[amsat-bb] Ao40 questions

["William Leijenaar" <pe1rah@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi AMSATs,

Last days I have been doing some more tests with a bigger dish and with some 
new ideas to make very light foldable antennas for portable use.

As I was testing my bigger dish (outside in the cold brrrr) I got a very 
strong downlink :-) So I decided to test also my new foldable 70cm yagi for 
the uplink.
So in a hurry I put al the equipment outside and started to find my uplink.
No signals back :-( But as I listened on other frequencies everybody was 
gone.

So I faced again the transponder off situation :-(
To be sure I had to connect the 13cm RX again to my TRX in my shack, start 
up my PC, program my DSP modem for 400bpsk.... long waiting for windows, etc 
etc... just to find out that the transponder was switched off.
Another option is to look at the internet, but thats the same situation as 
with the DSP etc.

For a home station this is not the very wors thing, but as I am improving my 
portable station I will face a very serious problem when having no PC or 
internet available for a long period of time !!! I am considering to make 
some small handheld device that filters out the matrix data from the 
telemetry and displays it with a several leds. Maybe someone already tried 
to make such a thing ?
Maybe someone has a simple and small solution/circuit... (no laptops, 
palmtop, desktop, big-tower, mainframe, solutions please :-) Small and cheap 
it must be..

Maybe it would also be interrested when e.g Ao40 gives some identification 
in which matrix it is. Maybe by giving a short CW code, or send a "dummy" 
telemetry-frame that has a recognizeable pattern, so the amateurs without 
P3T equipment and internet can hear if they can use the transponders.

Then I would like to know if AO40 also sends its own kepler data via its 
telemetry... With a handheld P3T system, internet will not be needed 
anymore, also for longer times :-)

73 de PE1RAH, William
---

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. 
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

----
Sent via amsat-bb@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org