Date   : Tue, 31 Aug 2004 01:38:51 +0100
From   : "Charles Blackburn" <charlesb@...>
Subject: Re: Astrid satellite receiver

ok jules.

uoxsat2 aka oscar 11 is one of the satellites used by radio amateurs (incl.
myself) :D The name never registered to me as I know it by the "oscar" name.
the surrey uni page below gives you some information on it, you should be
able to receive the beacon easily on 144.826 meg and from what I can
remember (it's been a while) it's still active although it has a cycle of 10
days on and 10 off.
The zetnet pages will give you all the information you should need and I
would suggest if you have a satellite dish and lnb you should be able to
receive it no problems. As usual the bigger the dish the better but with a
dish you need some way of tracking it.

With a QHA antenna you should  be able to receive the data from it, but as
it's been a while I cant remember how to do it, but there are programs
around that you can use. Here's how to build one
http://www.eventail.freeserve.co.uk/cvlqfa.htm .

Another way you can do it, is to listen on the beacon frequency for beacon.
Now i'm not sure if it's in standard morse or not, but I will try to find
out. as I say from what I can tell it's still active as an amateur "bird",

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/oscar11.htm
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/u2rpt.htm

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC/CSER/UOSAT/missions/uosat2.html

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk@...>
To: "Charles Blackburn" <charlesb@...>
Cc: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Astrid satellite receiver


> On Mon, 2004-08-30 at 17:57, Charles Blackburn wrote:
> > you may find you need a quadrafilar helix antenna but
> > you need to know if the beam is clockwise or anti clockwise.
> > a QRF antenna is easy to make with copper pipe and a bit of
> > wood, you may find that a standard helical beam will do,
> > leave it with me. i'll talk to my HAM buddies wednesday
> > night, i'll see what I can find out for u
>
> ta - much appreciated!
>
> I've heard a rumour of another receiver at a school, which from what
> I've been told sounds like another Astrid one. Hopefully I can rescue
> that one before it gets chucked - and with a bit of luck there are the
> manuals with it!
>
> cheers,
>
> Jules
>
>
>


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