October 2007 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: Satellite IOTA Award
by Eric H Christensen 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

Just wanted to pass on the results of my message to the IOTA Manager. While he seemed to like the idea of an IOTA Satellite award they are in the middle of a software roll-out that will manage a lot of the IOTA QSO checking in the future. That software took the rules that were in effect three years ago into consideration. Adding satellites to the rules now would only delay the roll-out of that software. I have posted the entire message at <http://eric-sparks.blogspot.com/2007/08/official-iota-satellite-award-petit…> (scroll down towards the end). If you would like to add your name to the petition please do so. I think it is important to keep this idea alive and not let it die. 73s, Eric Christensen, W4OTN AMSAT Area Coordinator - Southeastern Virginia USA AMSAT Member 35360 http://www.ericsatcom.net >After having some e-mail issues with the IOTA staff I think I have >finally found an e-mail address that works. I have submitted a letter >to the IOTA Manager requesting that satellites be added to the IOTA >(Islands on the Air) program. If you haven't signed the petition please >do so now. You can find the petition at ><http://eric-sparks.blogspot.com/2007/08/official-iota-satellite-award-petit… >.html>. > Comments are moderated but all will be posted (as long as there isn't >any bad language, etc). > >73s, >Eric Christensen, W4OTN >AMSAT Area Coordinator - Southeastern Virginia USA >AMSAT Member 35360 >http://www.ericsatcom.net > >Donate to the Eagle Fund - http://www.amsat-na.com/donation.php?donate=eagle > > > >Eric H Christensen wrote: >> I've been considering petitioning the IOTA board to make a special award for >IOTA contacts made via satellite. Right now their rules >(http://www.rsgbiota.org/rules/rules.pdf, Para C.3.10) do not allow satellite >contacts for any award. >> >> Are there others here that would support such a petition? >> >> 73s, >> Eric W4OTN >_______________________________________________ >Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. >Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! >Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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FS - Primetec PSC
by Dave Aitch 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

Primetec Prime Sat Controller. http://www.primetec.pt/products.php?sec=2&cat=3&prod=12&lang=en As new, hardly used. Asking £150:00 Prefer UK sale. Cheers, Dave.

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AO-51 PBBS OPEN !
by Mineo Wakita 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

I confirmed that AO-51 PBBS ON now. > PACB-1>AMSATN-1 [10/11/07 21:00:47]: > PBBS open with 1268.700 uplink only. > 73 de AO-51 Command Team, 10 OCT 2007. de JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita

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AO-7 Weak signal
by John Meeks 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

Hi All, The last few passes of AO-7 (Mode B) have been extremely QRP. I have not even been able to discern the the usual peak noise nodes on the passband. Anyone else have similar observations? Perhaps related: the beacon has not been heard for several weeks. Hoping for the best. 73 John Meeks KC8ZFN

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AO-51 is down
by Andrew Glasbrenner 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

At 1848Z over Europe today, the software on AO-51 crashed, shutting down both transmitters. Subsequently the repeater and BBS will be down for several days while the command stations reload. Sorry for any inconvenience. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA Vice President of Operations

