2E0SQL - M3PHP » satellite

HO-68 CW Beacon at 22:06 on 22/09/11

Peter — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:42:00 +0000

This is a recording of the HO-68 CW Beacon as the satellite past over at 35 degrees elevation. Using a ICOM IC-910HX and a 10el 70cms Yagi Az/EL controlled.

My First Contact Via Arissat-1

Peter — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:37:48 +0000

I started out on Sunday trying to get a QSO via Arissat-1′s transponder. As its passes are within daylight over the Europe, Sunday night I managed to hear myself via the transponder using 25w into a 10 element yagi (computer controlled). The signal seemed reasonable although some heavy QSB at times then others I was S9!

Then I tried again last night and at 19:41 UTC I worked Gavin M1BXF, so the satellite has some sort of antenna for UHF and I hope this is the start of many more QSOs via the satellite.

Arissat-1 Launched

Peter — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:45:41 +0000

On the 3^th of August during a Russian EVA on the International Space Station the new Arissat-1 satellite was launched after many delays. During the EVA there were problems too with the suspected missing UHF antenna, although people have since been able to use the SSB Transponder so something must be attached.

I decided to stay up late, to decode the first signal over the United Kingdom. This happened at 3am on the 4th August, when I heard the Voice and then SSTV images on 145.950

The signal wasn’t strong at only 5 degrees elevation but managed to decode an SSTV image, but as you can see plenty fading every couple of seconds. But a couple of hours later I managed to get a slightly better quality image from one of the onboard cameras!

Arissat-1 Audio (mp3)

I’ve yet to have an SSB contact via it but hoping that might be possible next week during a non Eclipse pass, and will report if/when that happens.

First Packets From NO-44

Peter — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:57:46 +0000

This morning I received my first APRS signals from NO-44 although not strong it was early audible as it passed over the UK to the north.. I was also lucky enough to be able to get a packet digi’d!

Fm W3ADO-1 To BEACON Via SGATE [11:45:41]
T#009,020,129,057,047,214,11111111,0000,1

Fm 2E0SQL To PCSAT Via W3ADO-1* [11:46:21]
=5146.15N/00112.30W-73' Pete in Oxford, www.m3php.com {UISS52}

ISS Packet & SO-67

Peter — Tue, 17 May 2011 08:51:11 +0000

Since being back from the Isle of Arran I’ve been doing a lot of APRS via the ISS, we used APRS while traveling and it was a useful tool for knowing where everyone was and I’ve sort of become hooked just wish there was more activity on 144.800 in the Oxfordshire area anyone? what I’ve done though is ordered a Foxdelta Tracker which will hopefully arrive soon and I’ll be able to use that while out and about walking/cycling will post more about that once it arrives.

APRS RX iGate used on the Ferry to Arran

Anyways so I’ve been doing APRS using the ICOM IC-910H and the AGW Packet Engine plus an external creative usb sound-card, at first it didn’t work too well but after tweaking the audio settings it started decoding and now works on every pass! for decoding and receiving packets I’ve been using UISS the program is simple and works well with the AGW Packet Engine DDE interface so that suites me fine!

Below are two screenshots of packets received some stations on Sunday

I’ve also had my first contacts on the African SO-67 satellite, normally I miss when then the satellites been turned on over Europe but this time I’ve been on the ball so far worked 9A2EY, UR5BFX, SQ9JYL, F0FVK, I’m impressed by the signal strength of the satellite too far better then any of the other FM satellites I’ve heard!

Amateur Satellites

Peter — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 22:34:12 +0000

This evening instead of going down the pub like most people on a Friday, I stayed in and messed around in the shack and I enjoyed every minute of it, during the afternoon I decided to have a play with listening to the amateur satellites at first I didn’t have any real result.

Then just after dinner I started hearing things and from then on I was kind of hooked hearing stations using

VO52
HO-68
SO-67

Modes where a mix of CW/SSB not heard anyone on FM yet, signals weren’t great at the best of times but I was using an FT817 + Diamond V2000 vertical and Ham Radio Deluxe satellite tracker but I had fun and will keep playing over the weekend.

Might even try a QSO!

Reinstated QFH Weather Antenna

Peter — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:31:59 +0000

After reconnecting up the weather satellite receiver (RX2) and connecting it up to the Diamond V2000 vertical to decode the NOAA APT satellite passes it was finally time to put a dedicated antenna back up, in the form of a quadrifilar helicoidal antenna (QFH) this antenna hasn’t been used in about 4 years so I was surprised it worked perfectly. the results from using the V2000 weren’t that bad it would decode passes just below Iceland down to the top of Spain.

With the QFH its decoding from well above the top of Iceland all the way down to Algeria, and best of all the images are mostly noise free. the antenna is only about 10 feet off the ground attached to the rose arch in the garden.

You can have a look at the images at http://wx.prettygoodprojects.com/apt/daily/ their uploaded a couple of minutes after each pass automatically by the software.

APT Weather Satellites

Peter — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:25:52 +0000

After about 3 years of not decoding APT weather satellite pictures, I decided 1 weeks ago to setup the Rig RIGSAT RX2 again and connected it up to the Diamond V2000, for the software I decided instead of using the Time-step software to use a free application called APT Decoder which can track, decode and process the satellite pass without any involvement from a human.

Afterwards it has the ability to upload the decoded image and provides an RSS feed which can be subscribed to, which is handy as you can view the image on any type of device as long as you have Internet access.

After a week and a half of decoding the results have been relativity good considering its not using a crossed or QFH style antenna, images do have noticeable noise on them but there still usable. and the software has performed without any issues.

You can find the latest images at http://wx.prettygoodprojects.com/apt/daily/