[amsat-bb] Digital Voice Transponder Satellites

[Scott]

Hi Clayton!

I was active with all of LO-90's capabilities.  In addition to the digital
voice transponder, several of us also enjoyed commanding it to take
pictures and downloading telemetry (including the .JPG pictures when we
requested them to be taken).

Everyone enjoys different aspects of our hobby; I particularly like things
that require a lot of cooperation between computer & radio.  So, LO-90 was
a perfect fit for me and others.

It was also a great opportunity to get more familiar with GNU Radio and the
related apps developed by Harbin University as well as by others in the
Amateur Radio community.  We're really fortunate to have so many folks with
the programming skills to jump in and add value (and fun!) when new
satellites show up in orbit.

-Scott,  K4KDR

=============================

On Thu, Apr 4, 2019 at 3:27 PM Clayton Coleman W5PFG via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> Historically, strong opinions about digital vs. analog voice
> transponders have been made public here on the AMSAT-BB.
>
> Since Chinese satellite LO-90 recently re-entered and is no longer
> available, I wanted to hear from those that are pro-digital-voice
> satellites on their experiences using it. LO-90 was single channel but
> it offered a perfect platform to experiment with digital voice on an
> amateur satellite.
>
> I congratulate the team that built it for trying something new and
> giving us an opportunity to play with it.
>
> It is my observation that the satellite had very little use, as
> evidenced by the telemetry dashboard statistics. Why was that? I seem to
> recall many pro-digital voice conversations on the AMSAT-BB in the past.
> This was an excellent opportunity to try digital voice, and yet so few did.
>
> My excuse was that “life got in the way” and I didn’t spend the time
> until near the very end of its operational life. Unfortunately, I let
> time slip away and didn’t get to enjoy this fascinating digital voice
> experiment as much as I should have. Thankfully I was able to get my
> station up and running in time to hear my own voice, decode, and submit
> telemetry before re-entry.
>
> Are we ready for digital voice? Why or why not?
>
> 73,
> Clayton
> W5PFG
>