[amsat-bb] Delfi-C3 status update 1 May 2008 09:55 UTC

[Wouter Jan Ubbels]

Hi all,

another status update on Delfi-C3:

1. During the pass of 09:30 UTC over Europe, we have performed successful
database dumps again, some of you may have heard these since the frames
sound quite different compared to normal housekeeping / payload frames.
These frames are also captured by RASCAL, displayed in the terminal and
uploaded to our server

2. During this same pass, we have successfully switched the spacecraft to
its primary radio on 145.870MHz temporarily, after this switch, the
satellite came back on on the 145.930MHz downlink. Telemetry indicated that
the primary radio on 145.870MHz is healthy and working fine so that is good
news.
Note that the satellite will normally transmit on 145.930MHz for the time
being, unless we command her to go to 145.870MHz. This might occur more in
the coming days when the s/c is in range of our groundstation, so listeners
in Europe might want to check the 145.870MHz transmitter also when the
145.930MHz transmitter shuts down. We have noted that the 145.870MHz
transmitter is a little (1kHz) low in frequency so actually on 145.869MHz.

3. Yesterday (April 30) we were able to successfully command on our backup
command uplink so we have both command uplinks working nominally at this
moment.

4. We are currently investigating the rotational behaviour of the satellite,
your observations w.r.t. spin rate / signal strength are more than welcome,
combined with telemetry we should be able to fully assess how the s/c is
rotating. We suspect that this may actually give a clue to the TX dropouts
experienced.

5. We have successfully gathered raw data from the wireless sun sensor
payload

6. Note that we have locked the bootcounter value so it will always display
2273 from now on until we unlock it again

7. Although TLE's for object #32787 are listed on our webpage, we are not
entirely sure that this is in fact Delfi-C3. We probably won't have
confirmation until after a day or 3-4 when the satellites have separated a
bit more. For now, object #32787 should be fine for tracking though, but
your observations w.r.t. AOS / LOS times are welcome

8. Following the report from VE2DWE about the TX sounding distorted, we
would like to ask everyone to record a wav if possible when this phenomenom
is heard, you can send the wav files to missioncontrol at delfic3.nl . Our
inbox has no problem with large file sizes.


73 on behalf of the Delfi-C3 team

Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