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

RAFT status May 26
by Mineo Wakita 26 May '07

26 May '07

Height: 200 km NORAD keps is old. RAFT is about 5 minutes fast. 20070526135103 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#100,078,002,035,033,077,10000000,999 20070526135053 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#099,078,002,035,034,077,10000000,999 20070526135044 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#098,078,002,035,034,077,10000000,999 20070526135036 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#097,078,002,034,033,077,10000000,999 20070526135030 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAo,JH4XSY: T#096,078,002,034,034,077,10000000,999 20070526135017 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAo,JH4XSY: T#095,078,002,035,033,078,10000000,999 20070526135005 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#094,078,002,035,033,078,10000000,999 20070526134954 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAo,JH4XSY: T#093,079,002,034,034,078,10000000,999 20070526134943 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAo,JH4XSY: T#092,078,002,035,033,079,10000000,999 20070526134933 : RAFT]BEACON,SGATE,qAO,JE9PEL: T#091,079,002,034,034,079,10000000,999 de JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita

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Mode V/S AO-51
by DeYoung James 26 May '07

26 May '07

Greetings, Thanks to all who contributed useful comments to my previous V/S message. The second evening's passes I was able to confirm that all is working, however my tall, nearby, local trees are not conducive to passing the S-band frequencies, so in future I will have to go portable. The good thing is that very little QRM (at least on AO-51's downlink freuquency, but not so the BB!) was/has been observed here inside the DC beltway which makes me think that P3E and Eagle's S-band payloads will be usable just fine. 73, KG4QWC ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php

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RAFT
by Geoff Clark 26 May '07

26 May '07

Hi all, Good strong TLM signals from RAFT here this afternoon which I managed to gate via ZL2BAU onto APRS IS. Will have the system running again tomorrow although the temperature is rising noticeably now, re-entry not far away now? Good luck with the last few attempts at the Radar experiment folks, hope it works out OK. 73 Geoff ZL3GA -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/817 - Release Date: 24/05/07 16:01

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Horizontal Polarized Antenna
by Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) 26 May '07

26 May '07

Dear All, Currently for my satellite station I am using double stacked vertical polarized yagi antennas for 2M and 70 CM. However, due to mounting constrains, I would like to mount them in a H configuration instead, on the G-5500 rotator, with the 2M antenna on one side and the 70 cm antenna on the other. A yagi for L and S band will be mounted in between the two antennas on the horizontal boom. This would mean that I will require the antenna to be horizontally polarized instead of vertically polarized unless I use a non-metallic boom. Before I perform this, I would like to know what are the differences with using horizontal instead of vertical polarization when operation the LEOs such as AO-51, SO-50 and etc. Also, what are the effects of using a horizontal polarization with the ISS on 2M? Sorry if this has been asked before, but was just trying to be sure before I perform any major modifications. Thank you very much in advance. 73, Sion Chow Q. C., 9W2QC.

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RAFT Commanding needs Doppler compensation !
by hamoen＠iae.nl 26 May '07

26 May '07

Dear RAFT voluteers in the Southern US, Key is the awareness of the need for doppler compensation: memory A approaching - 145.827 receive / 145.823 transmit memory B overhead - 145.825 receive and transmit memory C going away - 145.823 receive / 145.828 transmit Most of you know, but you easily overlook a first time and you have only one or two passes left ... I have always simply used 3 memory channels, in fact mostly channels A and C, due to the speed of RAFT (same holds for ANDE). Worked flawless for commanding RAFT. Without compensation it won't work though :-) Success ! Henk, PA3GUO, RAFT Command Station, The Netherlands, Europe

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Re: FO-29
by Mineo Wakita 26 May '07

26 May '07

Hello Luciano, I am sorry that the reply is late. By a trouble of my PC, I tried restoration now. FO-29 sounds like nothing now. JARL continues an effort of restoration. de JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita

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mode v/s
by Kyle Yoksh 25 May '07

25 May '07

--- Original Message --- > This mode is a real kick. With only a few on the satellite we can > actually say something, beyond a grid square.-- > 73 Bob W7LRD Hi Bob (and the list), Yes, it's a great mode, and it'd be great to see in the schedule more often. I powered up my old Cal Amp integrated downconverter/antenna last night for the first time in a long while! I worked a couple stations in this mode, although I ran into some problems and couldn't return a call or two that I heard. It was purely operator error, as I was outsmarted by my PC! Instead of creating a new mode in InstantTune for the 145.880 uplink, I attempted to override the PC control.. No dice, on each frequency update the TX rig returned to 145.920, just like it's supposed to do.. I know AA2TX is laughing at me about now! Does CAT mean 'Computer Aggravated Tuning'? hi hi The bird was loud and clear, and signals were quite strong at my QTH, although the QSB is very apparent. Next time I'll be ready for a full-blown QSO! 73, Kyle Yoksh KØKN Olathe, Kansas Amsat # 35249 VUCC Satellite # 150

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Dayton Jump Kit
by Robert Bruninga 25 May '07

25 May '07

At Dayton, Mendlesons was selling 12 VDC Jump Start 12VDC battery sets with 400W inverters for $10 AS-IS (something wrong with each). But the 18 AH battery was worth it alone.... I bought two. For one, I just charged the battery, and left the blown fuses in the AC inverter. Everything else worked. The inverter was smoked and so I wont use that feature. For B. The 400W AC inverter worked, but the DC switch panel didn't and left a constant load on the battery. So the hack shown on this web page made for a 10 minute bypassing of the switch panel while letting everything else work properly. See http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/DaytonJunk.GIF They were selling them by the dozens. Thought someone else might find this useful. Bob

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Office Closed
by MARTHA SARAGOVITZ 25 May '07

25 May '07

The AMSAT office will be closed on Monday, May, 28th in observance of Memorial Day. 73- Martha, AMSAT Manager

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FO-29
by Luciano G. Nachif 25 May '07

25 May '07

I believe a thousand folks have asked for the same...but I was overseas and couldn't have access to Internet... What is the latest on FO-29 status, please? Thanks, Luciano PT9KK

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