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

[Robert Bruninga]

> ...One key component of failure analysis is the 
> availability of data, especially telemetry.
> 
> 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?

All of the APRS satellites (PCSAT-1, PCSAT2, ANDE and RAFT) use
AX.25 and beacon their telemetry around the world.  Any
telemetry packets, heard by any station that is on the internet,
feeds the packets live into the global APRS internet.  Not only
does this make it available to anyone at any time, but the data
is also archived and is available in graphical form over any
date period.

For example, Simple URL's can be constructed to access and plot
any of the telemetry parameters.  See this WEB page:

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/andeTemps.html

And look at the source code.  You will see that each plot is
simply a
URL constructed to access the correct period of data, and to
select the range of values and the labels.  This way, this data
can be incorporated into any application. Thanks to the work fof
K4HG, Steve Dimese and the FINDU system.

This is all hands-off, fully automated, and routine.  Not only
does it work for the satellites, but it can also plot all of
this same data for ANY KPC-3+ TNC that is sending periodic
telemetry packets anywhere in the world on any APRS frequency.
For example, this simple URL will plot the telemetry for ANY
KPC-3+ TNC on the air.  This one is my local digipeater:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/tele2.cgi?call=wb4apr-1&last=240

Just change the ULR callsign to your TNC's callsign (if it is
tramnsmitting its 5 channel telemetry beacons on any APRS
frequency) and you will see it show up here.  This is a
fantastic system for quick-and-dirty experiments, since the
global collection and plotting is already done.

Bob, WB4APR