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

InstantTrack
by Dave Guimont 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Amen on InstantTrack!! IT!!! I was fortunate enuff to be one of the beta testers, many moons ago. I use SatPC32 to control my rotors now, but I always parallel it with IT on another computer to do some of the things that PC32 does not do... I don't know how any serious satellite operator would be without either one, for the pittance they cost in comparison to what they need to do anything on any amateur bird!! Or if one has ANY interest in either the sun or the moon.... 73, Dave wb6llo(a)amsat.org Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...

4 3

Re: Terrestrial QRM to FM satellites
by Bob Stewart 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

I thought I'd give a status, since we may be making some progress, and it might not do to have a bunch of people fighting the same battle and contacting the same people. On numerous AO-27 passes lately, there has been a CW ID followed by that squawk we discussed. Another lister, KA3HSW, has verified that he heard a signal on 145.850 and has volunteered to ask the Illinois Repeater Group to contact the person owning the call. Obviously, this will take some time, but hopefully it will end up with one less repeater on the AO-27/SO-50 uplink frequency. In the meantime we will probably continue to have periodic blocking/desensing of both satellites on the Central US passes. Bob - AE6RV

1 0

DM30 on Friday/Saturday (12-13 October)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Hi! A group of Mexican hams (XE2BSS, XE2S, XE2SNG, XE2TPJ, and XE2VAS - among others) will be on a hilltop north of Caborca, Sonora, for 24 hours starting at 1900 UTC Friday (12 October). They will operate a few HF stations along with a station for the FM satellites (AO-51, AO-27, SO-50) from this location near the USA/Mexico border, south of Arizona, in grid DM30. Good luck and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

1 0

ANDE Voice Mode anyone ?
by Henk, PA3GUO 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

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

1 0

ANDE Status 09 October 2007
by Henk, PA3GUO 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

ANDE Status Report 09 October 2007 1. APRS digipeating working fine, some examples: PD0RKC]CQ,ANDE-1*,qAO,PA3GUO:=5310.38N/00559.41E 2E0EXL]CQ,ANDE-1*,qAO,PA3GUO:=5122.97N/00012.77W-73' Via Satellite , Op: Phil , London . MD0MAN]CQ,ANDE-1*,WIDE,qAO,PA3GUO:=5410.08N/00431.24W-best wishes from the Isle of Man 73's :) F8CUY]CQ,ANDE-1*,qAO,PA3GUO:=/5^t.Nf`q- BPHG20003/Fred,Sacquenville,dpt27 2. Multiple SatGates active over Europe, some examples: DD6UBW DK3WN-1 EA4EKH-6 ON7EQ 3. Command up/downlink working fine (TE 1 command, setting beacon interval to 10 seconds) 20071009190837 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#019,236,050,052,050,214,11100001,504 20071009190827 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#018,607,175,102,004,037,00000010,504 20071009190817 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#017,005?1?Í009,004,004,0100000`,504 20071009190807 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#016,100?030,130,144,142,10101?00,504 20071009190800 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,DD6UBW:T#015,136,050,053,050,214,11100001,504 20071009190748 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#014,007,174,102,004,037,00000010,504 20071009190738 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#013,005,009,009,004,004,01000000,504 20071009190728 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#012,100,130,131,145,144,10101110,504 20071009190718 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#011,136,050,052,050,214,11100001,504 20071009190708 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#010,007,175,102,004,037,00000010,504 20071009190657 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#009,003,016,014,008,007,01000000,504 20071009190647 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#008,100,130,131,146,145,10101110,504 20071009190637 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAo,EA4EKH-6:T#007,136,050,052,050,214,11100001,504 20071009190628 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAo,EA4EKH-6:T#006,007,175,101,004,038,00000010,504 20071009190617 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#005,004,009,009,004,004,01000000,504 20071009190608 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#004,100,130,131,148,146,10101110,504 20071009190558 : ANDE-1]BEACON,qAO,PA3GUO:T#003,136,050,052,050,214,11100001,420 Henk, PA3GUO http://www.qsl.net/pa3guo

