I’ve been able to obtain some initial information on APSS-1:
Frequency: 435.1 MHz
Datamode: FM-mode
Modulation Type: GMSK
Protocol: AX-25 Space Packet Protocol
Encoding: ECSS Telemetry & Telecommand Packet Utilization Standard (PUS)
It’s worth noting that this frequency appears to be uncoordinated, and overlaps with FalconSat-1.
They had a coordination request but it was never coordinated or declined.
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/formal_detail.php?serialnum=669
Approximate TLE for this launch, assuming launch at the start of the window (2020-11-16T01:44:00). Thanks to @vk5qi for providing info and helping create this.
1 99769U 20321.07569444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 09
2 99769 97.3000 85.5000 0001454 0.0000 216.0000 15.21937999 07I’ve written up a guide on how to generate these TLEs here: https://gist.github.com/darksidelemm/60dd22c74ebe2e6d89bae9e6a845da5e
The TLE for a launch on the 19th at 01:44Z will be:
1 99998U 14900A 20324.07569444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 00
2 99998 97.3000 89.9569 0001454 0.0000 218.5000 15.21937999 06
The next guide I write will be how to fit the estimated TLE to radio observations (once we have some!).
Updated TLE for a 20th November 01:44Z Launch:
1 99998U 14900A 20325.07569444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 01
2 99998 97.3000 90.9426 0001454 0.0000 218.5000 15.21937999 00
If the launch slips, I’ll post new TLEs in this thread.
It looks like this sat somehow got moved into the ‘finished’ coordination list:
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=669
I wonder what happened there?
Also, I’ve been informed it will be start beaconing 45 minute after deployment, and will only be beaconing every 5 minutes initially. This will make doppler analysis difficult.
The first pass over NZ (when they can command a higher beacon rate) isn’t until about 13:16Z.
Very interesting. Wonder if it got lost in paper work somewhere.
New TLE by @vk5qi for 2020-11-20 2:20 UTC.
1 99999U 20325.10069444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 07
2 99999 97.3536 100.0000 0001454 0.0000 218.5000 15.21937999 06
APSS-1 is now scheduled for the first 12h:
https://network.satnogs.org/observations/?norad=99769
To station owners, have in mind that TLE set is probably going to change soon, so scheduling later than 12h may not be a good idea.
Here are the TLE we got after communicating with the team.
1 99999U 20325.17361111 .00030528 00000-0 13898-2 0 00000
2 99999 097.3667 113.5674 0013096 302.4434 111.9199 15.20662795000016
However this set shows a different orbit than the one we have calculated in our previous TLE and also it seems to be off by ~1h. Anyway, until we make clear what’s going on, we will continue to use the TLE we calculated.
Unfortunately nothing heard yet from APSS-1.
After some adjustments and based on an object at around 400MHz that seems to be from this deployment we have made a small fix to our previous generated TLE set:
1 99769U 20325.13194444 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 04
2 99769 97.3700 99.8400 0000726 0.0000 35.2405 15.20445498 04
Special thanks to @cgbsat and @vk5qi. Here is a related tweet:
Decode uploaded to SatNogs #99769 @ 2020-11-20 07:43:30 UTC was unfortunately just trash.
Nothing heard 435.100 on the first couple of passes over the U.S. East Coast.
-Scott, K4KDR
Some updates:
So excited to think I might be getting decodes from APSS-1 until I saw U.S. call signs & realized it was FalconSat-3!
Will keep trying…
-Scott, K4KDR
This is unfortunately going to be a common theme.
They should be easy enough to tell apart in the waterfall because FalconSat-3 transmits continuously, and APSS-1 doesn’t.
APSS-1 was meant to be beaconing every 5 minutes, but so far we’ve heard nothing. I suspect it might be DoA 
