[amsat-bb] Re: New Satellites

Fri Apr 20 09:03:39 PDT 2007

You can put a program such as "Total Recorder" and split the audio from your
receiver...sync your computer time with UTC and start the program...it will
timestamp any receptions on the frequency and will even acknowledge "noise
bursts" and time stamp them...

All this will be in a neat file that if you lock your antenna on the horizon
rise point, you can compare with projected AOS and tie it to or in relation
to an object.

Insure your antenna is properly oriented, are you using magnetic or polar
north? Is 90 degrees 90 degrees? How sharp is your beamwidth? If you are
using a long boom and many elements for optimum signal, remember that the
optimum lobe is very small. If so maybe move to a shorter antenna? Check
SWR/coax/preamp and all that.

I know it's pretty basic but when you are under the time constraints and
stress that you have right now the obvious seems to take a back seat.

I believe, without checking the posts, that the reports were "3 minutes
behind Object XXX." Either side of that time would be a good start this
close to the deployment.

Wish I could help more, but our recent 60 mile an hour winds wrapped up a
few antennas here. I'll try total recorder with the vertical.

Good luck!

Roger
WA1KAT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Wagner" <jonathan at jonathanwagner.net>
To: <jjwhite at myawai.com>
Cc: "Roger Kolakowski" <Rogerkola at aol.com>; <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 12:18 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: New Satellites

> That's pretty much the plan now, the problem is the pass lasts nearly an
> hour from first object to last now and most of our team is either at the
> Cubesat workshop going on in California right now or they're at work
> (which is mainly why they're not at the workshop).  I've been sneaking
> away from work to try to catch the late morning/lunch time passes and
> then staying up till 2:00 am catching the night pass.  Now, I'm stuck at
> work and can only leave for an hour so have to miss the first pass
> completely and probably the first objects of the second pass.  Hopefully
> this weekend will be better without work in the way.
>
> Sorry if that seemed like a rant an 73,
> Jonathan Wagner, KE5FSG
>
>
>
>
> jjwhite at myawai.com wrote:
> > If I may offer a suggestion:
> >
> > I believe everything came off the rocket in the same orbit plane or
> > very nearly. They are now separating along that plane.  Point your
> > antennas just above the horizon a few minutes before you expect the
> > first in the group to rise and leave it there till you hear your bird.
> >  If you have to transmit to it for it to respond, bang away at it just
> > above the horizon till you get a response.  Eventually, when the
> > objects separate enough and there are sets of elements to match each
> > object, you can use that horizon crossing time against those keps sets
> > to pick out which set matches your bird.
> >
> > Chasing around the sky with your antennas is generally not productive.
> > And you need to do the AOS time measurement anyway in order to figure
> > out which object you are.
> >
> > Jim
> >
> >
> >> Roger,
> >>
> >> We are actually doing a little bit of both using prediction software to
> >> guess where the sat is coming over and then manually adjust antennas
> >> during the pass.  This worked well for the first couple days, but now
> >> that the objects are separating, we don't know which object to point
at.
> >>
> >> Jonathan Wagner
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Roger Kolakowski wrote:
> >>> Hi Jonathan...
> >>>
> >>> It almost sounds like you are using tracking software to control your
> >>> antennas. If so, at this point it might be better to disable automatic
> >>> tracking and "hand point" your system to determine which object
> >>> closest meets your needs.
> >>>
> >>> Just a thought...
> >>>
> >>> Roger
> >>> WA1KAT
> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan Wagner"
> >>> <jonathan at jonathanwagner.net>
> >>> To: "Mineo Wakita" <ei7m-wkt at asahi-net.or.jp>
> >>> Cc: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> >>> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 7:53 AM
> >>> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: New Satellites
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> We're still not sure which object CAPE-1 is since we haven't heard it
> >>>> recently.  We think 31122 (OBJECT F) is P-POD A with CP4, Aerocube
and
> >>>> Boeing's cube.  Tethers Unlimited's MAST was detected using tracking
> >>>> information for 31126 (OBJECT J). OBJECTS L, M and N are believed
> >>>> to be
> >>>> the P-POD B group CAPE1, Libertad1 and CP3, but no good contact has
> >>>> been
> >>>> made tracking these.  A station in Denmark reported hearing something
> >>>> from
> >>>> the L/M/N cluster but nothing decipherable.  If anyone on here has
> >>>> time
> >>>> and a station set up for tracking, any help finding the cubes is
> >>>> greatly
> >>>> appreciated.
> >>>>
> >>>> The latest we were tracking was an older version of this TLE.
> >>>>
> >>>> 1 31129U 07012N   07110.22204978  .00000384  00000-0  10000-3 0   102
> >>>> 2 31129 098.0841 185.3550 0102972 204.2636 155.3680 14.51906202   399
> >>>>
> >>>> Jonathan Wagner, KE5FSG
> >>>>
> >>>> On Fri, April 20, 2007 5:34 am, Mineo Wakita wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> EGYPTSAT 1      31117
> >>>>> SAUDISAT 3      31118
> >>>>> SAUDICOMSAT 7   31119
> >>>>> SL-24 DEB       31120
> >>>>> SAUDICOMSAT 6   31121
> >>>>> OBJECT F        31122
> >>>>> SL-24 R/B       31123
> >>>>> SAUDICOMSAT 5   31124
> >>>>> SAUDICOMSAT 3   31125
> >>>>> OBJECT J        31126
> >>>>> OBJECT K        31127
> >>>>> OBJECT L        31128
> >>>>> OBJECT M        31129
> >>>>> OBJECT N        31130
> >>>>>
> >>>>> OBJECT J = CAPE-1 ?
> >>>>> 1 31126U 07012K   07109.87495130  .00000393  00000-0  10000-3 0
87
> >>>>> 2 31126 098.0837 185.0256 0094278 205.2982 154.3455 14.53328747
387
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt
> >>>>> http://www.space-track.org/perl/login.pl
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ---------------------------------------------
> >>>>> Name: Mineo Wakita / JE9PEL, JAMSAT member
> >>>>> Mail: ei7m-wkt at asahi-net.or.jp
> >>>>> URL : http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/
> >>>>> QTH : Yokohama Japan, GL:pm95tj
> >>>>> Date: Apr 20, 2007
> >>>>> ---------------------------------------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>> Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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 at 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 at 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
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB at 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
>