[amsat-bb] Re: Beacon?

[g0mrf at aol.com]

Yup.   That is the HO-68  beacon.

I use it at my school for demonstrating / measuring doppler and 
calculating the velocity and altitude of the satellite.

Thanks

David


-----Original Message-----
From: B J <va6bmj at gmail.com>
To: R.T.Liddy <k8bl at ameritech.net>
CC: amsat-bb <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 5:17
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Beacon?


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
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