Date   : Sun, 12 Sep 2004 10:12:21 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: More satellite stuff...

Right-o,

more satellite bits arrived yesterday from that school I mentioned. 

There's what looks to be a satellite decoder (actually the words
"satellite decoder" written in felt pen on the case help to confirm
that :-)  

It's in one of those two-tone grey/cream Maplin-like boxes, with a pair
of 5 pin DIN sockets on the back (one with pins in a 'H' configuration,
the other arranged in the usual circular way). On the front are a pair
of unlabelled switches, mounted either side of a meter with a simple
scale from 0-9, and 5 having a more prominent marking.

Other than power, that's it. 

The PCB inside is of low-volume workshop quality, labelled as "UoSAT
data demodulator"

Presumably one socket connects to a UoSAT satellite receiver (like the
astrid one I got the other day) and the other end goes to a BBC port.
Sound familiar to anyone?

I'm hoping that this box is for decoding the image data from Oscar's CCD
(assuming that's even still operational!). Having satellite images
displayed on a BBC at the museum would make a pretty cool display!

In addition to that, I've got quite a few photocopied docs:

  "UoSAT UO-11 OSCAR-11 Telemetry Decoding Software for BBC
Microcomputers" - an article from May 1985's issue of Radio and
Electronics World, including code listing.

  "UoSAT-1 Documentation" - University of Surrey's original
documentation about UoSAT-1, all about the building and operation of the
satellite. Includes details on the antenna required. Anyone know what
the differences between UoSAT-1 and 2 are?

  Timestep "Weather Satellite Interface 3.0 Documentation". Includes
schematics for the decoder needed to grab images from NOAA, METEOSAT,
FAX(WEFAX) and UoSAT CCD. Of course this is just a decoder, not receiver
- so I still only have the one receiver to pick up data from UoSAT-2
(OSCAR-11)

And some software:

  ROM containing the BBC software for the Timestep decoder.

  Floppy containing software for the Astrid receiver - not had a look
yet to see what exactly's on there.

Charles can you see if you can ask anyone of OSCAR-11's CCD is still
running? Oh, and if NOAA / METEOSAT / FAX are still operational? (You
never know, I might find a receiver for those one day!)

cheers,

Jules