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XE2BSS from DM32, today (11 October)!
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Hi! Sorry for the short notice... Alex XE2BSS just called me, saying he is heading toward DM30 but will make a quick stop in DM32 this afternoon along Mexico highway 2 south of the Arizona border. He plans to be on the AO-27 pass at 2147-2154 UTC and possibly the SO-50 pass at 2204-2218 UTC from somewhere in DM32. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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Re: AO-7 sleuthing
by John Hackett 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Hello James, A pleasure to meet you my friend. Yes, AO-7 *can* be fully illuminated ... (depending on it's position and direction) ... before the ground-based "Greyline" prediction occurs at a particular QTH at AOS. The opposite can also be true ... you're right !!!, celestial mechanics are very! interesting. Mode-C is a QRP version of mode-B. Originally with 2 watts from the transponder but that was in 1974 !!!. One can only assume that after 31 years od space dust "decorating" the solar array this power would be rather optimistic ... but that is speculation because recently the old girl was! producing a bit of power in mode-B ... but a lot less in mode-A. Of course, nobody knows the *actual* power because there are so many variables with prediction software/power budget calculating software etc. You mentioned radio astronomy ... I have the dubious distinction of being born within spitting distance of JODRELL BANK, when I was a kid, the world's largest radio telescope (and the first to command to Sputnik 2) ... so don't let the LA callsign fool you ... I'm a senile old Limey !!! ... ex: Signals c/o Her Majesty's Service ... and ex: NATO ... which is why I ended up on Frei Island, Norway. I hope you don't mind me putting this on the Amsat-bb, I was asked particularly by several people on your side of the pond to keep "you lot" posted on developements. My own "theory" is that two alligators several days ago "knocked" AO-7 into a mode-A/C switching sequence. The "usual" mode-B winter/mode-A summer switching has gone off track ... (I did warn about this several weeks back but got shot down). As I mentioned preiously, to fully understand AO-7's "case history" one needs to read all of it ... not just selected pieces. It's an interesting story ... and one I'm surprised Amsat have not taken more interest in since there are so many "firsts" for AO-7 and the old girl is *STILL* producing a few surprises. Have a good day! Jim and thank you for your mail, a pleasure!. 73 John. <la2qaa(a)amsat.org> AO-7 Log Admin: <http://www.planetemily.com/ao7/ao7log.php> Homepage: <http://www.observations.biz/> .................................................................................. > Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:11:20 -0400 > From: jhjipping(a)ameritech.net > To: la2qaa(a)amsat.org > Subject: AO-7 sleuthing > > John: > > You are quite a sleuth. And having fun at it. > > You have me interested in doing my own watching/listening. A comment > and question. > > When the footprint crosses the grey line, the "footpint" is on the > ground, but Ao-7 is in orbit. It is possible for the bird to be full > sunlight before it's footprint crosses the greyline. Depending, of > course, it's dirrection of travel. What do you think ??? > > What is mode "C" ?? I know mode "A" and "B" but ======= "C" ?? I, too > worked AO-7 in the early days when she was but a youngster. Not with > the same gear I have now, but with lots of success and , now, fond memories > > By the way, your approach and activities in watching AO-7 reminds me of > what, I believe to be one of the most exiting science ---- radio > astronomy. > > Jim Jipping, W8MRR > AMSAT 5512 (small number , old geezer)

