[amsat-bb] Re: Space Shuttle Launch - Need some freqs.

[Nate Duehr]

On Jun 4, 2007, at 10:02 PM, John Simon wrote:

> I understand that there is a re-broadcast on the Echolink system  
> Paul.  Try
> that with a portable computer.

And if you can find a willing IRLP node in the area, that won't melt  
down under continuous duty cycle (lots of people using radios for  
both types of system that really shouldn't be keyed down for hours on  
end with small breaks), I'm in the process of setting up Reflector  
9870, Channel 7 (9877) again as "listen-only" for the Shuttle flight.

Another ham from California will be feeding NASA Select audio like  
the last few flights, with VOX and digital audio delay to remove pre- 
clipping, and levels set nicely.  (He does a great job.)

Connect any IRLP node to it and you'll have all the "Shuttle audio"  
you care to listen to.

As a technical side-note, you'll want to set up a custom connect  
script in custom_decode on the IRLP node to connect without a  
timeout, if there's little activity on your local system, otherwise  
the usual timeouts will apply.  Around here, we have nets on many  
weeknights, so depending on the in-flight "awake" schedule, I build  
crontab entries to bring up the audio, reconnect it during wake times  
if it gets disconnected (every 15 minutes or so) and disconnect it  
after the crew has gone to bed for the "night".

It sounds great, and if your local IRLP node builder took the time to  
make the link full-duplex to your repeater or better yet, directly  
into a repeater controller, you can program your controller to "talk  
over" the NASA audio, which is what we've been doing here in Denver  
on our club's VHF linked system for years).  Be forewarned, if you  
connect during a busy time with a half-duplex control node, you'll be  
"stuck" transmitting it until either the NASA Select audio is silent  
for a few seconds (unkeying your link radio) or you log into the node  
via other methods and kill it off.  There's a built in "drop" timer  
on the node feeding the audio to reset links and link radios every 3  
minutes or so with a brief un-key.

Reflector 9877 is sponsored by both Rocky Mtn Ham Radio  
(www.rmham.org) and Mountaintop Associates of Colorado.

73 and Enjoy, all.

--
Nate Duehr, WY0X
nate at natetech.com