Masat-1 has been on orbit for more than a week. According to the feedback and the packets received so far, everything is OK on-board. Today the satellite entered the first orbit with a small section of it in eclipse. This opens up a new phase of the mission, which is especially exciting from the scientific perspective. The alternation of illuminated and non-illuminated periods has a significant effect on the thermal state and energy balance of the satellite. To examine these issues, we must perform long-term measurements with short sampling intervals, resulting in a significant amount of data produced.
To make an efficient use of the available time slots during the following week, we will download data from the satellite with an increased data rate of 1250bps. During these passes, those receiving the satellite are kindly asked to switch the demodulation SW to 1250bps mode (this is possible in the new release of the demodulation SW, which is available to download). During these high-speed download passes the callsign of the satellite is transmitted once in 2 minutes, CW battery voltage and temperature are not transmitted. The current data rate (625/1250bps) can be decided using the frequency waterfall or by listening to the audio signal.
Each 1250bps packet demodulated with the SW is a huge help for our team, as the packets received by radio amateurs may contain sections we could not decode because of the rotation of the satellite. It is foreseen that during the weekend and from the next week we will have passes where the demodulation of the current telemetry data will be possible. The demodulated telemetry data is shown by the SW. Please note that for telemetry demodulation the SW must be set to 625bps. We are planning to publish data on the availability of these telemetry-only passes. (Of course, if the satellite is not visible from Hungary, then it always transmits only telemetry with 625bps.)