[amsat-bb] EO-79 transponder ACTIVE

[Paul Stoetzer]

Still active over North America on the 1549Z pass. Worked W2JV and
WB8RJY, then switched over to AO-73 and worked two more stations. Nice
back to back passes!

73,

Paul, N8HM

On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 5:25 AM, Wouter Weggelaar <wouterweg at gmail.com> wrote:
> A quick update: the satellite hit its safe mode trigger and needs to
> be commanded back on.
> The safe mode flag has been cleared, so we just need to activate the
> transponder again.
>
> Further clarification, we expect to switch back to normal operations
> after the Easter weekend. I am afraid my previous E-mail had a
> cut-and-paste error on the prolonged period of time *during Easter*.
>
> Rest assured we are also still working on the permanent activation.
>
> Wouter
>
> On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 11:14 AM, Wouter Weggelaar <wouterweg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Today, 25th of March 2016, the EO-79 transponder has been turned on
>> for a prolonged period.
>>
>> The FUNcube transponder subsystem on QB50p1 (EO-79) had been provided
>> by AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL and is a similar subsystem as on FUNcube-1,
>> but without the telemetry downlink circuitry.
>>
>> The current software running on EO-79 does experience occasional
>> reboots. When these reboots happen, the transponder is automatically
>> turned off and will have to be turned back on by a command station.
>> The FUNcube team has selected a few command stations to do so, but be
>> advised the transponder may be off.
>>
>> TLEs:
>> AMSAT keps name: EO-79
>> Celestrak keps Name: QB50P1
>> Celestrak file: cubesat.txt
>> NORAD #    40025
>> COSPAR designator    2014-033-R
>>
>> Frequencies:
>> Uplink: 435.035-435.065 MHz LSB
>> Downlink: 145.935-145.965 MHz USB
>>
>> EO-79 has been set to only beacon the normal AX.25 beacon every 30
>> seconds instead of 10 seconds. The beacon frequency is 145.815MHz and
>> consists of AX.25 frames on BPSK. more details about the downlink can
>> be found on the ISIS HAM page at http://isispace.nl/HAM/qb50p.html
>>
>> Just like FUNcube-1, the crystal oscillator circuits exhibit drift
>> with temperature. This means manual tuning will probably work best.
>>
>> Lastly, the commanding team availability will be limited over Easter,
>> so please report the transponder being on or off on the status page of
>> AMSAT: http://www.amsat.org/status/
>> It does not appear in the table, but it does in the reporting drop-down.
>>
>> 73 and have FUN
>>
>> Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG
>> AMSAT-NL
>> AMSAT-UK
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