Amateur Radio satellite Delfi-C3 update

Wouter PE4WJ provides a further update on the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 Amateur radio satellite.

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) he writes:

1. On behalf of the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 team we would like to wish you all a very happy 2009!

2. Delfi-C3 is currently operational in basic mode, transmitting housekeeping telemetry at 1200Bd BPSK AX.25 on 145.870MHz. Basic mode is the "safest" mode the spacecraft can be in, since it transmits continuously and furthermore commanding is easiest when in this mode. The craft has been in this mode for a while so that we can analyze a possible issue with the linear transponder :(.

As some of you may have noticed, the transponder has been hard to access during its last weeks of operation, contrary to the first weeks where it performed fine. We have performed a number of tests in order to assess this issue, up till now it seems like the issue is in the receiver frontend. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to investigate this issue, so whenever the satellite is over Europe and in range of our groundstation, it may be switched to transponder mode.

In this mode, a CW beacon is transmitted at 145.870MHz. When you hear the satellite in this mode, please DO NOT transmit to the satellite until further notice. This will allow us to further characterize the issue and work out a solution, if possible.

3. All other subsystems continue to perform fine on orbit.

4. In the meantime, telemetry can still be received using the RASCAL software package, and forwarded to our server. We have again received a lot of frames already from various hams worldwide, thank you all for your efforts! Note that the primary server at 83.138.144.157 is not operational, but the backup server is and will continue to be operational.

5. During our free time at Christmas, we have implemented a number of improvements / bug fixes in RASCAL, the most noticeable one being an improved tuning range of the demodulator, allowing the input audio carrier to be between 900 and 2300Hz, instead of 1400-1800Hz. This makes tuning much easier.

These fixes have been implemented in RASCAL version 1.1.0, which is available for download as of now from the website at: http://www.delfic3.nl/rascal

On this page, in the "upgrading RASCAL" paragraph, you can also find instructions on how to upgrade to this newer version without losing your original settings and telemetry repository.

73 on behalf of the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 team,

Wouter Jan Ubbels PE4WJ

AMSAT Bulletin Board AMSAT-BB
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

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