[aprssig] ARISS and PCSAT status

[Robert Bruninga]

At about 2015z, here is what I am seeing on ISS and PCSAT:

ISS is doing well on 9600 baud on 145.825.  A nice amount of
activity. Looking at the live downlink on www.ariss.net it is
easy to see that we do have some good 9600 baud Igates passing
the 9600 baud data into the APRS system.  Over the last 4 hours
I see these IGates:

qAS,KD8CAO-7
qAR,K7MT-1:
qAR,K7OFT-10:
qAS,PA3GUO:
qAR,ST2NH:
qAS,DF9CP:
qAR,PD0RKC:

After 7 years, PCSAT is not waking up as bright and chipper as
before.  For the third day, we got control, but this time, she
did make it through a full orbit. Last telemetry packet was
T#212 or 212 minutes of uptime.  We have DIGI OFF while it
recharges.  BUT, as of this writing, we have not seen anything
on its web page downlink for over 4 hours.

Either we do not have enough Igates on 145.825 1200 baud, or it
has crashed again.  It is easy to see on http://pcsat.aprs.org.
If the telemetry number is above 90 then it has run a full orbit
since the last re-start.  When we change the callsign from
NODIGI back to PCSAT-1, then it will be open for digipeating.
Details on www.aprs.org/pcsat.html

When PCSAT returns to user service, please review the
user-service-agreement on www.aprs.org/pcsat/contract.txt
particularly we do not want to see any unattended beacons
cluttering up the ISS/PCSAT channel on 145.825.  Let the live
users communicate.

If any dual-hop opportunities arise, the best PATH to use is VIA
ARISS,ARISS since both satellites support that alias, and both
satellites will do their callsign-substitution if successful.
The normal APRS path of WIDE2-2 will also work, but last time I
tried it, the RS0ISS did not insert it's callsign, so you had no
proof that it went via ISS.  SO use ARISS,ARISS for possible two
hops.  Best place to look is at AOS on the west coast (if the
one person in Hawaii is actually transmitting) and at LOS on the
east coast if the geometery of a conjunction will get to Europe.

Bob, WB4APR