Category Archives: APRS
2nd Attempt at an APRS Blog Post via ISS
Well, after a successful short APRS Blog Post sent via the ISS using my D700 a few days ago I wanted to make a 2nd attempt today during this afternoon’s 1:11 PM pass. Today I had my D7 but duplicated the same steps I did before, only real difference (other than radio) is that it was going to be 4 messages sent to the ISS instead of three as with the D700. Today’s pass was about 10 degrees higher than the previous one where I was able to make the successful post, so I figured my odds of success had to be better. (but then I haven’t won the lottery yet either lol)
Unfortunately, I was not as successful as before, BUT after the pass I did discover that part of my message had actually gotten through and also realized that I cannot start a message with “A” as I see that is the Alias command to WLNK. So my message was not seen as a message but as a command to set an alias. So I wonder had the first (SP) command been received would the next line of the message still been seen at a command to set an alias? Either way this 2nd attempt was not successful but there will be plenty more opportunities to try as well as experiment….just wish there was more available TDM slots in the day.
Until next time….73s!
ISS APRS Passes 11-2-11 to 11-6-11
It has been a crazy past week as well as weekend, actually didn’t have a weekend as I worked all day both Saturday and Sunday and before I knew it, it was Monday again. So needless to say there was little time left for playing APRS via the ISS (or even seeing if I can still catch/receive any signal from ARISSAT-1). The few ISS passes that I was able to break away and set up to work were silent passes. Guess I need to check the ISS Fan Club site a little more often to know if there is any activity prior to the upcoming pass. Any way here are the next good passes for the next 5 days that I hope to try and work.
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/2 20:00:20
Azimuth: 309.31° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.17°
Magnitude: 1.3
Distance to satellite: 2269.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/2 20:05:35
Azimuth: 209.59° (SSW)
Elevation (altitude): 78.72°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 405.6 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/2 20:10:40
Azimuth: 134.59° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.62°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2218.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Good visible pass
———————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/3 12:35:0
Azimuth: 231.63° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.13°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2212.6 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/3 12:40:5
Azimuth: 325.05° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 75.04°
Magnitude: -2.5
Distance to satellite: 392.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/3 12:45:5
Azimuth: 48.19° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.58°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2180.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
———————————
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/6 10:19:40
Azimuth: 229.33° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.29°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2193.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/6 10:24:40
Azimuth: 305.64° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 84.57°
Magnitude: -2.6
Distance to satellite: 380.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/6 10:29:45
Azimuth: 49.14° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.35°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2198.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
——————————–
There is an 88 degree pass shown on 11/5/11 starting at 18:45 but unable to pull it up and copy the pass details on the n2yo site.
Below are several good ARISSAT-1 passes that I will also see if I can get a good copy on one of the passes. There was one last night but had just gotten to work and was not able to catch it.
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/2 12:28:0
Azimuth: 220.91° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.04°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2140.9 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/2 12:32:50
Azimuth: 140.16° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 59.61°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 403.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/2 12:37:40
Azimuth: 52.78° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.38°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2103.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
——————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/3 19:19:0
Azimuth: 310.70° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.02°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2159.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/3 19:23:55
Azimuth: 23.73° (NNE)
Elevation (altitude): 86.33°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 353.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/3 19:28:45
Azimuth: 131.08° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.37°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2096.9 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Good visible pass
———————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/4 11:44:50
Azimuth: 223.56° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.25°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2114.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/4 11:49:40
Azimuth: 133.40° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 69.88°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 371.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/4 11:54:25
Azimuth: 51.60° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.53°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2082.7 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
————————————
Pass beginning
Date/time: 11/6 10:00:40
Azimuth: 225.75° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.22°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2114.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 11/6 10:05:30
Azimuth: 132.96° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 79.18°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 354.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 11/6 10:10:15
Azimuth: 50.63° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.55°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2076.5 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
————————————
Must be something with the data for November 5th on the site as there is a 83 degree pass that starts at 18:35 also listed but no details are shown on the site for the pass either.
Got two passes today, one for ARISSAT-1 and one for the ISS so hoping I can catch one of them.
Until next time….73s!
aprs.fi & Google Maps API
There has been an active dialog on the aprs.fi sig reference Google Maps API usage fees mentioned here:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits
Below is part of the dialog from Hessu:
I read about the new fees two weeks ago and immediately started to investigate how it would hit aprs.fi and what would be the options.
