Friday, June 12, 2009

COMPASS Satellite Team Releases New Commands for Amateur Radio

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 158.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-158.06

The COMPASS satellite team is happy to announce three DTMF commands to the Amateur Radio community to say THANK YOU for your support.

The uplink frequency for COMPASSis 145.980 MHz FM, and the new DTMF tones for Amateur Radio operator to request information from the satellite include:

**35## - request a test beacon CW
**36## - request a test packet 1k2 AFSK FM (UI-Frame)
**60## - request a housekeeping frame in 1k2 AFSK FM (KISS frame)

Every command will be confirmed with a short "beep" on the CW beacon frequency of 437.275 MHz. Packet data is sent on 437.405 MHz. A news blog can be found at http://www.raumfahrt.fh-aachen.de/news.htm.

COMPASS telemetry decoding software is available on-line from:
http://www.dk3wn.info/software.shtml.

Please send your received data to compass1cubesat@googlemail.com. Also, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask us at this e-mail address.

Henk, PA3GUO has posted a video describing his reception of Compass-1 AFSK telemetry at http://www.vimeo.com/4911267. To play the movie full-screen, click on the right bottom button in the player. Also there is a HD button, ensure it is showing "HD is on".

[ANS thanks Mike, DK3WN for the above information]