W2MMD Satellite Blog

SatNOGS is a network of stations that report satellite telemetry to a central database.  I'm just getting started in this but here's what I've done so far. The whole SatNOGS project is designed to let amateurs build up a simple satellite station that will report telemetry. The website contains info on antennas, rotators, software and other info needed to get going. In particular, the software runs on a Raspberry Pi , a low-priced computer running Linux, and an RTL-SDR USB radio. Since I already have a home satellite station I downloaded the software, loaded it onto an SD card and plopped it into a Pi. The whole system is configured to run remotely, so you have to SSH into the Pi from another computer to set it up, but that's not too hard. You also have to set up an account on SatNOGS and get an API key that will link the computer to their system. Then you can set up station locations - I set them up for my home station and for the W2MMD clubhouse. Once that's done

AMSAT-UK has some very helpful links  to resource info. In particular, this link shows the current status of all amateur satellites along with download links to the telemetry decoders.

Here's our next challenge - decoding telemetry from two Chinese ham satellites orbiting the moon! See http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/wp/ for more info. Briefly, I think this will involve the following: Setting PST Rotator to track the moon. This is pretty easy in the Tracking menu. Obviously we can only hear this satellite when the moon is above the horizon, which is usually pretty easy to see. Running the JT-4 software. This isn't yet installed on the W2MMD satellite computer, partly because I think that most of this work will be done by home users on their own computers accessing the W2MMD satellite computer remotely (see other posts on remote access). We might need a larger antenna. Some of the successful stations have been running pretty big 70 cm antennas. LONGJIANG 1 - NORAD CAT ID 43471 LONGJIANG 2 - NORAD CAT ID 43472 More to follow. Just getting started here. Here's more on these satellites: https://gbtimes.com/change-4-lunar-microsatellite-may-be-lost

An important aspect of remote control is the ability to point the antennas in the desired direction.  Fortunately the PST Rotator program has client/server capability that will let you run a remote copy of the program that will control the rotator at the W2MMD QTH. The Server program is set to run automatically at W2MMD, so you need to run the client on your local computer. Do this by selecting TCP Client on the Setup menu, which will open the client as shown below. Select the server IP address as shown in the client and Connect. You can then control the remote antennas from the client at your QTH.  On the server the antenna settings are shown in the red numbers; the black numbers will be 0 showing that the server isn't commanding the antennas to point anywhere.  Note that the server will respond to the latest command. Therefore, if multiple commands are sent from different users the antennas will move back and forth between the two commands. Be sure to check the location

This is really cool...  Thanks to the contributions of K2QA and K2ZA we have the beginning of remote access to the W2MMD satellite station. There's a lot more to do, and use of the station requires the user to have almost all of the required software installed on their local computer, but for the true satellite experimenters this isn't a problem. This setup essentially lets the user use the antennas and radio at the W2MMD site, but everything else runs locally at their home QTH. For hams like me (WB2MNF) who are in HRO-restricted locations it's the best of both worlds. Here's the overall concept - the remote user connects via VPN to the GCARC clubhouse network. The satellite computer needs to be running (can't remotely turn it on  - yet). The SDR Console program has a server component that must be running, and the user connects to that server from a local copy of SDR console and selects one of the radios attached to the W2MMD satellite computer (currently there

Remote Audio will allow piping audio from a remote computer into the RigBlaster output, which will then go to the 847. Here's the download location: http://df3cb.com/remaud/download.php Users are TEST, WB2MNF = password for all is w2mmd Here's the configuration on the server: TRIAL - The client should connect the Wave Output device to whatever device will be listening to VAC 1 on the server.  Generally this doesn't matter since there won't be any audio on this cable since the SDR program on the server will be stopped since it's serving the SDR remote client. That works - the SDR audio from Line 1 on the server comes thru on the speaker of the remote, even without being piped into the speakers on the server. But the Wave In device should be the output of the remote computer's modem or microphone that will go to the 847. On the remote computer this should  be a VAC from the modem.  TRY THIS...

Lots of good tips from here: http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qsl.net%2Fpy4zbz%2Ffalconsat.htm Installed the HW Virtual Serial Port to create a COM port from the output of the Soundmodem HS. See additional WISP notes in https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2837525951324922303#allposts  8/2/18 - looks like possible success! I tried running WISP on a recorded SDR track - it listed the files that it had downloaded and tried to transmit to get the fills (the 847 was off so it didn't really transmit, but it did key the VOX on the RigBlaster). So maybe it will actually work. I set the programs up to track the FalconSat passes overnight and tomorrow AM, so we'll see if it actually gets the data. Here's how it looks: 8/4/148 - SUCCESS! We set the computer audio output to 70 after trying the lowest and highest output levels that could be decoded with a FT-1D.  8/9/18 - Increased the audio level