August 2006 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

OT: Ham radio stores near Moscone Centre ?
by Tim Tuck 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

Hi all, Sorry for the off topic post but I'll be in San Francisco attending a conference at the Moscone Centre first week of Oct, and I was wondering what Amateur Radio stores are within walking distance of the Centre since I'm staying at a hotel close by ? This will be my first trip to SF so I hope I wont get lost :) Any other AR related info about SF greatly appreciated ! cheers Tim -- VK2XTT :: BMARC :: WIA :: AMSAT :: QF56if

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ECHO
by McGrane 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

greetings I would like to report very poor reception of echo even with an 8 element yagi and an 18 Db preamp. I assume the downlink power is real flea power for battery charging or other testing. After 2 years of pleading with amsat, the downlink power is still a mystery. It is not shown on the colaradosatellite telemetry graphs (TX B) or the amsat website, after repeated requests here and elsewhere I'll assume it is being held secret for some reason. There has been a tremendous lack of technical reporting on ECHO. I realize people are very busy but time should be taken to educate the amsat community. 73, patrick N2OEQ 32323

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ECHO duty cycle
by McGrane 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

hello again- Does anyone know what percentage of a day or orbit the echo transmitters are ON? I've been thinking about the battery depth of discharge issue. Being that they are as a whole 4 amp hours, a 10 percent discharge would equate to about 1.6 amps for one quarter of an orbit on-time. According to drew, the transmitters are drawing about .8 amps. I hope people are viewing depth of discharge as a function of amp-hours more than voltage ( I realize also important ). Any comments are welcome. Thanks, pat n2oeq

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DELMARVA residents!!
by Bob McGwier 01 Sep '06

01 Sep '06

Hello Delmarva residents: We are looking for people to participate in an AMSAT project at U. Md. E.S., in the Wallops Island area, and at a new facility in Pocomoke, Md. near Wallops. This is a satellite construction project for the amateur satellite service. If you are interested in participation, live close enough to give us time on a regular basis, please reply to this email mailto: n4hy(a)amsat.org Bob N4HY -- Robert W. McGwier, Ph.D. Center for Communications Research 805 Bunn Drive Princeton, NJ 08540 (609)-924-4600 (sig required by employer)

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ECHO for september
by McGrane 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Greetings Thanks to the satellite operation team for scheduleing some higher power time. Someone please post what the TX B power output will be. May I recommend a post on the main website page to notify viewers of the higher power operating time so new people can try it. HINT to the regulars HI HI. It should be used for recruiting as best as possible. Thanks, patrick n2oeq

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Digital sats with less
by Gould Smith 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Hello All, While re-configuring my digital station the last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to try some things I normally wouldn't. I was surprised the last couple of days to find that I could work GO-32 with less that I expected. I encourage you all to try 9600 Digital satellite operation. GO-32 transmits with about 1W of power and is fairly easy to receive and decode. My minimal system is: inexpensive, 10 element 70cm yagi (Diamond A430S10); no preamp; 50 feet Flex 4XL coax; FT-847; MFJ 1270C with added 9600 bps modem board; WiSP Pacsat protocol software; 15 W into 50 feet of LMR400 coax; 4 element, 2M yagi (M2 2M4). Antennas are mounted at a fixed 25 degree angle, AZ only rotor. Setting all this up and getting it operational isn't trivial as you have to have a number of things that all must work together, but certainly do-able and a good challenge to get a digital station operational. Now I always recommend a preamp for digital operation, and I only decoded about 1/3-1/2 of the digital data I usually get using the same system with a preamp. When AO-51 is in digital mode and transmitting at 300mW, you need the preamp. Notes: 1) Use the 145.890 uplink frequency for GO-32, SatPC32 defaults to the 145.850 uplink and I couldn't get that one to work 2) There is no telemetry data from GO-32 3) AO-51 will be in digital mode again Sep 18, so get operational on GO-32 and ready to get telemetry data from AO-51 4) You can use a soundcard 9600 bps software decoder, but must have a way to send the decoded data into a serial port (or USB to serial) to make much sense of it. TlmECHO or WiSP will do the protocol conversion. 5) TlmECHO program is a good program to start with, it will show the digital data (even GO-32), without having to do a major setup as with WiSP, plus you will be ready to get the AO-51 telemetry 6) DCD led on does not mean that you are correctly decoding the data, just that you are receiving a signal. These data packets are all or nothing, if your modem misreads 1 bit out of a packet the entire packet is trashed. 7) Keep the signal centered (Doppler correction), if your radio has a Discriminator meter just keep the signal centered. I notice quite a data drop when the Discriminator reading is a bar or two off center. 8) I wouldn't recommend using anything other than a small, tracking beam for receiving 9600 bps digital signals Gould, WA4SXM

