Category Archives: Satellite

An Autonomous Automatic Satellite Tracker for a Small Crossed Beam

Posted on August 15, 2014 by robert

One of the goals I set for 2014 was to develop an antenna tracker that would be fully self-contained and not require an interface to a PC to obtain the tracking coordinates. The major components of the project are: Raspberry Pi … Continue reading →

Posted in Raspberry Pi, Satellite, Tracker | 2 Comments

Field Day 2014 Satellite Passes

Posted on June 17, 2014 by robert

This is a list of satellite passes that occur between 1400 Local on Saturday June 28 and 1400 Local on Sunday June 29 for the Rhode Island (FN41) area is shown below.  AO-7 will only be usable during daylight hours. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contests, From the OM, Operating, Satellite | 2 Comments

AO-73 Working Just Fine

Posted on December 4, 2013 by robert

I’ve left my rig on during the daylight hours to automatically collect telemetry packets, and have now received over 1100 of them.  And at night, I’ve had successful contacts with a half dozen people. The biggest challenge continues to be … Continue reading →

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CAT: A Water-propelled Cubesat

Posted on December 3, 2013 by robert

An interesting KickStarter campaign has shown up called CAT.  The objective is to devise a water-propelled plasma engine that can be fitted to a Cubesat in order to boost it to a higher orbit — even into deep space. You … Continue reading →

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Received 47 Telemetry Blocks for AO73

Posted on November 21, 2013 by robert

Funcube-1, now known as AO-73, was launched early this morning (about 2:10 AM EST).  I heard a pass around lunchtime, but wasn’t setup to decode it yet.  Even without decoding anything, it was a valuable experience, as it proved the … Continue reading →

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Some Field Day 2013 thoughts…

Posted on June 24, 2013 by robert

Our W1LY Field Day was much nicer this year due to better weather.  It was warm and breezy but not to hot and humid until Sunday — when the humidity picked up along with the temperature.  Still, it was MUCH … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Power, Contests, Gear, History, Instruction, Operating, Public Service, Satellite | Leave a comment

Satellite RX Offsets for AO-07, VO-52, and FO-29

Posted on June 19, 2013 by robert

Field day for NCRC is right around the corner, and its a busy one for me.  I’m responsible for the GOTA station, am acting as the Public Information Officer, and am setting up the 2m SSB and Linear Satellite station. … Continue reading →

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Field Day Satellite Success

Posted on June 25, 2012 by robert

After operating Field Day last year by myself (Category 1E) and remembering back to the fun I had with my fellow club members during FD with K4BFT in Huntsville, AL and K2AE in Schenectady, NY, I sought out a club … Continue reading →

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SCORE!!!

Posted on August 10, 2011 by robert

Don, VE3VRW, from Dog Park Software, was a real champ and helped explain the reason why I was having issues with my IC-9100 and MacDoppler.  It turns out when Icom wrote their custom drivers for Windows, they made sure they … Continue reading →

Posted in From the OM, History, Satellite | 1 Comment

One of those days!

Posted on August 10, 2011 by robert

So the day before yesterday, I was determined to make a contact via ARISSat-1.  I had MacDoppler fired up and tuning my rig during a late night pass.  There was a great daylight pass in the early morning hours.  Sunrise … Continue reading →

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