1 0

Curiouser and curiouser ... Lewis Carrol.
by John Hackett 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Mak, Terry, Mak reports AO-7 as OFF on orbit 50556, 3 minutes later Terry reports it in mode-B. Presumably, Terry heard his own downlink or he wouldn't have logged on. There is little doubt that some unusual things are happening lately, just like I predicted several weeks ago ... but unfortunately, my crystal ball has thrown in the towel so unless anyone goes up and checks it out first hand, we can only guess what is really going on. Now !!! would be the time to have a working beacon. 73 John. <la2qaa(a)amsat.org>

1 0

Future FM satellites?
by John Marranca, Jr 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Hello all. After browsing through the AMSAT "Future Satellites" section, I see that Kiwi will have another FM transponder. Are there any others planned? Is FM going to be supported on 3E? 73 de KB2HSH -- _______________________________ John Marranca, Jr PBX Technician/Shop Steward CWA Local 1122 BN Systems, Inc Orchard Park, NY (716)972-2006

1 0

ANDE & FCAL
by Chris Bloy 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Hi Bob and all, I see from Bob's website that ANDE is due to deorbit about December, which is going to be a sad day when this happens.. I enjoyed the APRS fun with ANDE greatly and will continue to use it with ISS and GO-32! All thanks to Bob's love for his hobby.. Although I can find loads of info about ANDE, and the much loved RAFT (BYE BYE), I am unsure as to the predicted deorbit of FCAL as I can weakly hear the beacon on a 7 element beam, but have never managed to decode it! I also find that finding sat status a little hard to keep up with? I know the AMSAT one has just been updated, but there are sats still active that arent on there for freq info? Like PO63 Pheunsat for example, has anyone heard this lately? Finally, thank you too all the suppport you gave me when i first joined the group, also Henk PA3GUO for his help with ANDE! I hope that my questions aren't too stupid and really am looking forward to perhaps working the European ham's on SO-50, A0-51 and AO-27 in the future once I have "plucked" up the courage to actually speak! Still waiting the delivery of my arrow!! Been using a dual band single plane yagi which is great, but not for FULL duplex.. Anyway, thanks for your understanding in these silly questions! Chris Bloy - M0DQO IO90KU - Fareham, UK

1 0

Re: AO-51
by R P 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

I was wondering about that. If so I was going to submit that for next month. Also: George I saw that AO-27 had tried d-star, but have not seen if they were going to try that again. "It's been done on AO-27... see www.ao27.org for details. George, KA3HSW" -----Original Message----- From: "Andrew Glasbrenner" <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 9:00 PM To: "Ron" <rondp(a)hotmail.com>, "amsat-bb(a)amsat.org" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-51 We don't really know yet. It depends on a few factors including any audio conditioning that happens in repeater mode. If more than one or two stations send in a request to ao51-modes(a)amsat.org, we can try to set aside a day next month to try Dstar on the repeater pair we normally use for QRP ops. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Ops -----Original Message----- >From: Ron <rondp(a)hotmail.com> >Sent: Oct 8, 2007 4:18 PM >To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 > >Hi all: > >Can AO-51 do D-Star mode? > >K5AI / Ron Porter > > >_______________________________________________ >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

2 1

GO32 Mobile Pass Predictor?
by Bob Bruninga 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

> Received over 150 packets from GO32 in the mobile! > ...just stand outside during the prime morning > or evening pass of GO-32 with your D7 HT set > for APRS 9600 baud ... For Maximmum Mobile Madness Messaging, we need a simple way for APRS mobiles to predict the peak pass in the morning and evening.. Can some old timers remember how we used to do AMSAT satellite predictions back when none of us had computers? I think all we needed was a reference time of asceding node, and then by simple addition, we could estimate for a week at a time...? Didnt we just add X minutes for our latitude and then Y minutes a day, and then we could always predict a pass... We only need to predict the PEAK passes over 30 degrees elevation... Someone want to make up this simple arithmatic tip? In fact, we could let GO-32 downlink this in an APRS message! Then all each mobile has to do is leave his rig parked on the GO-32 downlink, and every day, he will get an update of the ascending node info! In fact, my D700 display still has the LAST STATUS time stamp I received from GO-32 in its station list. This tells me the exact time that I last heard GO-32. 100 minutes later, I should hear it again (but for the D7 or D700) you won't decode anything, because you will only decode on the middle pass of the 3 each morning and evening. And so we need a simple 12 hour and 24 hour predictor. Neat project... Actually, since I did get decodes above 30 degrees, sometimes there are two passes that are near that elevation and not the single pass. Bob, Wb4APR

1 0