ISS/PCsat JOINT OPERATIONS TEST 22 October 23 Oct 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WB4APR On October 22, 2002 from 2001z to 2013z both ISS and PCsat were in view of the USA. This was the first day that ISS was back on the PCsat frequency of 145.825 after a 6 day hiatas due to an apparent SEU in the PMS system. Several people were successful in launching dual-hop packets. The complete file is encluded below although long packets have been truncated to make them fit an 80 column Email format. In this list of packets, there are a few packets of special interest that deserve comment: The first packets were out over the pacific with only the west coast inview, thus the numerous (7) easy DX successes (the first was over 1880 mi): This decodes to a position in Seattle Washington. [20:01:16] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"41}@arrl In the next packet below, notice that I didnt get acess to PCsat until 5 minutes later to command it as usual to power saving mode to make sure it could support a heavy user load for this pass. The 7 previous successful packets shows us that PCsat can support dual hop packets even without command station support. [20:05:42] COMAND-1*>WB4APR-3 prompt:OUTPUT was 11111111... The next packet shows the Batterys almost fully charged at 16.5 volts each! But these are very weak NiCd's that are "soft" and near death, so a high voltage under charge doesnt really mean things are all that great... and the telemetry counter of #020 shows us it has only been alive for 20 minutes even though it has been in the sun almost 40. [20:06:21] W3ADO-1*>BEACON,SGATE:T#020,165,165,067,219,213,00111111,0111,1 The next two packets are another first. it is the first time a satellite has reported its own telemetry and ID via another satellite. [20:08:25] W3ADO-1>BEACON,RS0ISS*:T#022,079,067,077,101,213,00111111,0101,1 [20:08:40] W3ADO-1>ID,RS0ISS*:W3ADO-1/R XBAUD/G MAIL-1/B The next packet shows that ISS is now configured to also digipeat its own packets via another satellite or ground station with the alias of SGate. I was supposed to add SGATE as a UI-DIGI alias on PCsat so that PCsat would do the same for ISS. That is, it would relay the ISS beacons when ISS was normally out of range of any other ground stations. (I forgot to enable SGATE on PCsat for this pass). [20:08:52] RS0ISS*>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS - International Space Station The next two show a single original packet picked up by both spacecraft and then both spacecraft relay it successfully via the other. This is the normal APRS generic routing method where the packet was generically transmitted using the path of via WIDE,WIDE, and then each satellite recognizes the alias of WIDE and then digipeats the packet while substituting its callsign in place of the generic WIDE so that the actual path taken is shown. (This only works when I am able to set the WIDE alias on PCsat DURING the pass. THus it worked here, but don't plan on it, because PCsat forgets all settings every 100 minutes.) [20:09:51] WB4APR-3>APRS,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,ARISS/1:Lets try OPS NORMAL [20:09:52] WB4APR-3>APRS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,ARISS/1:Lets try OPS NORMAL And the last packet was again pretty good DX as both satellites passed over the East coast and yielded a 1340 mi path between birds. [20:13:59] KB1GVR>CQ,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*/1:=4436.18N/06826.92W-> Ellsworth ME6 Again, the purpose of this test was to show how much utility we can get out of a simple UI digipeating TNC on orbit especially if we have multiple such TNCs and satellites on the same frequency. Remember, ANY satellite can do this if it just has a TNC on 145.825. That's all PCsat is, a TNC and a 555 timer to reset it every now and then. PCsats RESET problems are not related to that design, but only to the loss of one solar panel on launch and subsequent negative power budget during periods of eclipse. We have access to two more satellite launches next year that are going to let us fly some more TNC's too. These will be short 1 year missions tho, so I hope others are in work to get us towards the goal of a constellation of UI digipeating satellites on 145.825 with one always in view of the most remotest of travelers or portable operators. Here is the complete list of packets received: [20:01:16] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"41}@arrl.net [20:01:30] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"41}@arrl.net [20:02:11] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"4/}@arrl.net [20:02:53] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"40}@arrl.net [20:03:06] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"41}@arrl.net [20:03:36] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"40}@arrl.net [20:05:12] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,SGATE,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"42}@arrl.net [20:05:42] COMAND-1*>WB4APR-3 prompt:OUTPUT was 11111111,0111,1) [20:06:21] W3ADO-1*>BEACON,SGATE:T#020,165,165,067,219,213,00111111,0111,1 [20:06:25] COMAND-1*>WB4APR-3:TELEMTRY was WAIT 6/WAIT 18 [20:07:43] WB6OLA>CM99GK,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,qAR,WB0WNX:Hi WD5EEV [20:08:09] WD5EEV>CQ,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*:] de John [20:08:09] K7FZO-7>TWRWYS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,WIDE3-3:'1Dol [/> [20:08:18] WB6OLA>CM99GK,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*: [20:08:22] K7FZO-7>TWRWYS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,WIDE3-3:'1Dol [/>Thom's D7 v146.52 [20:08:25] W3ADO-1>BEACON,RS0ISS*:T#022,079,067,077,101,213,00111111,0101,1 [20:08:31] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,WIDE:'2^Al#1k/]"4.}k7fzo@arrl.net [20:08:33] N4ZQ>QST,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*: [20:08:36] N8IGJ>CQ,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,WIDE: [20:08:40] K7FZO-7>TWRWYS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,WIDE3-3:'1Dol [/> [20:08:40] W3ADO-1>ID,RS0ISS*:W3ADO-1/R XBAUD/G MAIL-1/B [20:08:49] K7FZO-1>4W3YVV,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,WIDE:'2^Bl#1k/]"4/}k7fzo@arrl.net [20:08:52] RS0ISS*>CQ,SGATE:>ARISS - International Space Station [20:09:02] N8IGJ>CQ,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,WIDE: [20:09:20] WB4APR-3>APRS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,ARISS: Ping...# 2 [20:09:20] WF1F>MILES,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*: [20:09:37] N8IGJ>CQ,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,WIDE/1: [20:09:39] WF1F>MILES-3,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*: I got a doble ping [20:09:43] WB6OLA>CM99GK,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*:Hello de Carl in Chico,Ca [20:09:39] WF1F>MILES,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*/1:I got a doble ping [20:09:43] WB6OLA>CM99GK,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*/1:Hello de Carl in Chico, Ca [20:09:51] WB4APR-3>APRS,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*,ARISS/1:Lets try OPS NORMAL... [20:09:52] WB4APR-3>APRS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,ARISS/1:Lets try OPS NORMAL... [20:09:52] WB4APR-3>APRS,W3ADO-1,RS0ISS*,ARISS/1:Ping...# 3 [20:13:59] KB1GVR>CQ,RS0ISS,W3ADO-1*/1:=4436.18N/06826.92W-> Ellsworth ME6 The first packet was a DX record for satellite-to-satellite packet of 1880 miles between birds. To see a map of the geometries involved, see the PCsat web page below. de WB4APR@amsat.org, Bob PCsat WEB page http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pcsat.html ISS-APRS FAQ: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/iss-faq.html