Re: [amsat-bb] Sunsat switches to Mode J

["Johann Lochner" <lochner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Alf,

 > First, thanks so very much for the update and especially for
 > providing SunSat.  It is a great ham radio resource and I do
 > appreciate the time, effort and monies that went (and are still
 > going) into building, launching and maintaining that satellite. 

Thanks for your support.  Through feedback from subscribers to the 
AMSAT-BB (amongst others) we are able to improve the ham services 
continuously.  We'd love to hear from you folks even more.  Whenever 
mission objectives permit, we'll support special events and ham 
expeditions.  You're most welcome to make scheduling proposals, for 
example for cross-Atlantic contacts, demos with the parrot repeater, 
etc.

 > Now like many ignorant Americans, I'm not fully cognizant of the
 > various conventions used in other countries.   I know a lot of
 > countries use a common (,) for their decimal point and there are
 > other differences in the way we represent things.  (Not to mention
 > the whole metric mess.) 

Why call it the METRIC mess?  ;-)  If I'm not mistaken, South Africa 
metricized in the sixties.  By rights I should use a comma as decimal 
symbol, but (somewhat influenced by the American way) I prefer to use 
a point.  I still use a space for grouping digits in large numbers, 
though.

 > However, I'm curious about the 'nkn' (e.g. 9k6 baud) convention
 > ESL uses on the SunSat page.   Wouldn't that convention indicate
 > 9006 instead of 9600? I would think and maybe I'm just aneed'n' 
 > educatin' in the ways of the rest of the world, but wouldn't 9.6k
 > be more accurate?  I notice that you don't use that convention on
 > the frequency,  145.825Mhz  instead of 145M825Hz? 

I guess that notation is somewhat slang.  We use it often to shorten 
the designators on resistor cabinets.  Where it is obvious what the 
unit is (ohm for the resistor example; bit/s for the modem bitrate), 
only the magnitude is shown, with the multiple or submultiple symbol 
shifted to the decimal position.

Only when the 38k4 PAM modem of UO-36 became popular, have I seen 
this notation used for bitrates.  I have kind of standardized to it 
for informal writing.  In a formal context I'll write 9 600 bit/s, 
9.6 kbit/s, 145 825 kHz or 145.825 MHz.  Maybe I shouldn't consider 
the SO-35 ham page an informal platform.  :-)

 > Maybe I'm just in a picky mode this morning, but am willing to
 > learn new things. 

No problem, it's been fun!

 > Again, thanks for the satellite and the frequent updates and
 > changes in mode.  It has been fun tracking, though the recent
 > shift in modes has taken me a day or two to adjust to.  (I'm old
 > and slow to change sometimes.) 

There are some real good stuff in the pipeline.  You ain't seen 
nothing yet.  ;-)  Now, if we only had a sun-synchronous orbit!

Kind regards,
Johann, ZR1CBC

+------------------------------------------------+
   JG Lochner  ESL, Universiteit van Stellenbosch
   e-pos:      lochner@ing.sun.ac.za
   webtuiste:  http://esl.ee.sun.ac.za/~lochner
+------------------------------------------------+

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