[amsat-bb] Yubileiny RS-30 CW beacon --> bit of a rant

[Hans (BX2ABT)]

Hi Scott,

Yet another website with amateur satellite info. As a sat beginner you 
quickly find out that the amateur satellite world is a very disorganized 
place. I know it is an illusion that the perfect information source 
exists, but as messy as it is now.......... The same goes for software.

Let's start with names: some use the AMSAT designators (OA-91), others 
use common names (Fox-1B), yet others use the NORAD number or the NSSDC 
ID. So you have to juggle with naming conventions between different 
websites and software/apps.

Then websites: you would think that the AMSAT website has at least the 
minimum amount of information on past and present amateur satellites. 
First: what AMSAT website? There is AMSAT in the US, AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-EA, 
AMSAT-ON...... As the US is usually leading the way, let's go to the 
AMSAT-NA site. I am interested in Athenoxat-1 and skCube. Quick 
search.......nothing. Ok, to their status page which says: "This web 
page was created to give a single global reference point for all users 
in the Amateur Satellite Service to show the most up-to-date status of 
all satellites as actually reported in real time by users around the 
world." If so, why are there only a handful of birds listed? This will 
confuse the heck out of sat newbies.

So you send me to the DK3WN site, which seems rather complete and 
up-to-date. (BTW, it usually scares me when one person creates such an 
extensive and well organized website on which many people rely. What if 
the good OM goes SK? The same goes for software, btw). Look up the 
status of Yublileiny RS-30? Active! If you dig a bit deeper you will 
find the last report from November 2012, so it is obvious that the bird 
is dead (or sleeping very deeply). But it is listed as active, which I 
believe and subsequently I might waste a lot of time tracking a bird 
that is not there.

You are right, Scott, you gave me one way to answer my question and I 
thank you for that. The "bit of a rant" above is not directed at you, at 
all, but I hope it will help make the world a bit better, especially for 
sat newbies who read this: if you're confused and a bit 
frustrated........YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

73 de Hans

BX2ABT


On 06/01/2018 11:25 PM, Scott wrote:
> >>> what other sats do have reliable and reasonably strong beacons (in 
> morse code)?
>
> One way to answer that would be to look at the following page and 
> search for "CW".  Then, check to see if the status shows "ACTIVE".
>
> http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?page_id=29535
>
> 73!
>
> -Scott,  K4KDR
>
>
> ==========================================
>
> On Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 10:39 AM, Hans (BX2ABT) 
> <hans.bx2abt at msa.hinet.net <mailto:hans.bx2abt at msa.hinet.net>> wrote:
>
>     Hello Hugh and Jean-Pierre,
>
>     Thanks for pointing out SatNOGS to me. I'm new to sats and didn't
>     realize that SatNOGS had this capability. I'll check it out.
>
>     So it seems RS-30 is dead. I checked the SatNOGS recordings, but I
>     couldn't detect any CW. A pity, 'cause back in 2009 it was one of
>     the first sat signals I received on my HT with a simple antenna.
>
>     I asked this question before on this list, but what other sats do
>     have reliable and reasonably strong beacons (in morse code)? Any
>     suggestions are welcome. Cheers.
>
>     Hans
>
>     BX2ABT
>
>
>
>     On 06/01/2018 10:10 PM, Jean-Pierre Godet wrote:
>
>           Hi, Hans,
>
>           The last record of Yubileiny-1 RS-30 CW telemetry I done was
>         on november 12th 2012. It died sometime in november 2012 and
>         the CW beacon was on 435.315 MHz and was pure CW A1. 435.215
>         MHz was used by the digital telemetry downlink (with the
>         russian Doka-B ground stations). But anyway, I listen from
>         time to time to the frequencies of the missing birds, just in
>         case... My russian favorite was Mozhyets-4 RS-22.  :-) and my
>         favorite chinese Xiwang-1 (Hope-1, HO-68)my favorite, which is
>         still possible to hear from time to time when solar panels are
>         under the sun (like AO-7).
>
>           Hans, there are a lot of others satellites sending CW
>         telemetry on 70 cm.
>
>
>
>         On 01/06/2018 13:15, Hans (BX2ABT) wrote:
>
>             Hello all,
>
>             I'm trying out my 4 element 70cm LFA and (finally)
>             received some decent signals from Athenoxat-1 (437.485
>             MHz). I had some good passes for Yubileiny RS-30 in the
>             last couple of days, but I didn't observe anything. So,
>             questions:
>
>             1) is RS-30 dead or still alive?
>
>             2) if alive, on which frequency is the morse code beacon
>             active 435.215 or 435.315?
>
>             3) what mode should I use then: FMN or pure CW.
>
>             I would like to know if anybody has observed RS-30
>             recently. On the web I can't find any recent observations.
>             Thank you.
>
>
>             Hans
>
>             BX2ABT
>