(http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits)
The charging is based on the amount of map loads. aprs.fi currently opens up the real-time map almost 42,000 times per day (when nothing special happens). According to the new Google Maps terms, up to 25,000 map loads per day is free, the rest will cost $4 per 1000 map loads. That amounts up to $68 per day, $2040 per month. No, I don’t make that much from the advertisements. And there are some other costs involved in running such a site too (computer hardware, hosting, domain names, beer, to name a few).
I can reduce the amount of map loads a little by reducing the amount of map reloads. For example, a callsign search could do the search within the page (AJAX style), without doing a reload of the web page. The downside is that bookmarking views using the web browser’s bookmarking method will become harder since the searched callsigns will not appear on the URL bar – I’ll have to add a new “bookmark this view” which will reload the view with the callsigns (or address) in the URL.
I have investigated the effects of AJAX map loading for about two weeks now. Some of you might have noticed the new &_s=something parameters in the URLs – those are used to collect statistics on which links and forms are clicked to generate the map loads, and which should be first converted to AJAX actions. Unfortunately I’ve found that AJAX map loading could not, in any way, get me below 25000 map loads per day – about 27000 loads come from direct map loads (user enters aprs.fi, or uses a bookmark to enter the site) or from external links from other sites to aprs.fi. And I wouldn’t like to convert all the regular text pages on aprs.fi to run on top of the real-time map. That would be ugly.
From the article:
The company has also indicated that they are willing to make special
accommodations for non-profit organizations on a case-by-case basis.
Hopefully aprs.fi qualifies.
I hope so. If someone here has been using aprs.fi in disaster relief / SAR, or other public service work, I would appreciate it if you could write some testimonials about your experiences in your blogs, or public service organisation’s web pages, so that I would have something to refer to. I’ve heard it was used during the tornado season in the US this summer, and according to emails on the APRSSIG, APRS was used a bit in Japan in the tsunami aftermath (so far I haven’t heard of aprs.fi being used specifically).
“Non-profits and applications deemed in the public interest (as determined by Google at its discretion) are not subject to these usage limits.”
– Hessu
————————————————–
So it will be interesting to see where this goes and how this will impact the site/service that we rely on every day (or almost every day).
Until next time….73s!
ISS APRS Passes 10-24-11 to 10-28-11
Looks like there will not be any very good high passes this week, the best one is going to be a 65 degree pass on 10/27. So with that said here are this weeks passes that I will be trying to work.
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/24 23:46:25
Azimuth: 306.43° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.03°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2292.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/24 23:51:40
Azimuth: 221.90° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 53.82°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 487.0 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/24 23:56:45
Azimuth: 141.69° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.48°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2229.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Invisible pass
——————————–
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/25 16:20:40
Azimuth: 238.33° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.29°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2203.5 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/25 16:25:40
Azimuth: 320.66° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 52.72°
Magnitude: -2.1
Distance to satellite: 474.6 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/25 16:30:45
Azimuth: 45.77° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.41°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2210.7 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
———————————–
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/25 22:48:40
Azimuth: 313.43° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.29°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2260.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/25 22:53:50
Azimuth: 37.60° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 59.24°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 458.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/25 22:59:0
Azimuth: 123.75° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.40°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2238.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Invisible pass
———————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/26 15:22:50
Azimuth: 220.22° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.25°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2201.0 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/26 15:27:50
Azimuth: 137.41° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 58.90°
Magnitude: -2.3
Distance to satellite: 440.7 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/26 15:32:50
Azimuth: 52.97° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.62°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2180.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
———————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/27 22:28:55
Azimuth: 307.83° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.27°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2258.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/27 22:34:5
Azimuth: 223.14° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 65.10°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 435.0 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/27 22:39:10
Azimuth: 138.21° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.63°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2208.5 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Invisible pass
———————————
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/28 15:02:55
Azimuth: 234.83° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.05°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2223.3 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/28 15:08:0
Azimuth: 321.31° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 63.12°
Magnitude: -2.4
Distance to satellite: 424.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/28 15:13:5
Azimuth: 47.03° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.32°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2211.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
———————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/28 21:30:55
Azimuth: 314.57° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.11°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2270.7 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/28 21:36:5
Azimuth: 36.65° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 49.59°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 509.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/28 21:41:10
Azimuth: 120.22° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.58°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2213.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Invisible pass
Hopefully I will be able to work several of these passes this coming week. I am seeing that I am needing to invest (again) in batteries for my D7 HT so have not been able to try to operate via HT only on some of these ISS Passes when I have been out and about due to work demands. I know that last time I needed to get batteries for my D& HT I had to do a lot of searching to find a company that still made batteries. So I may go with a battery holder this time around.
