[PPRAANet] Fw: [amsat-bb] AO-50 now open to all

[Thomas McDaniel]

More information on SO-50.

73  Tom  n0ntx

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Glasbrenner" <glasbrenner at mindspring.com>
To: <VEFRH at aol.com>; <amsat-bb at AMSAT.Org>; <Advisors at AMSAT.Org>;
<bod at AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-50 now open to all


> Robin and all,
>
> I have been enabling the repeater automatically over the U.S. for well
over 6 months now. When within site of Florida for more than 3 minutes, and
given no serious competition on the uplink, the satellite is automatically
enabled.
>
> Please!!! All new users be advised, be VERY SURE that your equipment is
good enough to hear the satellite before attempting to enable it with the
74.4 hertz tone. If you have any doubts at all, let someone else turn it on.
What will be disastrous is if some of the users that have marginal receive
systems spend half the pass transmitting the 74.4 tone at 50 watts. 2
seconds is enough, and the receiver is VERY senstive.
>
> Also, for those trying this sat out for the first time, bear in mind that
with a single 1/4 wave whip for the downlink transmitter on the satellite
you will experience occasional severe fades caused by A) cross polarization
if using a linear antenna or B) the spacecraft body blocking your view of
the antenna. B happens even with large AO-13 class stations with a preamp.
This week I've noticed the downlink is particularly good at the beginning of
the ascending passes, and not so good near the end of the pass.
>
> Altogether this little bird is quite a winner, and I hope to see more
folks on it soon.
>
> 73, Drew KO4MA
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: VEFRH at aol.com
> Sent: Jun 10, 2004 10:27 AM
> To: amsat-bb at AMSAT.Org, Advisors at AMSAT.Org, bod at AMSAT.Org
> Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-50  now open to all
>
> Greetings,
> I have been advised that I can now publish the tone to Open AO-50 to all
> users as the power availability appears to be good.
> To switch the transmitter on you need to send a CTCSS tone of  74.4  Hz.
> the order of operation is thus:
>
>  (allow for Doppler as necessary)
>
> 1) Transmit on 145.850 MHz with a tone of 74.4 Hz to arm the 10 minute
timer
> on board the spacecraft.
>
> 2) Now transmit on 145.850 MHz  (FM Voice) using 67.0 Hz to PT the
repeater
> on and off within the 10 Minute window.
>
> 3) Sending the 74.4 tone again within the 10 minute window will reset the
10
> minute timer.
>
> Some additional information ...
>
> The spacecraft repeater consists of a miniature VHF repeater with a
> sensitivity of -124 dbm, having an IF bandwidth of 15 KHz. The receive
antenna  is a
> 1/4 wave vertical mounted in the top corner of the spacecraft. The receive
> audio is filtered and conditioned then gated in the control electronics
prior to
> feeding it to the 250 mW Transmitter.
> The downlink antenna is a 1/4 wave mounted in the bottom corner of the
> spacecraft and canted at 45 degrees inward.
>
> 73
> Robin Haighton VE3FRH
> President AMSAT-NA
> ----
> Sent via amsat-bb at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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>
>
>
> ----
> Sent via amsat-bb at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
> Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
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