[amsat-bb] Re: The need for telemetry data -or what happened to FO-29-

[Douglas Quagliana]

stefan_wagener at hotmail.com wrote:
> One key 
> component of failure analysis is the availability of data, especially 
> telemetry.
> [snip]
> My question is, can the satellite user community at large come up with a 
> system that allows the routine capturing of satellite telemetry? Is 
> there a role that AMSAT can play? What would it take?
> 
> Thoughts are appreciated.
> 
Hi,
    Here's my thoughts...

    I would like to see a system put in place that is similar to
the one that was up and running while AO-40 was alive.  That is,
multiple groundstations around the world could receive the
telemetry using whatever modem they used and forward that
telemetry over the Internet (in either realtime or via email)
to a central site which both archives and disseminates the
telemetry to other groundstations. The archives were
(and still are) publicly available on AMSAT web/ftp site at

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/telemetry/ao40

I suppose if we asked the right people we could easily get
hard drive space on that server to start archiving telemetry
from other satellites.

A very nice side effect of the collection efforts was that you
could point your telemetry display program (which was not
necessarily the same as the program that collected the
telemetry and sent it to the server) at the telemetry server
and the server would send current live telemetry to you as
others sent their telemetry in to the server. In this way
you could watch ("Live!") the progress of the satellite even
when it was on the other side of the world and even if you
yourself lacked the radios and/or modems. This was a lot
of fun.

By a curious coincidence, I have been working on a 9600 baud
soundcard demodulator for Echo along with a telemetry display
program and an Internet telemetry reflector.

Ok, who wants to help?

Douglas KA2UPW/5