Until next time…..73s!
ISS APRS Passes 10-20-11 to 10-23-11
Real world work has been keeping me busy from working the ISS Passes, the few that I have attempted to work on the fly best I was able to do was get a beacon in but not able to get messages/traffic passed. And just occurred to me while eating a quick lunch that I had not yet checked the site for passes for this week. So here are the latest passes that I will attempt to work.
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/20 17:55:35
Azimuth: 226.07° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.25°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2202.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/20 18:00:35
Azimuth: 155.29° (SSE)
Elevation (altitude): 80.94°
Magnitude: -2.6
Distance to satellite: 386.5 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/20 18:05:40
Azimuth: 50.45° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.55°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2189.0 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
————————————-
Pass beginning
Date/time: 10/23 16:35:35
Azimuth: 221.25° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.26°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2196.0 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: 10/23 16:40:35
Azimuth: 137.13° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 62.33°
Magnitude: -2.4
Distance to satellite: 424.9 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: 10/23 16:45:35
Azimuth: 52.51° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.56°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2179.8 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Invisible pass
———————————
Looks like this is a slim week as there are only two good passes (during normal waking hours lol) so hoping to be on one or both passes. And hope to have more to post here and my other Amateur Radio blog once I can free up some more TDM slots.
Until next time….73s!
Worked ISS from (repaired) D700
Well, finally took my dead D700 into the Kenwood Repair Depot (which I am fortunate is local here in Va. Beach) to get repaired. I held off fearing it was a cracked board (or worse) since the unit had been dropped. So I did the usual visual inspections for hair line cracks or fractured solder joints but none were found or at least visually evident. The was the extent of my troubleshooting, I intended to do more but the current work load between both the full time and part time jobs made that a bit challenging. But fortunately it was only a defective 9.6 volt regulator that was damaged and only cost $88 to repair. Yes, I say only as I was expecting much worse. So now I am back online via my D700. Didn’t realize how long that I had been without it as it took me a little while to remember how to reprogram it and get it all set back up for APRS.
I was planning on working the ISS pass last night but ended up working later than originally planned and missed that one but there was another very good (high) pass this afternoon and worked the ISS using the D700. Worked very well and got two messages from other operators. (AB1OD & W8KRF). Just was not able to type back a reply message fast enough via the microphone keypad. I have worked the ISS via my HT and a laptop running APRS+SA before and it was much easier to type replies/messages. Now that I have my D700 back I am brainstorming on some ideas. (more on this later) I still need to come up with a good way to keep a log of stations I receive messages from as well as successfully sent messages to other operators. I am wanting something (a log) that I can update while mobile as well as a way of verifying that my messages was actually received and digi’ed by the ISS. Hopefully on the next good pass I will attempt to send messages back to the above operators, thus why I am wanting some sort of log of rx’ed and ACK’ed messages.
That is all I have for now, so until next time….73s!
Heard ARISSat-1 during ISS Pass
Well, the last two ISS passes at 12:56 AM EST and again at 7:24 AM EST were both silent passes on APRS. But just for grins and giggles since I have been seeing so much activity on the AMSAT-BB Sig group about ARISSat (and I did attempt to watch the deployment online between demands of work) I dialed up the 145.950 freq on the HT as well. During the 12:56 AM pass all was quiet, but during the 7:24 AM pass while waiting and listening for APRS from the ISS I heard the recorded voice messages from ARISSat-1. The signal was fading in and out but was good copy most of the pass. Also heard some telemetry data which I was not sure what it was before the recording cycled again. So looking at the tracking on http://www.n2yo.com I see the ARISSat-1 and the ISS are running pretty much the same track/path, only that ARISSat is running a few minutes ahead of the ISS. So got two very good near overhead passes on Sunday, one in the morning and again late that night, so I have them both set as alerts and will see if I can pick it up again during these next two passes. And do a little more reading to see what the telemetry I heard and if this is the data being fed to the website showing the ARISSat health/status.
Until next time….73s!