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Interesting !!!.
by John Hackett 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Well Mak, I use less than 50w EIRP so there's more to this than meets the eye. I hope !!!!! I'm wrong when I remind you about the two stations I mentioned 14 days ago with their *EXTREME* power. One thing's for sure, that kind of power is *NOT* good for AO-7 and could well have "knocked" the satellite into a mode-A/C switching period ... this *IS* possible. You may remember I did warn a couple of months ago, when I first noticed the imminent changing of the transponder modes about what *could* happen with excessive power abuse. I fear it has now happened ... though I sincerely hope I am wrong and it's just a passing phase ... (pardon the pun). Time will tell. 73 John. <la2qaa(a)amsdat.org> To: eu-amsat(a)yahoogroups.com From: sv1bsx(a)yahoo.gr Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:39:19 +0300 Subject: Re: [eu-amsat] The laws of physics. ...yes indeed gentlemen, it's a very interesting theme. I wonder also several times about that. Thomas, because I'm using NOVA for several years, the "Visible" is always when the satellite is illuminated. Without light, how is possible to be visible? Simply impossible. Therefore, NOVA has 3 states: 1)Visible (illuminated Satellite) 2)Sun ( "" "" 3)Eclispe (NON illuminated Sat) But I complete agree with: "if a satellite is sunlit or not has nothing to do with greyline and sunlight/night on our Earth". .. and I remember dozens evening & night's asceding passes of AO-7 from East-South to North during last months, where the AO-7 was over the dark side of planet's surface, but it was "ON". However, NOVA always under this case wrote: "Visible" or "Sun". *************************************************************** John, about your note I have to say that: definitely the latest behavior of AO-7 has to do with Grey-Line's crossing. I agree. Just I diversify with your note about the crossing-timing of footprint with Grey-Line. I think, the Satellite is "turned-ON" when is about 1000-2000 Km behind of Greyline (over the dark area) and is mooving forward to the Daylight. At that time, a part of footprint is already into Daylight. Today evening, I noticed about just the same. Asceding orbit 50572, 15:55 Z -16:04 nothing heard. Probably was OFF. At 16:05 Z I heard (suddenly) 2,3 signals on CW, but very weak. I can't explain also this unusual, strange ECHO on Downlink-signals ! It's always here, when the Downlink signal is very weak. (That remembers to me the "HF propagation", when the signal is received from Short & Long path the same time !) Another observation: it's obvious my Power is not enough anylonger for accessing of AO-7. I say that because, tonight even if I heard clear somebody to call CQCQ, it was unable to access the Satellite with my 50 Watts ERP in order to answer to him. It's obvious that, AO-7 needs much more Uplink Power now. Desensitization of AO-7's receiver ? Bad power-budget? I don't know... I have no any comment here. 73, Mak SV1BSX ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Frey" <th.frey(a)tiscalinet.ch> To: <eu-amsat(a)yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:40 Subject: Re: [eu-amsat] The laws of physics. > John Hackett schrieb: >> >> NB. >> >> It's interesting to note that when the *footprint* crosses the grey >> line ... (a phenomenon I've monitored for several days now) ... the >> solar panels are in full illumination ... (theoretically !!!) ... but >> the transponder appears to be OFF and switches ON just as the >> footprint crosses the line. >> >> A coincidence? ... I think not, but I don't have a "sensible" >> explanation. >> >> Explanations are invited to EU-Amsat. >> >> 73 John. <la2qaa(a)amsat.org> >> > Hello John > > Where come the info from, that the solar panels are in full illumination ? > In general if a satellite is sunlit or not has nothing to do with > greyline and sunlight/night on our Earth. This is a widespreaded > mistake. I heard the 2m-beacon from AO-7 also in the night and it was > in full sunlight. I calculate eclipses with James' G3RUH's PLAN-13 > software. You can find it here: > http://www.amsat.org/amsat/articles/g3ruh/111.html > > There are also programs, which calculates the "visibility" which > indicates, if the satellite is visible by eye. This has also nothing > to do with an illuminated satellite. > > I hope, my explanations are correct. This is a very interesting theme > and I'm open for further discussions and corrections. > > > Mit freundlichen Grüssen, Regards, 73 > Thomas Frey, HB9SKA > __________________________________________________________ > > Thomas Frey, Holzgasse 2, CH-5242 Birr, Tel. + Fax: 056 444 93 41 > http://home.datacomm.ch/th.frey/ > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > --- > avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean. > Virus Database (VPS): 000780-0, 10/09/2007 > Tested on: 10/11/2007 12:49:59 > avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. > http://www.avast.com > > > --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 000780-0, 10/09/2007 Tested on: 10/11/2007 20:40:30 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity 2 New Members 1 New Links Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Moderator Central Connecting a world of moderators. Sell Online Start selling with our award-winning e-commerce tools. 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GO-32 Mobile Receive Success
by Robert Bruninga 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

