[amsat-bb] Re: Beacon?

[B J]

On 1/12/13, R.T.Liddy <k8bl at ameritech.net> wrote:
> Tonight (1/12) while getting set up for an FO-29 pass I tuned down to the
> Beacon Frequency 435.795 MHz. In spite of it being more than 5 minutes
> before AOS, I heard a strong CW signal at around 435.790 MHz.
>
> It was about 0214Z and there was a series of longish dashes and some
> short pauses and finally a CW "XW", then quiet. The Doppler was quite
> fast compared to what I hear from FO-29 and the signal was much stronger.
> The signal had moved down to 435.788 MHz in a little more than a minute
> and went quiet. I don't recall hearing a Beacon move frequency that fast,
> so whatever was sending it must have been much lower than the Satellites
> that we expect to be operational at this time.
>
> At 0221Z when I began to hear FO-29's Beacon, it was significantly weaker
> and the CW contained a lot of numbers. It never became anywhere near
> as strong as the unknown Beacon.
>
> When I did an Internet Search of Amateur Satellite Beacons, the only one
> that I found near that frequency was FO-20. I couldn't find FO-20 listed in
> SATPC-32 to run an Orbit Prediction to see if it could have been passing
> overhead at that time.
>
> So, I'm curious what Satellite that could have been which was so strong and
> moving so fast above my QTH at EN91hq. Could FO-20 have come back to
> life?

You might have heard HO-68's telemetry beacon.  Its official name is
Xi Wang-1, which would explain the "XW" at the end of the CW sequence.
 I recall that each beacon transmission began with an
identification--its callsign, I think.

There's more information at:

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/status.php

73s

Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL