Re: Fw: [Discuss-gnuradio] AO-51 and GRC

[Alexandru Csete]

2009/12/8 Craig Kief <address@hidden>:
> Patrik and Alex,
> You mentioned "an OSCAR" in the mail listing.  Does this mean A0-51?

Hi Craig,

OSCAR is an acronym for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio, but
yes, in this case we were talking about AO-51, which is an acronym for
"AMSAT OSCAR 51" :-)
There are also other AO-51-like satellites (i.e. single channel FM
voice repeater) e.g. AO-27, SO-50 and SO-67 - you can find a complete
list with transponder frequencies on the AMSAT website:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/status.php

> Also, you mention the TVRX.  Why is this important vs what I have?

We mentioned TVRX daughterboard for USRP because it covers 50-800 MHz
and AO-51 often transmits on 435.300 MHz and you can not receive that
frequency with DBSRX daughterboard. You need either TVRX or RFX400.
Note that the 2.4 GHz S-band downlink on AO-51 is not always active.
In fact, it is switched off most of the time according to a schedule,
so worst case you will have to wait several weeks for the S-band
downlink of AO-51 to be active. You can see the schedule here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php

I hope this clarifies it.

Cheers
Alex