[OZAPRS] My first Posit via PCSAT for a long time

[Robert Bruninga]

> On Behalf Of Mike Zwingl oe3mzc
> I will be travelling V51 NAMBIA during June, JULY, AUGUST
> and want to know if it would make sense to use any of the
> PACSATs for APRS out in the bush, like I did with ISS in
> West Australia last year?

It is the chicken-Egg problem.

I hope that we can inspire other satellite builders to support
this simple wilderness/mobile position and status reporting
application.  We hope others would build PCSAT (APRS) compatible
digital satelites on 145.825 to continue this viable moble
satetllite application.  We figured there could be as many as 6
or more such satellits all on 145.825 to provide almost
continuous coverage for travelers.

But PCSAT-1 only works during mid-day passes when it is in the
sun.  And this is so spotty, that it is hard to keep the
worldwide network of ground stations interested.  But for the
next several months, and in the future, we will have these
satellites on 145.825:

PCSAT-1   - sometimes workable during mid day sun
ANDE-1    - through June 08 but needs wakeup every orbit
RAFT      - RX only works at night and is very weak
PEHUENSAT - has no user uplink
FASTRAC   - FUTURE U of TX Satellite with links on 145.825
ECHO AO51 - Digipeats 9600 baud but is on different freqs
            and we do not have enough Igates for the downlink

But the key is keeping enough ground stations IGATING all the
packets they hear on 145.825 to make this system work.  The more
the better.


> First question would be: Is there a reliable PACTSAT in Orbit
> at that time?
> Second: do you know about an SATGATE in this area?
> Otherwise I would need to go back to HF-APRS, preferably
> ROBUST-PACKET Mode.
> hw?
> tnx info
> de Mike
> oe3mzc / vk3fpf
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga at usna.edu>
> To: "'VK / ZL APRS Users'" <ozaprs at aprs.net.au>;
<amsat-bb at amsat.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 1:28 AM
> Subject: [OZAPRS] My first Posit via PCSAT for a long time
>
>
> > Yes, PCSAT-1 is working great.  I was driving through
Tennessee
> > on Friday, and saw a PCSAT-11 packet on the normal North
> > Americal 144.39 frequency and so I quickly QSY'ed to 145.825
and
> > in my mobile with a magmount, my D700 radio captured 12
stations
> > via PCSAT-1 and 10 messages/bulletins to the radio front
panel.
> >
> > PCSAT-1 has a 1 minute beacon on 144.39 over North America
so
> > that people in low-QRM areas might see when PCSAT is in view
for
> > just this purpose.  There is no 144.39 uplink, of course,
since
> > all the satellite would hear is 10,000 jammed packets in
space.
> > Later, I just left my radio on overnight on 145.825 and
captured
> > similarly a dozen stations.  (Be sure to set your RANGE
limit
> > back to 0, or the D700 will ignore all packets coming from
too
> > far away...)...  De WB4APR, Bob
> >
> >> On Behalf Of Ian Mills
> >> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 8:26 PM
> >>
> >> Well, I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon as I
managed
> >> quite easily to have my position received via PCSAT.
> >> I drive two hours to and from work and I have been
monitoring
> >> PCSAT... so I fired off my position via a THD-7 into a 30w
> >> amp attached to a 1/4 wave rod antenna on my car.
> >> ...the following from findu confirms I got through:
> >>
> >>
VK2HIM-7>S4T3W2,PCSAT-1*,WIDE2-2,qAo,VK3JTM-5:`NM_!6
>/>"3w}
> >>
VK2HIM-7>S4T4V8,PCSAT-1,VK7HSE-1,VK7RAD,WIDE2*,qAo,VK7HDM-12:`
> >> NM
 @5>/>"4.}On UHF repeater
> >>
VK2HIM-7>S4T4X1,PCSAT-1,VK7HSE-1,VK7RAD,WIDE2*,qAo,VK7HDM-12:`
> >> NMKnf~>/>"4:}
> >>
> >> The last time I tried was over a year ago and I didn't have
> >> any trouble then either, and this was using the 5W THd7
> >> without a 30w amp!!
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Ian
> >> vk2him
> >> AWA Limited
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ozaprs mailing list
> >> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
> >> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
> >
>
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