[amsat-bb] XW-1 Over North America 15Dec09 1517Z

John Papay john at papays.com
Tue Dec 15 07:59:46 PST 2009


The XW-1 CW Beacon was heard over North America
this morning with an excellent signal and tone
quality.  It sends a long string which changes
a bit on every transmission.

The keps are a bit off since the bird went over
the horizon prior to the prediction.  I lost it
when it was still at 2.7 degrees according to
SatPC32.  The doppler correction is off as well
indicating changing keps.  Hopefully we will get
some better keps soon.  The bird is apparently
ahead of the predicted position.

A recording of XW-1 is on my webserver:

http://www.papays.com/XW-1_15Dec2009_1517z.mp3

At one point the antenna had to turn around.  I had some
copy on this bird while the antennas came around 180 degrees
indicating a strong signal.  I noted that there were polarity
shifts between right and left hand circular.  At one point
I tuned to the packet frequency to see if there was any activity.
I heard none but only listened for a short time before returning
to the beacon frequency.

Congratulations to the Chinese Team that designed, built and
launched this satellite.  It is off to an excellent start.  We
look forward to having it operational soon and for many years
to come.

73,
John K8YSE  EN91dh




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