lower right letters to satellites in different files. Do I mostly have that right? By the way, it appears that AO-73 has already moved out of tle-new.txt but it moved into cubesat.txt, not amateur.txt. That's why I wanted to select one from cubesat and others from amateur. Maybe it will move again. Somehow 'cubesat' seems like an odd grouping. The other Celestrak groups are by function or source (NOAA, amateur, etc) but cubesat is by form. Anyway... Thanks for all the help and 73, Burns W2BFJ On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 8:10 PM, Alan wa4...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Burns, There are two issues here, groups and source files. In this case, the groups are a part of SatPC32. They have names like Standard, Diverse, NOAA, etc. The newest version of SatPC32 allows you to create your own group names. Then there are the source files from CelesTrak which group satellites by function. The CelesTrak groupings are things like amateur.txt, cubesat.txt, noaa.txt, and tle-new.txt for launches in the preceding 30 days. For instance, after launch AO-73 was in the tle-new file at first, and either has or will soon be moved to the amateur.txt file. Note the amsat.all file is created by merging the data from several source into ones which are of interest specifically to hams. In one sense, that is the most convenient, but unlike the Trak files it is only updated weekly. Now, in SatPC32 you can assign a source file to a group. For instance, amateur.txt to Standard, tle-new.txt to Diverse, etc. One and only one source, though there are manual ways to merge them. You only need to do this assignment once. So assume you have assigned the tle-new.txt to Diverse, and then selected the satellites you want, including AO-73. To get AO-73 you select Satellites, then Groups, then Diverse and OK it, and you will then have AO-73 and whatever other new satellites displayed. Since Diverse is not the default group, you will need to select the group once each time you start SatPC32, but not the source file. Note that when AO-73 moves to amateur.txt, it will autmatically become available in the Standard list, assuming you have assigned amateur.txt as the Standard source file. 73s, Alan WA4SCA -Original Message- From: amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-boun...@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Burns Fisher Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:08 PM To: AMSAT BB Subject: [amsat-bb] Help with SATPC32 (maybe groups) please Hi Everyone, I've used SatPC32 for a number of years, but I have been using it in simpleton mode, it would seem. Now that AO-73 is in the cubesat.txt keps file rather than amateur, I apparently have to take the next step in my education about this program. Here the current general question: How do groups work. I have googled, and the term seems to be used both for Celestrak groups and for the groups in SatPC32 (e.g. Diverse, Standard, etc). I mean the SatPC32 groups. What I want to do is to have a number of satellites selectable with the A,B,C... buttons in the lower right. But right now, I have to pull down the satellites menu and select cubesat.txt to get AO-73 and amateur.txt to get, say, VO-52 and SO-50. And whenever I switch to a new keps file, all the satellites I have selected as current for the previous file disappear from the right column. Somehow, I suspect that 'groups' are the answer to this, but I can never get the edit function under groups to do anything terribly useful. It looks like I can edit
[amsat-bb] Re: Help with SATPC32 (maybe groups) please
Thanks to everyone...I've gotten a lot of help from many people, including Erich Eichmann the author. I thought it would be nice close of this thread with the model I now have in my head, confirmed by Erich. Here is what I think I really missed: There is *always* a SatPC32 group active, and it is the group that defines which satellites are chosen for display in the ABC buttons. You could have multiple SatPC32 groups associated with the same data file, but each with different satellites chosen, if that is what you wanted. Then you select a different group to get the different configuration. But (the key to me) is that you can not use a group to chose satellites from multiple different data files at the same time. And you don't really chose a data file for display without it being associated with a group. Erich also pointed out to me that there are 4 different configurations (chosen by setup) which essentially multiply by 4 the number of different groups that are available. Thanks again to everyone. And in case anyone missed it, AO-73 (named DNEPR OBJECT AE - As in 'the AE35 unit') is now in Celestrak's amateur.txt and also in 'nasa.all' which SatPC32 sources from AMSAT. (HAL http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706937/?ref_=tt_trv_qu: I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours.) 73, Burns W2BFJ On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 6:08 PM, Burns Fisher bu...@fisher.cc wrote: Hi Everyone, I've used SatPC32 for a number of years, but I have been using it in simpleton mode, it would seem. Now that AO-73 is in the cubesat.txt keps file rather than amateur, I apparently have to take the next step in my education about this program. Here the current general question: How do groups work. I have googled, and the term seems to be used both for Celestrak groups and for the groups in SatPC32 (e.g. Diverse, Standard, etc). I mean the SatPC32 groups. What I want to do is to have a number of satellites selectable with the A,B,C... buttons in the lower right. But right now, I have to pull down the satellites menu and select cubesat.txt to get AO-73 and amateur.txt to get, say, VO-52 and SO-50. And whenever I switch to a new keps file, all the satellites I have selected as current for the previous file disappear from the right column. Somehow, I suspect that 'groups' are the answer to this, but I can never get the edit function under groups to do anything terribly useful. It looks like I can edit standard, for example, so that if selected, it uses the satellites selected from amateur.txt or cubesat.txt but not both. Ok, so when I get into a pickle like this, it is usually because I don't understand the concept or the model that the program is using. So rather than (or as well as) click x, select y, edit xxx.txt the kind of help I hope I can get would be include how are groups supposed to be used? And by the way, I have read the manual, and it again seems to assume that I know what groups are supposed to be. Thanks in advance, Burns, W2BFJ ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Question (mode efficiency?)
