[amsat-bb] Re: What can I do with just 2 meter FM equipment??

[Robert Bruninga]

> I'd be leaving the satellite game... but then it occured 
> to me that maybe I could do something with 2 meter FM.
> I have a Kenwood TM-241 mobile rig and a Ft11R handheld. 
> Isn't APRS done on just the two meter band? 

Yes, there are two APRS satellites on orbit with 1200 baud AX.25
packet on 2 meters FM.  You only need one radio since it TX's
and RX's on 145.825.  But they are kinda weak and do need a beam
to hear them on most of their 6 passes a day.  Right at the
middle of one pass a day, you might decode them on an omni as
long as you have a short cable and virtually no cable loss.  You
can see their activity and user packets on http://pcsat.aprs.org

And  you can send packets to them and they will SPEAK by voice
using a text-to-speech synthesizer.

RAFT has the easier to use, always-on speech system, but only
hears users in the dark.  Fortunately over the next several
weeks we are entering a period of evening passes, so RAFT should
get back to better use.

ANDE works any time day or night, but needs to be woken up.  It
only wakes to listen for activity 1 sec out of every 16, so
someone has to hit it with a packet at the right time to wake it
u p.  Once awakened, it will stay awake until 1 minute after the
last packet heard.  For details, see the ANDE RAFT operations
page:
http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html

And for operations details see:
http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/ande/ANDEcontract.txt

And of course, even with out the voice, y ou can make QSO's with
other users by sending and receiving digipeated packets with
others.  The VIA path for these satellites is VIA ARISS, the
same as the ISS uses so that people do not need to change their
paths for the different satellites.

Bob, WB4APR
US Naval Academy Satellite Lab


Would it take both 
> radios or just one?
> Are their other things I could do like possibly monitoring
beacons or 
> decoding telemetry and such. I have no TNC but I could use 
> AGWPE with my 
> soundcard.
> I'd just like something to "scratch the itch" so to speak 
> till I can go 
> back to a more fully equipped station.
> Thanks,
> Michael, W4HIJ
> 
> P.S. If I owe any of you QSL cards, please be patient, I am 
> getting to them!
> 
> 
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