Detailed Description
DOVE was sponsored by AMSAT-Brazil and lead by Dr. Junior Torres DeCastro, PY2BJO. DOVE, an acronym for Digital Orbiting Voice Encoder, carried hardware capable of reproducing digitized speech, or controlling a Votrax speech synthesizer. However, due to hardware failures that occurred after launch, the primary mission of providing voice messages of world peace from DOVE was not been fully realized.
DOVE operated sporadically on a downlink frequency of 145.825 MHz FM, transmitting AX.25 protocol packet radio telemetry. Using 1200 bps Bell 202 style AFSK emission, DOVE-OSCAR-17 could be copied on packet radio equipment in wide use on VHF at the time. DO-17 contains no general-use uplink receivers and does not support any mailbox operations.
Regardless of the hardware malfunctions that made voice software uploads difficult for spacecraft controllers, many educators and OSCAR enthusiasts successfully captured spacecraft telemetry frames, analyzed trends in data and determined the spin rate of the satellite. These experiences, as well as AO-16 WOD analysis brought real-world sciences directly into the hands of those involved and were an invaluable teaching resource free for the asking.
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