see morse code in the sky

[QROdx]

If you live in the Eastern portion of the United States and the skies are clear you can see a student built satellite flashing LEDs in Morse Code today.
But don’t worry, if it’s cloudy or if you live elsewhere there are several other opportunities to see it in the coming days.

This is the Niwaka Fitsat-1. It was developed by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology and deployed from the International Space Station on October 4th.
Included in the payload is an array of LEDs seen in the image above.
On a set schedule the LEDs flash a Morse Code message for two minutes at a time. That is what’s shown in the image on the upper right.

You can look up information on seeing Fitsat-1 in your own area using this webpage. Or try this link

More Info:
http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10701
http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11867

 

[W5LZ]

And what does that 'message' supposed to say?
- 'Doc

 

[QROdx]

dunno yet, it passed by me at the horizon right after i made the post.
according to n2yo, i should have an excellent view of it on the 14th.
FITSAT is supposed to send a special message on xmas, guess I'll have to wait and see

 

[Beetle]

It's in "wabun", the Japanese form of "Morse" code. Each sound pattern represents a syllable rather than just a letter; more efficient.

---- is "KO"

.-.-. is "N" (stand-alone syllable)

-.-. is "NI"

... and here the spacing of the elements gets screwy. Combining the next two, which look like . .-. gives us

..-. which is "CHI".

The part on the extreme right might be distorted by parallax; I can't figure it out. But my guess is that it's supposed to look like .-. which is "WA". So the message would be a typical greeting in Japanese:

Konnichi-wa!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Way to go Pat!

 

[Beetle]

Wabun used to be required for the top level of JA license, along with proficiency in International Morse. It's a great way to surprise the JAs from here on the west coast. Some JARL contests are conducted only in wabun (and participated in exclusively by JAs), and me breaking in with a K7 call sort of derails their trains of thought!

Good way to fill openings in the JCC and JCG logs, though. Search and pounce. (That's Cities and Guns/counties).