OSCAR-11 ANNUAL REPORT 2012
This report covers the period from 01 January 2012 to 01
January 2013. During this time there have been no�
significant changes apart from the gradual drift of the�
on-board clock. The satellite has been transmitting on a�
regular cycle of 10.35 days on followed by 10.35 days off.
OSCAR-11 (AKA UoSAT-2 and UO-11) celebrated it's�
28th birthday in space on 01 March! It was designed, built�
and launched within a period of six months, using�
commercially available 'off the shelf' components (COTS).�
Once again, congratulations to Professor Sir Martin Sweeting�
G3YJO, his team at the University of Surrey and the groups�
of radio amateurs who also contributed to the project.�
Good copy has been obtained obtained from decoded telemetry�
frames and many reports have been posted on the DCARR�
general satellite status website,
The satellite continues to be subjected to eclipses during�
each orbit, resulting in weaker signals at those times.�
During the summer in the UK all passes were in sunlight,�
however the eclipses gradually returned during the autumn�
and now all evening passes are eclipsed and signals are�
significantly weaker than in the morning passes.
The on-board clock gained 85 seconds during the year, which�
is comparable with the 60 seconds gain per year when the�
satellite was launched. There is however a large accumulated�
error of 308.54204 days slow. This was caused mainly by the�
clock stopping during eclipses, when there was also an�
unknown drain on the power supply. The units of the least�
significant digit correspond approximately to seconds (0.86�
seconds actually).
At the present time, while OSCAR-11 is operating in a�
predictable way, please DO NOT send reports or files by�
e-mail. However, could all listeners continue to enter their�
reports on the general satellite status website. This is a�
very convenient and easy to use facility, which shows the�
current status of all the amateur satellites, and is of use�
to everyone. Reports around the expected times of switch-on�
and switch-off are of special interest, especially for times�
13:00 to 18:00 and 22:00 to 08:00 UTC, to when the satellite�
is out-of-range in the UK . The URL is�
http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php
The VHF beacon frequency is 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII�
Telemetry. The satellite is operating in the default mode,�
controlled by the watchdog timer, with a cycle time of 20.7�
days. 10.35 days on followed by 10.35 days off.
An extended version of this report is available on my
website, and new listeners to OSCAR-11 should read this for�
further information. The URL is www.g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm�
. This page contains links to the report, a short audio clip�
to help you identify the satellite and a file of recent�
telemetry received. The website also contains an archive of�
news & telemetry data which is updated from time to time,�
and details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators�
for data capture. There is also software for capturing data,�
and decoding ASCII telemetry.
The easiest way to check whether OSCAR-11 is operational is�
to look at the General Satellite Status website�
http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php .
If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network,
please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT158.CWV, to
prevent duplication.
73 Clive G3CWV [email protected] (please replace the x's by
g3cwv)
_______________________________________________
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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