Invitation to PCSAT-1

Since the ISS packet station has recently been off the air,
we are fortunate that the PCSAT-1 digipeater has been
recovered for the next few weeks and so ARISS packet
Operators are invited to use PCSAT-1 while it remains
operational.

We'd like to demo PCSAT-1 to students on this Thursday 28 Sept at 0923 EDT and 1112 EDT over the eastern USA.

This is normal APRS (or UI) digipeating via the digipeater callsign of PCSAT-1 (or VIA ARISS) on the Space APRS channel of 145.825. Our callsign is W3ADO-15. Here is what we would like to see:

1) Attended stations set APRS posit rate to 2 mins (til
successful)
2) Unattended stations set APRS posit rate to 5 minutes
3) Include in your POSIT text these items:
   a) ur name, TX power and ANT Gain
   b) some reference to this event (like GO Navy! Etc)
   c) Example might be: "Bob, 2 min, 5W, 3dBi omni ant, Beat Army"

With this info, my students will plot your APRS posit and can
calculate the link equation for your station and we can see the statistics of how well weak as well as strong stations get in.

Please adhere to your stated rate for the POSIT text. Our
station, W3ADO-15 will QSL your packets.

If you are attended and you get more than 5 successes, cut your period (and change your posit text) to 5 minutes. The objective is to see how many people we can capture, not how many times you can get in!

If you are NOT running APRS, here is how to use ANY TNC to
participate:
1) Set your UNPROTO to APRS VIA PCSAT-1
2) Set your Btext with GRID square "[FM19sx]Joe,5min,5W,8dBi
ant,Hi mids!"
3) Set your BEACON to every 5 minutes.

Notice that the grid square must be 6 digits or some APRS will not decode them.

I hope we get plenty of participation. Of course, TOO MUCH
participation could kill it too. But we will see how it goes.

Thanks,
WB4APR, Bob

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