Amateurs Get "New" FM Satellite PO-28

[M5AKA]

Amateurs Get "New" FM Satellite PO-28

It was announced at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford, England by the AMSAT-UK secretary Jim Heck G3WGM that Amateurs will be getting a new FM satellite to use.

PO-28 (POSAT-1) was launched on September 25th 1993. It's primary purpose was for commercial use on frequencies outside the Amateur bands but it also #had the capability to operate on the Amateur bands. After prolonged negotiations it has been agreed that the satellite can be switched permanently to the Amateur frequencies.

It is expected that the process to change the operation of the satellite from Commercial to Amateur use will take a couple of weeks.

PO-28 (POSAT-1) was built at the University of Surrey within a collaborative programme in satellite technology between a consortium of Portuguese academia and Industry (LNETI, EFACEC, OGMA, MARCONI, ALCATEL, IST, UBI & CEDINTEC) and the Univerity of Surrey, managed through Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

Uplink Frequencies: # # 145.925 and 145.975 MHz
Downlink Frequencies: 435.250 and 435.275 MHz

Orbit # #: 822 x 800 km, 98.6 deg inclined, sun-synchronous.

AMSAT-UK produces a newsletter packed full of Amateur Satellite information. For membership details contact the secretary Jim Heck G3WGM
Tel: # +44 (0)1258 453959
Email: g3wgm@amsat.org
Website: http://www.uk.amsat.org/
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73 Trevor M5AKA
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[KI6ADA]

good news, I am a new ham and right now I have a real tight budget, I am hoping to give enough blood to get a dual band mobile and power supply. I will have to get set up for satellite. Thank you to our neighbors across the water. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[M5AKA]

The email below is from John Melton G0ORX/N6LYT. He has a new version of his Java station control under development which will be released if PO-28 (POSAT-1) is put into digital operation. He gives a useful URL for some of the images that POSAT took when it was operating on commercial frequencies. They give some idea of the satellites capability.

PO-28 Uplink Frequencies: 145.925 MHz and 145.975 MHz
Downlinks: 435.250 MHz or 435.275 MHz FM

Further information on PO-28 can be found at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/po28.html
and
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC/CSER/UOSAT/missions/posat1.html

It is likely to be mid-August before PO-28 is available to Amateurs.

73 Trevor M5AKA
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Java station control program

Hi,

I am the developer of JStation. #The version that is on
http://www.qsl.net/n6lyt is now really really old.

I was working on a newer version that used the Java Comm API for the
serial port interfaces. #There are a lot of changes in this version but
I lost interest due to the lack of store and forward digital satellites
and in particular images taken by the satllites.

I had implemented the alogorithms required to decode the PoSAT images.
They were using a method called "Adaptive, Moment Preserving Block
Truncation Code" (see
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC....r.html) (http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC/CSER/UOSAT/IJSSE/issue1/brewer/Brewer.html))
which required a complete thumbnail image along with the encoded full
image to be able to decode them.

I also have a version under construction that runs the interface to the
rotors and radios as a background task (daemon) and presents the user
interface via a web browser using Java Servlets and Java Server Pages.
As the machine that this runs on is on the internet I can access the
satellite data from anywhere that has a browser and internet access!

If the store and forward part of PoSAT is made available I will put some
effort into getting this all running again and put together in a
releasable form.

I was monitoring PoSAT for a long time on its commercial frequency and
had noticed that it was not being used apart from downloads of log files
and the occasional WOD file.

The images from this satellite were really good (see
http://www.dop.ineti.pt/posat/www/index.htm), #I hope that we will be
able to use that part of the satellite. #

Regards,

# John Melton #g0orx/n6lyt
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When PO-28 is switched to Amateur operation you will
be able to use the Online Satellite Predictor to find out
when it's in range:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/
Select Show Predictions for PO-28 and enter your approximate Lat and Long
co-ordinates or IARU QTH Locator.
----------------
AMSAT-UK produces a newsletter packed full of Amateur Satellite
information. For membership details contact the secretary Jim Heck G3WGM
Tel: # +44 (0)1258 453959
Email: g3wgm@amsat.org
Website: http://www.uk.amsat.org/
----------------
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Add News Service to your Website: http://www.southgatearc.org/rss/index.htm
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Upload Your News Items: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news.htm
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