[amsat-bb] Football Tracking today

[Robert Bruninga]

It’s not exactly LEO orbit, but you can track the annual running of the A/N
game football from Annapolis to Phily starting at noon.

http://aprs.fi/usna*



USNA-1 will always be with the ball while -2,-3,-4 will be shuttling
runners.



The 8W Byonics MicrotrackTT4’s are set to use Proportional-Pathing so that
close in, (simplex/direct) they are updated at a known 1 minute rate making
rendezvous practical, while the first digi hop is only once every 2
minutes.  And then there is only a regional 2 hop packet once every 4
minutes.  This keeps the 144.39 MHz channel loading down an order of
magnitude while still providing close in 1 minute special event tracking
quality.



And, knowing the rate is always one minute direct, 2 minutes via one digi
and 4 minutes regional, makes it easy to know when packets are missing and
how best to anticipate the nice DeadReckoning header as displayed on APRS.FI
.



Bob, WB4APR