AMSAT 50th Anniversary Challenge

2019-Mar-18 - Are there 50 Spacecraft to Decode?

For one reason or another (that now escape me) I decided to challenge myself to decode as many spacecraft as possible, with a nominal target of 50 given its AMSAT's 50th anniversary. I started a bit late as it is already March, but I have had antenna issues and it is winter. So that is my excuse. I was also a bit tied up getting Release 1.07 out for FoxTelem and work has been busy.

I'm nearly ready to connect some new feedlines and begin decoding again. So while I wait for a warmer day to climb up on the roof, I have been doing some of the homework.

First of all I set out to create a list of targets. There are several places to start. The nasabare list of Two Line Elements (TLEs) from amsat.org has 615 lines, so with three lines per sat (including the name) that is 205 potential targets right away. Many are dead or old of course, but I suppose that will turn out to be part of the fun...

I looked at what were previously knows as the DCARR Status Pages and are now called the "AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page". There are several duplicate lines, but a quick inspection shows about 40 spacecraft of direct interest. So that is a good list to work through.

Another great list is the DK3WN Status Page which lists a great number of spacecraft including their status, frequency, mode and a link to a decoder. Although it is not always the official decoder. AO-85 links to a decoder that Mike has written rather than to FoxTelem.

I also have some "in the bag" so to speak. Until the antennae were offline a couple of weeks ago, I was regularility decoding AO-85, AO-91, AO-92 and AO-95. Given I write the decoder for those I guess my starting total is 4. 5 if we agree that I have decoded and submitted many frames for AO-73. I'll write up some thoughts about those at some point so they "count".

Another thought is how to prioritize. LilacSat is about to re-enter for example! For that matter DK3WN has a list of objects about to re-enter that he ran recently. Here are the ones re-entring in March and April to get us thinking:

last update: 2019-03-17 21:43:03.460 UTC
10.8 cm flux = 70.000000

date             satellite   norad   epoch          decay

2019-03-19  ==>  SOMP2       42701   19076.364312   19078.716018
2019-03-20  ==>  SUSAT       42730   19076.875486   19079.695915
2019-03-28  ==>  LILACSAT-1  42725   19076.431276   19087.264852
2019-03-28  ==>  SNUSAT-1A   42727   19076.302738   19087.107036
2019-04-06  ==>  KICKSAT-2   44046   19076.463463   19096.677975
2019-04-16  ==>  BEEAGLESAT  42736   19076.313686   19106.917559
2019-04-22  ==>  PHOENIX     42706   19076.275984   19112.972292
2019-04-22  ==>  CSUNSAT1    42715   19076.313731   19112.364062
2019-04-22  ==>  BIRD-B      42823   19076.303260   19112.997983
2019-04-25  ==>  BIRD-M      42822   19076.360962   19115.669419

The other practical consideration is when the spacecraft are passing over. I can schedule a recording, but the likely outcome is that nothing is heard. It's very hard to have everything work for a spacecraft you have never decoded. So I need to be in the chair in the shack as it passes over. That suggests priority is given to those spacecraft that pass over when I am present. A bit like listening for DX.

I am going to build a list of the spacecraft candidates, and load them into the tracking program. I can then run some predictions and see which are up when I am available. I will then start to research bands, modes and available decoders.

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