Fox-1A launch today The amateur radio FM transponder CubeSat, AMSAT Fox-1A, will be among 13 CubeSats flying as secondary payloads on the NROL-55 mission The launch should take place at 1249 UT (5:49am PDT) on Thursday, October 8 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA TV is expected to cover the launch starting at 1229 UT (5:29 PDT). Fox-1A is a 1-Unit CubeSat carrying an FM repeater that will allow simple ground stations using an HT and an “Arrow” or “Elk” type antenna to make contacts using the satellite. Data Under Voice (DUV) is used to send 200 bps FSK telemetry data at the same time as FM audio. This is achieved by making use of sub-audible frequencies below 200 Hz. On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Burns Fisher, W2BFJ has provided this information: Initially the transponder will not be on and will not respond to uplinks. *Please do not attempt to uplink while we check out the satellite and commission it*. We will publicize when we have opened the transponder to general use. You should expect the checkout phase to last for a minimum of several days and possibly for several weeks. During the initial checkout period and when the satellite is in range, every two minutes you will generally hear about 5 seconds of data followed by a few seconds of a voice ID (and possibly a second data packet). You may occasionally hear ‘data’ mode which Chris, G0KLA, has famously described as sounding like an old-fashioned telephone modem. If you should happen to hear what appear to be QSOs, please resist the temptation to join in before the commissioning period is over. AMSAT-NA would love to have you collect and upload as much data as you can, and to give any other kind of report on the amsat-bb mailing list (which some of the Fox team will monitor) http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb You can also report hearing or not hearing it on http://www.amsat.org/status/ You can upload data using the FoxTelem telemetry program that was recently released by Chris Thompson G0KLA. (Check the “upload to server” box in the properties/preference page). More data will help us do the checkout faster! Remember if you hear the “telephone modem” sound, you must switch FoxTelem to high-speed mode manually. Similarly FoxTelem must be in low-speed mode at other times. AMSAT-NA are planning a special award to the person who submits the first data from the satellite (by which we mean the earliest downlinked mission elapsed time), so get your rigs ready! Information on the free Fox telemetry decoder software is at http://amsat-uk.org/2015/09/23/fox-telemetry-decoder-software/ Read the Fox Operating Guide at http://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FoxOperatingGuide_May2015_Hi.pdf Payload information and the latest TLEs http://cubesat.net/index.php/missions/upcoming-launches/155-nrol55-launch-alert
I SAW IT! I live about 40 miles from Vandenburg Air Force Base. It was 12:49 UTC so it was dark here. The cloud cover was low so I could only see it for a few seconds but it was loud!
We often see twilight-effect rocket trails here from Vandenberg, which is about 120 miles west of the San Fernando Valley. I even watched a daytime launch once from here. Unfortunately no-dice this morning, a lot of cloud cover. Hope it was successful.
That explains why there wasn't anything visible over here in the Phoenix area. It was clear here, but with clouds out there... GO Fox-1A!
Heard you on LilacSat yesterday evening Patrick. Your audio was clear, but my reception of the bird suddenly dropped before I could reply, regardless of tuning. I'll have some time Friday to try again. Hopefully, Fox-1A will be a success.
Thanks! Nice to work you on SO-50 over the weekend, too. LilacSat-2 is an interesting one - the limited schedule, sometimes needing more than HT power to get through, and (for some) the unusual uplink frequency that conflicts with other non-satellite activity. Once Fox-1A is operational, we would then have 3 FM satellites in operation. So far, so good. Telemetry has been received by stations in Europe and uploaded to the AMSAT server. It should start passing over North America just before 0000 UTC (8pm EDT) this evening. Stations are also hearing the voice identification in FM, in addition to receiving the telemetry - all on the same 145.980 MHz downlink (telemetry is slow-speed data, transmitted in the space normally used for CTCSS tones on the FM downlink). 73!
This is OUTSTANDING news, indeed! We have needed a new FM bird for some time. The gap left by the death of AO-51 has been more than noticeable! On Wednesday, my son and I heard LilacSat-2...with a 75+ degree pass, the signals were so much better than SO-50's. Hopefully, Fox-1A will be as good or better! 73 and see you on the birds from FN02qt. John KB2HSH Springbrook, NY
Please note that while AO-85 is in Transponder Mode right now, we have not officially commissioned her and testing is still underway. Part of the testing involves observations in Transponder and Data Modes. We may switch out of Transponder Mode at any time without notice, until we are done testing. If AO-85 is in Safe Mode or Data Mode when it passes and you were expecting Transponder Mode, don't be surprised or angry!
