[amsat-bb] Announcing EO-79 transponder testing for one full orbit

[Wouter Weggelaar]

Hi All,

I can hereby confirm Tomorrows intended activation of the AMSAT-NL
FUNcube-3 transponder on QB50p1 / EO-79.
Date and time:Monday 4th of May, activation around 0830 UTC for one orbit.

TLEs are in the normal repositories, COSPAR 2014-033-R, Object# 40025

We would like people to try the following frequencies if possible:
DOWNLINK: 145.960 USB
UPLINK: Tune to match downlink +/- 435.065 LSB
The transponder is linear inverting, nominally 30kHz wide, and approx.
500mW output.

Also, If you find the transponder busy on those frequencies, feel free to
move around and use the entire transponder passband.
The passband seems to have a "dip" in the middle which is bigger than
expected, but we do welcome feedback about the usability. Also, please
limit your uplink power, as it looks like this transponder is as sensitive
as FUNcube-1. The spacecraft antenna is a monopole, so we would also be
interested in signal fading reports.

The comissioning of the transponder done to date is very limited, three
activations for 5, 10 and 8 minutes respectively. So your reports are
greatly appreciated.

We do understand this is a very short notice, but hope that some of you
will be able to participate.
This was a take-it-or-leave-it opportunity offered by the ISIS engineers
for our consideration, and we are again very grateful to ISIS and VKI to
give us this opportunity.

Wouter PA3WEG
FUNcube team

On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 12:28 AM, Wouter Weggelaar <wouterweg at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I would like to inform you all that tomorrow, Monday 4th of may, there is
> a fairly high chance we will be allowed to test the AMSAT-NL transponder
> for one full orbit.
>
> Details will be made available on short notice, but we are aiming for an
> activation starting at ~08:30 UTC and lasting until ~10:10 UTC.
>
> The aim is to characterize the power budget on board EO-79. So we
> encourage the usage of this new transponder. Please also report the QSOs
> and signal reports to pa3weg at amsat.org
>
> Wouter PA3WEG
> AMSAT-NL
>