[amsat-bb] P3D Thermal-Vac Winding Down

[Pat Kilroy <pat.kilroy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, October 28, 1998 @ 1800 UTC

P3D THERMAL-VAC TEST WINDING DOWN

The local P3D TLM "broadcast" is now turned off, according to 
Phase 3D Lab Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, a few moments ago.  It 
was a good test.  Lou was glad to hear that some did indeed copy 
it okay!  The observed frequency drifting slightly was expected, 
due to the large temperature changes in the chamber.  In fact, 
it would have been a challenge to track of the signals over the 
duration of the test, Lou said, because the RUDAK and spacecraft 
teams were QSYing around, including many band changes.  

Stacey Mills, W4SM, P3D Ground Controller, was very helpful in 
explaining to Steve Greene, KA1LM, and Eric Rosenberg, W3DQ, some 
of the details of his beta P3D telemetry software.  They succeeded 
in copying the S7-S9 signals from Northern Virginia and Washington, 
D.C. respectively.  Thank you, gentlemen!  

Thermal-vac stops tonight, with chamber break set for tomorrow 
morning.  

The volunteer overnight scheduling has stopped.  No more shift 
work is needed.  Thank you to all who rose to the occasion to 
cover the wee hours, and often multiple shifts!  By name: Perry 
Klein W3PK, Dan Schultz N8FGV, Bill Onuska NI3E, Gary Hendrickson 
W3DTN and yours truly.  Thanks to those in the wings about to 
cover a shift: Pete Young, K3IN, and Art Feller, W4ART.  

We are looking for two or three volunteers to meet me tomorrow 
morning at the chamber to help the team pack up.  (Lou would 
like to start the trip back to Orlando first thing Saturday 
morning.)  To make the security clearances easier, the volunteer 
overnight "sat sitters" would be a first choice in the packing 
tasks.  Please contact me ASAP to confirm.  

There were a whole score of AMSAT names from out of town 
during this test phase that you would readily recognize.  See 
the many team members by going to the P3D Lab web site at 
<http://www.magicnet.net/~phase3d/>.  Check back often to 
keep track of the P3D spacecraft until it returns for vibration 
testing in the winter at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  

An important part of this group was the P3D RUDAK (packet 
radio) team.  Go to <http://users.sgi.net/~hprice/rudaktv.htm> 
and see some of their outstanding and memorable photos!  

And don't forget ...

Visit AMSAT-DC
http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/~simsat/ssamsatdc.html

Visit AMSAT-NoVA
http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/~simsat/ssamsatnova.html

Way to go!  

Sincerely,

Pat WD8LAQ
NASA-ARRL-AMSAT-TAPR-GARC


===================================================================
Patrick L. Kilroy                                          (ex-743)
SSPP Hitchhiker I&T Engineer      Phone:  301-286-1984
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center  Fax:    301-286-1673
Building 5, New Mail Code 568     E-mail: pat.kilroy@gsfc.nasa.gov
Greenbelt, Maryland  20771        Web:    http://sspp.gsfc.nasa.gov
===================================================================

   Visit SimSat at http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/~simsat/index.html


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