Yawn. Recorded another satellite pass. Decoded it with my software. Played with it in GIMP. Part of the pass spoiled by an oddly synchronous signal, which seemed to also be Doppler shifted. Problem on the satellite? I don’t know.
Monthly Archives: December 2007
Wow… RFI overload on the AO-51 downlink
I tried to work AO-51 from the parking lot at work tonight. It was a low pass, and just about every noise source in the universe seems to be on the recording. I tried feebly to send at the end, but the nose was horrible, with tons of intermod coming back through the earphones. Yuck! I won’t even bother trying this with my HT again. It’s a pity, because I heard lots of eastern stations, but it was just pointless with all this racket.
I’ll try again from the peace of home sometime soon.
Packets from ANDE
Well, didn’t get any packets relayed through ANDE, but I did receive some W6SMU during its pass just before lunch. I have sworn that I will get something echoed through it before it deorbits, now best guess to occur on Christmas Eve.
W6MSU>APRS,ANDE-1*:=3803.21NS12121.62W& W6MSU>APRS,ANDE-1*:=3803.21NS12121.62W&
NH7WN and WA7SDI on AO-51
Robert (NH7WN) was my first QSL card for a contact via AO-51. I still owe him a QSL card, but to be fair, I haven’t designed one yet. Still, on a low pass to the west, I managed to work him again. He was recording the contact, here’s my recording. Paul (WA7SDI) comes in from Eugene, OR at the end. Had some trouble with the signals in spots, there’s quite a static burst in the middle, where I just couldn’t seem to hit the satellite (my aiming might not have been that good). Still, worked out pretty well.
Bouncing Packets off the ISS
Using information from the post I mentioned earlier about operating via packet on the ISS, I decided to give it a try. It was a nominal success, although the pass was short and I was operating with just 5w into the omni on the top of my car. Sorry KD7ZLF, I’ll be better prepared next time and we’ll have a real QSO.
cmd:k
howdy from mark in cm87
W6MSU>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=3803.21NS12121.62W&
KD7ZLF>CQ,RS0ISS-4*,CN85::W6MSU :ge de CN85 QSL?
K7SAO>CQ,RS0ISS-4*::W6MSU :Hi Guy de Stephen
K7SAO>CQ,RS0ISS-4*::W6MSU :Hi Guy de Stephen
W6MSU>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=3803.21NS12121.62W& GE KD7
kd7zlf howdy!
KF6KYI-1>CQ,RS0ISS-4*:kd7zlf howdy!
RS0ISS-4>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS - International Space Station (BBS/APRS on)
this is my first attempt a iss keyboard packet
KB0VBZ>SYSWUS,WIDE2-1:`r[Rl `/>=KB0VBZ@GMAIL.COM
K7SAO>CQ,RS0ISS-4*::W7XZ :Hi Jim de Stephen
operating with just 5w into an omni.
KF6KYI-1>CQ,RS0ISS-4*:operating with just 5w into an omni.
W7XZ>APRS,RS0ISS-4*::K7SAO :Hi, Stephen. Nice pass tonight.
WA0D-11>WA0D,RS0ISS-4*,EM12KW,RANDY:Happy New Year
w7xz howdy from cm87
KB0VBZ>SYSWUS,WIDE2-1:`r[Rl `/>=KB0VBZ@GMAIL.COM
N0AN-6>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=4205.00N/09400.00WS73' Via Sat {UISS50}
WA0D-11>WA0D,RS0ISS-4*,EM12KW,RANDY:/EX
W7XZ>APRS,RS0ISS-4*:=/:Pu#/hL'- B/Jim
RS0ISS-4>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS - International Space Station (BBS/APRS on)
WA0D-11>WA0D,RS0ISS-4*,EM12KW,RANDY:Happy New Year
WA6YET>WAYNE,RS0ISS-4*,EM36:
WA0D-11>WA0D,RS0ISS-4*,EM12KW,RANDY:>Happy Holidays to all and New Years from Randy in Dallas Fort Worth Texas USA... EM-12kw
KD7ZLF>CQ,RS0ISS-4*,CN85::KF6KYI-1 :ge QSL
WA0D-11>WA0D,RS0ISS-4*,EM12KW,RANDY:=3256.46N/09706.00W'PHG6230
kd7zlf :qsl! thanks for the qsl card on no-44
pass is down to 6 degrees. later all.
cmd:
43 Days to Delfi-C3 launch
This was mentioned on the AMSAT mailing list. In 43 days, the Delfi-C3 cubesat will be launched. After a 90 day mission, it will have a 400mw linear transponder enabled for amateur radio use in mode U/V. Awesome. Unfortunately, it’s another one of these satellites that is in low earth orbit, and is likely to have a significantly limited lifetime, perhaps a year.
The AO-7 Log and Resource Site
The amateur satellite AO-7 was launched on November 15th, 1974. It was thought to be lost for years, until recently when chemistry changes in the batteries increased the resistance so that now when the satellite is in sunlight, its transponder is directly powered by its solar panels. While reading a post to the AMSAT-BB today, I found the following website which I hadn’t seen before. It has information on operating the satellite, and logs traffic to the satellite. Very cool.
Basic Packet Setup for ARISS
Here’s a nice, concise overview of how to setup a conventional packet station to transmit via the ISS or via PCSAT-1. I might do a similar page of my own that shows how to do this using just the Kenwood TH-D7A at some point, but until then, this is quite helpful.
Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret
Here is the Google satellite map of the area around the Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret where we stayed on our Mexico vacation. Toward the bottom is a man-made inlet with a small beach where you can actually snorkle amidst some kind ofneat fish. Just to the right of the inlet is a small ruin (pictures later), and if you trace the straight path to the northwest, it bisects the main entrance hall (standing at the midpoint, you could see the Mayan ruin at one end, and the christmas tree in the three story tall lobby at the other). You can also see the rather nice swimming pools.
Just thought it was neat.
Acoustics at Chichen Itza
While touring at Chichen Itza, your guide will undoubtedly ask you to clap your hands while standing on the broad field in front of the main step pyramid. What you hear is an odd chirping echo, caused (I’m guessing) by the many vertical steps which run up the side of the pyramid. Our guide explained that during equinox and solstice celebrations, the plain would be filled with drummers and clappers, and the echo returns must have truly sounded unworldly.
I immediately thought of my friend Tom and the fact that we could probably simulate just what that might sound like.
Toward that end, I did a quick google for “Chichen Itza acoustics”, and uncovered this paper summary which had an interesting theory: that the reflected echos were designed to sound like the chirps of the Quetzal bird. Interesting, and not unconvincing. It appears that my Googling is turning up a lot of other interesting phenomena that might bear additional study, but my lunch hour is over. I’ll have to try again later.
Chichen Itza
The blog has had no updates in the last week. The reason is simple: I was on vacation. Far away from the land of the Internet, email and cell phones. The wife and I decided to spend a week in Mexico, at the Occidental Grand Xcaret on the Mayan Riviera.
While we were there, we visited some place I’ve always wanted to go: Chichen Itza.
Here’s a tease. I’ll upload some more photos tomorrow when I get some free time.
Daytime Satellite Pass, with some image processing…
Well, I was awake for a decent daytime pass of NOAA17, so I wandered out into my front yard, and recorded the pass. It was a westward pass, covering from Canada all the way down to Baja California in the south, and was reasonably noise free over a great amount of it. I hauled it into gimp and did a bit of judicious image editing, and this is what I came up with:
I consider this to be pretty darned good for as ad-hoc as my approach to satellite reception actually is.