p2pnet - rss feed: SuitSat: ‘died after 2 orbits’
p2p news / p2pnet: "SuitSat deployed 15 hours 9 minutes ago! Current thinking is SuitSat is transmitting, but far weaker than expected. Several reliable reports of short snatches of the voice signal have been reported. It is recommended that you continue to listen during passes over your area. Please report any positive contact only."
That was the message at 6:15 AM Pacific on the SuitSat report site run by K4HG (ex KO4HD), a 45-year-old ex-emergency room doctor Steve Dimse, whose undergraduate degree was in computer science.
SuitSat is/was the surplus Russian spacesuit fitted with a radio transmitter and cast adrift in space to broadcast on FM 145.990 MHz to radio amateurs.
"Heard a beep followed by a 2 secod carrier, have recording also" - VE3NSV at 00:00:18:46, says the first report.
"No SSTV, no recordings, no Packet TLM :(((" – said DE8MSH at 00:04:44:22
Then, "I just read NASA says the SuitSat died after 2 orbits, bummer" – said K2MAH at 00:10:01:28.
Meanwhile, Steve, an Apple fiend of long standing, officially hung up his stethoscope on October 18, 2005, and soon starts as a ranger at Curry Hammock State Park in the Florida Keys.
He’s been a radio ham for 16 years or so, "holding an Extra class license for most of that time," he says on his home page.
"Presently I spend most of my ham radio time on packet radio, specifically on APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System). You can use the software I’ve written to see where I am now."
On computers, Dimse bought an Mac (s/n 15,132) September 14, 1978 and, "Just two weeks after its 20th birthday, it got submerged in the storm surge from Hurricane Georges," he says.
"I cleaned it off and sprayed the insides with WD-40 so it still looks good, but it will never run again 
RIP old friend… I’ve been an avid Macintosh fan since I first saw the it, a few months before it was released. Besides the Apple ][, my museum of computing includes many other macs accumulated over the years. This server is a Dell 2650, dual 2.8 GHz Xeon processors, 2×72 GB SCSI, and 3 GB RAM running Red Hat Enterprise Linux at a donated co-location site. It is the only non-Macintosh machine I use."
Almost five hours after SuitSat was released, NASA commentator Rob Navias said it had stopped sending signals after emitting only faint transmissions during two orbits, says the Associated Press. "Perhaps because its batteries have become too cold," Navias said.
"No more transmissions are being received by ham radio operators. … It may have ceased operating very shortly after its deployment."
Stay tuned ; )
Also See:
cast adrift in space - Satellite for radio amateurs, February 3, 2006
Associated Press - Spacesuit full of data for earthlings fizzles, February 4, 2006
February 4th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
I was awake and listening to the 145.990MHZ frequency at around 2:25 this morning Pacific time, when there was to be a pass over this area. I heard some SSTV telemetry, and a couple of bits of packet data, but nothing more. I’m not certain whether or not I was actually hearing the SuitSat signal, or just other amateur transmissions on the ground, but it was shortLived. If I did in fact hear the satelite, it had a fairly decent signal to my location.
February 4th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
During the pass about 10:30 eastern time something was heard in CT on 145.990 by hams in separate parts of the state. Faint and warbly, but a definite something. If your receiver can do “narrow band” FM, it works better.
Hopefully the ISS can put the D700 in crossband repeat so we can hear it better on 70cm band.
In the meantime….don’t totally count it as dead yet. Comatose, but not dead.
Allen
w1agp