> Tonight I finally remembered to set my D700 in > my van to the 435.225 GO32 downlink.... I was > not disappointed. Received over 150 packets > during the central 6 minutes of the pass. I have now plotted that data on the APRS GO-32 page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/GO32-ops.html It clearly shows that the mobile link works at elevations above about 25 degrees and a quick look at GO32 passes reveals that they occur every day within an hour or so of 10 AM and 9 PM local DST time. (Your times may vary +/- 30 minutes from that depending on where you live relative to the center of your time zone. Bob, WB4APR > I was just making hash marks > on the back of an envelope while watching the packets fly by > on the front panel of the radio. I did tune 3 times for > Doppler since I was just sitting there with nothing else to do. > > This confirms that an unattended D700 or D7 hooked to a > simple OMNI antnena (and short coax) can make an excellent > APRS satellite gateway. With say a dozen of these across the > USA, then the APRS-Internet system should get a solid downlink! > > After the fact, I came in and looked at the pass on > Instantrack. Here is the nitty-gritty showing the elevation > angle versus number of packets received per minute. > > TIME EL PACKETS > 0933 30 18 > 0934 40 23 > 0935 46 36 > 0936 45 35 > 0937 36 24 > 0938 26 13 > > For an unattended ground station without Doppler tuning, my > guess would be that this station would have received the > center full 3 minutes of this 45 degree pass. > > So, what is your handy D7 doing sitting on your shelf turned > off? Hook it to a 19" vertical whip over a ground plane > outside your window and contribute to the National GO-32 > APRS downlink system! > > Ill get someone to write a simple turn-key APRS IGate > background application, so you don't have to hasssle with all > the other APRS stuff if you dont want to. This way, you can > just turn on the D7, hook it to a serial port, run this > application in the background, and you too will be a > contributor to the solid APRS downlink from GO-32! > > Oh, On the D700, I had pressed the PACKET MONITOR button so > that I was seeing all GO-32 downlink packets on the front > panel, not just the APRS ones. The D7 does not have the PMON > button, so you will only see the APRS packets. But I did > receive the 3 APRS downlink bulletins perfectly many times, > and every 30 seconds or so, I did receive the GO-32 TIME > STATUS report on the front panel of the radio. > > So, even if you are not going to Igate, just hook that D7 to > an outside 19" vertical whip (this serves as a 3/4 wave gain > vertical on the 435 downlink) through a short coax (Antnena > height does not matter, coax loss does!). You won't hear > anything below 30 degrees anyway... And just leave the HT on > all the time tuned to 435.230. Every morning and every > evening, you will receive GO-32 and any other APRS operators > playing that evening. > > When you hear good signals on 435.230, then 2 minutes later, > switch to 435.225 and so on. When the pass is over, set your > radio back to 435.230 for the next HIGH pass 12 hours or so later. > > You can leaave this on all the time, since it will not wake > you up. GO-32 PEAK passes are within an hour or so of 9 AM > and PM local time (maybe an hour later after the change back > to standard time).. > > Thousands of AMSAT folks have these D7's, and I bet that 99% > of them are not in use most of the time. All we need are a > dozen or so serving this space-diversity ground station function... > > Thanks! > > Bob, Wb4APR > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of > the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur > satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb >

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Re: ANDE Voice Mode anyone ?
by Chris Bloy 11 Oct '07

11 Oct '07

Hi Henk, Thank you for your reply, its not that I cannot decode the packets, I just cannot hit it with 5W from a TH-D7 and an 3 & 4 element beam.I can however with my 2m Vertical using 50w, but thats not as much fun as portable.. I will not be avaliable tonight as I play Rugby on Thursdays, so would saturday be possible?? I'll check the passes for Saturday and let you know. Thanks Chris P.S. the packets from ANDE are very strong on my beam, I may try my portable 7w & 30w amp? -----Original Message----- From: "Lauret & Henk" <hamoen(a)iae.nl> To: "Chris Bloy" <chris(a)photofuture.co.uk> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:21:22 +0200 Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ANDE Voice Mode anyone ? Hi Chris, For some old recordings look at: http://home.vianetworks.nl/users/hamoen/pa3guo/voice.html I use a 7 elements beam, and also find I need more than 5w for ande. do I understand your remark. The output power of ande is lower in voice mode, so if you can normally barely hear ande, so won't hear it in voice mode. Nevertheless, I can for example tomorrow do a try-out. would you like that ? Henk ----- Original Message ----- From: Chris Bloy To: Henk, PA3GUO Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:18 PM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ANDE Voice Mode anyone ? Hi Henk, I would certainly be interested in listening to a demo of the voice mode as I have found it very difficult to hit ANDE with my TH-D7 and my 3 ele beam.. I can recieve it ok, but just cannot get in, so if on mutal passes I could listen to some packets thats would be great for a demo and maybe next pass I'd try and hit it! Let me know your thoughts on this one? Chris -----Original Message----- From: "Henk, PA3GUO" <hamoen(a)iae.nl> To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 21:54:13 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [amsat-bb] ANDE Voice Mode anyone ? Dear group, Next to the popular APRS mode, ANDE can also be put into voice mode (see http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html). Basically anyone that feels comfortable using ANDE in APRS mode will be able to have ANDE also speak APRS messages, quite a lot of fun ! As this needs to be enabled each pass by a command station (it's by default off), simply let me know if you are interested in this and I can enable it during a pass over Europe. Henk, PA3GUO http://www.qsl.net/pa3guo email: pa3guo AT amsat.org _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.5/1058 - Release Date: 08/10/2007 16:54

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