[aprssig] APRS telemetry to the planets

[Robert Bruninga]

APRS Telemetry to the planets

To demonstrate solar power and the distances to the planets, our
students used a mock planetary explorer consisting of a solar
panel on a satellite model on a cart:

http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/EPSplanets.html

They backed the cart away over 590 feet from a 1000W spot lamp
to get from Mercury to Jupiter.  A KPC-3+ TNC provided APRS
telemetry to a laptop which plotted the IV curve of the solar
panel along the way (which was down 1000 to 1 by the time they
got to Saturn (the size of a BB)...  Pluto was in the next
building.

Anyway, students had fun.  And we got some nice photos.  I
compressed them in PAINT and
they are under 40k and load pretty fast.

Just an example of how we use Ham radio in the classroom.

Bob, WB4APR