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Re: New AO-51 Schedule Is Up...
by Andrew Glasbrenner 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Minor correction. The mode change indicated on September 24th should be September 25th. Mode changes generally occur at ~0200Z on the date indicated. 73, Drew KO4MA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Glasbrenner" <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com> To: <amsat-bb(a)AMSAT.Org>; "ans-editor" <ans-editor(a)amsat.org> Cc: <ao51-modes(a)amsat.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:33 PM Subject: New AO-51 Schedule Is Up... > at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php. We've tried to > include a little bit of everything this month. I'd like to ask that all > future requests to the ao51-modes(a)amsat.org list include "AMSAT" in the > subject line. This will help me pick out the valid requests from the waves > and waves of spam that I have to filter through to be forwarded to the > committee. > > 73, Drew KO4MA > AMSAT LM 2332 > For the AO-51 Operations Group > > September 1 to September 4 > FM Repeater, V/S > Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, No PL Tone > Downlink: 2401.200 Mhz FM > > September 4 to September 11 > FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode > Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone > Downlink: 435.300 Mhz FM > > September 11 to September 18 > FM Repeater, L/S > Uplink: 1268.700 Mhz FM, No PL Tone > Downlink: 2401.200 Mhz FM > > September 18 to September 24 > "Normal" Mode > FM Repeater, V/U > Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone > Downlink: 435.300 Mhz FM > 9k6 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS) > Uplink: 145.860 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital > Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital > > September 25 to October 2 > 38k4 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS) > Uplink: 145.860 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital > Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 38k4 PBP Digital

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New AO-51 Schedule Is Up...
by Andrew Glasbrenner 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php. We've tried to include a little bit of everything this month. I'd like to ask that all future requests to the ao51-modes(a)amsat.org list include "AMSAT" in the subject line. This will help me pick out the valid requests from the waves and waves of spam that I have to filter through to be forwarded to the committee. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT LM 2332 For the AO-51 Operations Group September 1 to September 4 FM Repeater, V/S Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, No PL Tone Downlink: 2401.200 Mhz FM September 4 to September 11 FM Repeater, V/U, High Power Mode Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone Downlink: 435.300 Mhz FM September 11 to September 18 FM Repeater, L/S Uplink: 1268.700 Mhz FM, No PL Tone Downlink: 2401.200 Mhz FM September 18 to September 24 "Normal" Mode FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145.920 Mhz FM, 67 hz PL Tone Downlink: 435.300 Mhz FM 9k6 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS) Uplink: 145.860 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital September 25 to October 2 38k4 Digital, V/U, PBP BBS (Pacsat Broadcast Protocol BBS) Uplink: 145.860 Mhz FM, 9k6 PBP Digital Downlink: 435.150 Mhz FM, 38k4 PBP Digital

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AMSAT FL NET
by Robert Davies 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Sorry,I should have put in Thursday in the email body. 73 Rob -- KI4HXT EL97af Robert Davies AMSAT Area Coordinator AMSAT Member#35649 AMSAT President's Club Bronze Sustaining Donor IFC#2880

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AO51 ?
by jack 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Is it in S band mode yet? Nothing heard at 30/8/6 1100 UTC pass over Sydney -- VK2TRF QF56oe P5 or nothing

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