[amsat-bb] AO-91 - Safe Mode Annoucement

[Jerry Buxton]

That is a nice recording, Paul.

I would like to state for the record that the ID is not actually a
"child", Veronica Monteiro was just starting in college when we made the
Fox-1x recordings.  Because of the need to sharply filter the recordings
with a 350 Hz high pass to eliminate any audio in the DUV telemetry
frequency range, it does have the effect of making her sound younger. 
That coupled with whatever your particular SDR or transceiver filtering
adds creates the rather common misconception that the recordings were of
a young child.

Veronica Monteiro is the daughter of the late Tony Monteiro AA2TX, who
as AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering brought the Fox-1 1U CubeSat
concept and project to the Board of Directors and "sold" the Fox-1
Program that has now produced 5 (OK 4 1/2 until Fox-1E is complete)
Fox-1 CubeSats.  The concept included a Morse Code ID for the beacon of
the FM repeaters, as stated in the System Requirements:

3.9.6 If the downlink transmitter has been un-keyed for a period of 5
minutes, the satellite shall send " HI THIS IS AMSAT FOX " in Morse code
via a keyed audio tone on the downlink transmitter.

When designing the software for the ID back in 2014 after I was
appointed VPE, the Fox-1 Team thought it would be a nice idea to use a
voice ID instead of Morse Code given the abilities of the IHU and
available memory.  In kicking around ideas about who would record the ID
it came to us that it would be a nice tribute to Tony if Veronica were
the voice ID.  Fox-1 software engineer Burns Fisher, who lives near
Tony's family, contacted them.  Veronica graciously agreed, and Burns
set out with his recorder to capture Veronica to become the voice of the
Fox-1 FM satellites.

>From their many clips I was able to assemble the various Safe Mode and
Transponder Mode IDs for each satellite/name, so I guess I'm to blame
for the processing I did that makes her sound like a child...

I listened to Veronica's IDs I'll bet hundreds if not a thousand times
in testing the Fox-1 engineering model and Fox-1A through D, and I still
get a kick and a smile from it every time I hear her - especially from
orbit!

Jerry Buxton, NØJY

On 11/19/2017 12:57, Paul Andrews wrote:
> Satellite Fans,
>
> I pointed my 2 x XP28 moonbounce antenna at AO-91 today.   The AO-91
> pass was nearly directly overhead in FN20.   The FM signal quality was
> so high - you can hear the room acoustics in the recording of the
> child's voice.   Very cool.
>
> Here is a YouTube link -   https://youtu.be/gepcNt2sW2g
>
> 73 - Paul - W2HRO
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