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:

Delfi-C3 / DO-64 has now been in orbit for 164 days, and we regularly command the satellite back to BPSK telemetry mode during passes over our groundstation, after which the satellite reboots in linear transponder mode after the next eclipse.

Since the satellite does not transmit any telemetry when in transponder mode, switching to BPSK telemetry mode allows us to monitor housekeeping values and hence assess satellite health.

Since we would like to gather longer datasets of housekeeping telemetry, we will switch the satellite permanently to BPSK telemetry mode during the coming days, i.e. the satellite will boot in this mode after every eclipse.

Our first opportunity is at approx. 10:00 UTC on Oct. 9th, switching may take a couple of passes due to the command sequence which is required to set this mode. We will switch the satellite to "basic mode" in which an AX.25 frame containing housekeeping telemetry is transmitted approx once every 4-5 secs, the rest of the transmission is filled with idle flags. Downlink frequency for this mode will be 145.930MHz, modulation is 1200bit/s BPSK.

Telemetry can be captured using the RASCAL software and forwarded to our central servers just like during the first three months of science mission, this would be greatly appreciated by the team.

At this moment, we do not know how long the satellite will be in this mode, but it will at least be a couple of weeks. We'll keep you informed on both our mission operations page at http://www.delfic3.nl/index.php?option=com_content&
task=view&id=93&Itemid=122

and via the AMSAT-BB.

Best 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/