[time-nuts] Time and frequency practical exercise 2018 late quarter; precision measure of 432mhz band Sat in Lunar Orbit

[Tim Shoppa]

Orbital determination from Doppler shift is, IMHO, a far more interesting
and fun STEM project than measuring an absolute frequency. And it does not
require MASERs, it only requires low-grade amateur equipment.

Amateur "Crowdsourcing" of orbital data goes at least as far back to ARRL
collecting Sputnik reception reports both by traffic nets and audio tape.

Doppler shift for a VHF transmitter in low earth orbit is several 10's of
kHz over a period of minutes and this pass-information is incredibly useful
for orbit determination.

And science and technology students have been participating in these
determinations for decades too. A very nice review of the work done 25
years ago by students, was published in QST by N6XT:
http://www.setileague.org/articles/ham/kepler.pdf

Tim N3QE