Upcoming ISS Passes Planning to Work via APRS
Assuming that APRS will be active below are the following ISS Passes I plan to try to work via APRS. Updates/Statuses will be posted at n4trqjedi.140plus.com for now. (but may still post updated here as well) Call + SSID that I will be using is N4TRQ-7
Pass beginning
Date/time: August 4, 2011, 08:21:55
Azimuth: 308.66° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.09°
Magnitude: 1.3
Distance to satellite: 2258.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: August 4, 2011, 08:27:05
Azimuth: 223.43° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 72.27°
Magnitude: -2.4
Distance to satellite: 407.9 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: August 4, 2011, 08:21:55
Azimuth: 136.2° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.46°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2204.9 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
———————————–
Pass beginning
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 00:56:00
Azimuth: 232.95° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.3°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2204.6 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 01:01:05
Azimuth: 327.78° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 69.91°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 404.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 00:56:00
Azimuth: 47.7° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.47°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2189.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
———————————–
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 07:24:00
Azimuth: 315.26° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.07°
Magnitude: 1.3
Distance to satellite: 2258.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 07:29:05
Azimuth: 34.05° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 44.71°
Magnitude: -1.8
Distance to satellite: 537.5 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: August 5, 2011, 07:24:00
Azimuth: 118.31° (ESE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.41°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2209.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
———————————–
Pass beginning
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 07:04:05
Azimuth: 310.1° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.06°
Magnitude: 1.3
Distance to satellite: 2257.2 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Maximum altitude
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 07:09:15
Azimuth: 236.3° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 87.05°
Magnitude: -2.6
Distance to satellite: 388.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
Pass ending
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 07:04:05
Azimuth: 132.58° (SE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.48°
Magnitude: 1.2
Distance to satellite: 2198.4 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): NO
———————————–
Pass beginning
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 23:38:05
Azimuth: 229.34° (SW)
Elevation (altitude): 0.09°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2229.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Maximum altitude
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 23:43:10
Azimuth: 303.4° (NW)
Elevation (altitude): 84.36°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 383.1 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Pass ending
Date/time: August 7, 2011, 23:38:05
Azimuth: 49.11° (NE)
Elevation (altitude): 0.39°
Magnitude: –
Distance to satellite: 2195 km
In Earth’s shadow (eclipsed): YES
Until next time…..73s!
APRSLink & Reverse path to ISS
Have been trying to send a blog post via APRS since yesterday morning but found that packets sent to APRSLink are accepted/ACK’ed until I send the /EX command then the message fails with an “Error Sending Message” message. This is why I try to at least send a test post every so often. Tried again this morning with no luck but this afternoon saw a post on the APRS Yahoo Group from someone having the same issue, so that at least puts my mind at ease not thinking it was my setup. It was a little tricky at first getting this setup, mainly because I had to whitelist on Winlink side as well as add my Winlink email address as an authorized email on Posterous. But sending from the Webmail directly from the site showed me this was not the problem and the problem lies with the APRS part of the path/link. Waiting to get approved for the Winlink Yahoo Group to inquire about this issue.
Now that I have been firmly bitten by the APRS/ISS bug my mind if now thinking of other things like is there a reverse path to working the ISS? Of course the excitement is in working the ISS (or any SAT for that matter) directly as it passes overhead but is there in place a way to send an APRS message through the terrestrial APRS Network to a SatGate that has both connected during a pass to allow those out of line of site of the pass or maybe just for some killer APRS DX? Or is getting to findu.com as far as it is going to get? This is just me brainstorming since I am still getting the “feel” of this and now the “experimenter” is coming out. So I did try a little experiment this morning. Since work demands were not going to allow me a little APRS/ISS play time on this mornings pass I setup my HT ahead of time with a 30 second beacon rate so at least during the pass I should hopefully get a position report in. Then as part of my little experiment I setup APRS+SA connected via TCP/IP on the laptop with a reverse path of that on the HT. Once the pass started I remote logged into the laptop via my Blackberry using RDM+ and clicked send on the already queued up test APRS message. So once I got back to the office from my meeting I checked the HT but nothing was received but saw on findu.com that I did get my position beacon in during the pass. Again, this is just me brainstorming/experimenting, just need to do a little more reading and research about this (open TDM slots permitting) to see if this is even possible and if it is how to make it work. And speaking of work guess I better get back to work, so that is all for now. Until next time….73s!
Arthur's Amateur Radio & Other Interests Domain 