The satellite is only in transponder mode when it is in eclipse.. In full sunlight it is in beacon mode only. Just curious about the overall design goals of this operating mode? Putting solar energy into and then taking it out of batteries suffers about a 30% loss in efficiency. All else being equal it is usually better to use solar power directly if possible. Maybe the value of this mode is for hams to use the satellite in the evenings during play time instead of during the day when schools and students could benefit. Just curious. Thanks Bob, WB4aPR ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Question (mode efficiency?)
Hi Bob, Yes the mission requirements are exactly as your last paragraph. We have a dual mission and needed a simple, autonomous, on board system to make the change between the two modes. The sunlight/eclipse transition is fairly easy to detect and forms a valid decision criteria. The system current in daylight is around 220mA and when in eclipse it is only 140mA. If the transponder is in use then this can rise momentarily up to 250mA but the average eclipse consumption is probably only around 160mA as many of the eclipse periods are over the sea or unpopulated land areas. Presently the power budget seems pretty good and we are hopeful that the solar cells and battery will maintain their present performance for some time to come. The bus voltage is usually around 8.3V at the end of the sunlight period and drops only to around 8.1V at the end of eclipse. Apparently this equates to less than 5% discharge. cheers Graham G3VZV -Original Message- From: Robert Bruninga Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:01 PM To: David Johnson ; Peter Budnik Cc: AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Question (mode efficiency?) The satellite is only in transponder mode when it is in eclipse.. In full sunlight it is in beacon mode only. Just curious about the overall design goals of this operating mode? Putting solar energy into and then taking it out of batteries suffers about a 30% loss in efficiency. All else being equal it is usually better to use solar power directly if possible. Maybe the value of this mode is for hams to use the satellite in the evenings during play time instead of during the day when schools and students could benefit. Just curious. Thanks Bob, WB4aPR ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-73 Question (mode efficiency?)
From Graham earlier in November on the BB: Hi All, Yes in telemetry (also known as educational) mode we have around 300mW and this is a much higher average RF output than when in amateur (also known as transponder) mode. Total current drain is therefore greater when in educational mode. This is convenient because we had planned that educational mode would be more useful when the spacecraft is in local daylight - ie schools would be more likely to be open. This is the primary mission of course. Also amateurs often have to work during the day so would appreciate the availability of the transponder during the local evening passes. We were not, before launch, 100% certain that we would have a good enough power budget to run the transponder during every eclipse period but, at the moment, this seems to be ok - we still have quite a positive power budget. Its a bit late here and we are quite tired after three very hectic days but I hope the above explanation makes some sort of sense:) best 73 Graham G3VZV On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 12:01 PM, Robert Bruninga bruni...@usna.edu wrote: The satellite is only in transponder mode when it is in eclipse.. In full sunlight it is in beacon mode only. Just curious about the overall design goals of this operating mode? Putting solar energy into and then taking it out of batteries suffers about a 30% loss in efficiency. All else being equal it is usually better to use solar power directly if possible. Maybe the value of this mode is for hams to use the satellite in the evenings during play time instead of during the day when schools and students could benefit. Just curious. Thanks Bob, WB4aPR ___ 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 ___ 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
[amsat-bb] Funcube-1 is +10 kHz on the uplink?
Just wondered if I saw this observed/reported already: When for the Funcube-1 transponder using: 435.140 MHz uplink (LSB) 145.960 MHz downlink (USB) I still need to add another 10kHz on the uplink (making it 435.150 MHz). Can anyone else confirm (or counter :-)) this ? Henk, PA3GUO The Netherlands ___ 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
[amsat-bb] CAPE-2 over Brazil
On 12/27/2013 in orbit # 576, pass with a continuous tone of 500 Hz FM, intersected by AX25 beacons. Please see here: http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/cape.htm#h 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ GH70un ___ 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
