FYI: Observation 4190205: PSAT-2 (44354) APRS-to-Voice

Regarding Observation 4190205

The latest AMSAT news contained the item copied below. The synthesized voice can be heard in this audio file at 2:59.

PSAT2: DTMF and APRS-to-Voice enabled

A new feature has been enabled for the Voice Synthesizer on PSAT2
in addition to DTMF grid and DTMF messaging to voice. Now the voice
synthesizer is also listening for APRS-to-Voice messages as well.
Here is how to use it

  1. Remain on the 145.980 uplink and 145.825 downlink for DTMF
  2. Using an APRS radio, send an APRS message to PSAT-SAY
  3. Begin the first 10 chars of the message with CCCCCC sez
  4. Followed by the text to be spoken.
  5. CCCCCC is your callsign right-padded with spaces.

The satellite should ACK the packet uplink and then speak the text. You can
tell if APRS-to-Voice is enabled if this 1 bit is on: XXXX0010. Usually the
DTMF bits are also enabled so the telemetry will usually show as 11010010.
To do both DTMF and APRS-to-Voice at the same time, the Basic Stamp
processor has to check both the DTMF decoder and the packet decoder and so
there is a finite chance that a perfectly good uplink might be missed. So,
just try again.
See http://aprs.org/psat2.html Tomorrow I will add this feature to the users
manual and post it.
Enjoy, Bob, WB4APR

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