AMSAT-BB August 2007

135 participants
178 discussions

Re: ANDE Special Event
by ryan woods 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

I did not see any thing eather in wv had my d700 runing uiview and the d7 in my room i have not heard ande for a long time but when i do i can get in. just useing two jpoles. i cant be thare "live" i have school and bob can u give my some rough times when ande goes over im in the eastern panhandel of wv 13 mi. south of cumberland or look for kd8atf-2 on findu. 73 kd8atf --------------------------------- Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.

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Re: ANDE Special Event
by ryan woods 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

I did not see any thing eather in wv had my d700 runing uiview and the d7 in my room i have not heard ande for a long time but when i do i can get in. just useing two jpoles. i cant be thare "live" i have school and bob can u give my some rough times when ande goes over im in the eastern panhandel of wv 13 mi. south of cumberland or look for kd8atf-2 on findu. 73 kd8atf --------------------------------- Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

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Re: Oscar 7
by Wayne Estes 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Scott Wilson wrote: I am waiting on a well-used older FT-817. It's probably not optimal, but it's an all-mode 2m and 70cm rig. I guess these days it's the most affordable (cheapest) all-mode setup. I'll just have to see if it serves better on the TX side or RX side. Downside to TX is only 5W. Downside to RX is that it's an early non-DSP model, so no NR, and limited SSB filtering (if any?) Wayne Estes replies: You can install a Collins SSB filter in the FT-817. That improves audio quality on both transmit and receive. The improved selectivity isn't really needed for satellites because ham satellites are incapable of producing strong adjacent channel signals. Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik

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ANDE Special Event
by Robert Bruninga 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Special ANDE Operations Tues/Thurs 28/30 August: Eastern USA Morning passes: On Tuesday, Naval Academy stuents will operate ANDE to gather statistics on the success rate of the APRS mission. We invite participation, attended or unattended IAW these guidelines: 1) Tracking Base stations set 5 minute rate 2) 50W mobiles set 3 minute rate 3) 5W HT's set 1 minute rate Do not TX more often, as it will mess up the statistics. Would be nice if you put your station info in your posit text so we could confirm the validity of the statistics of your transmit rate, something like: "Base=5min +10 dB" "50W =3min w 5/8ths" "HT=1min w 19" ant" On Thursday, we may activate the packet to voice synthesizer. If so, then we will tell you what to do then. See http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-ops.html Bob, WB4APR

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Oscar 7
by Patrick McGrane 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Greetings Happy to report I worked joe K3SZH on a western pass of Oscar 7 orbit number 50,000 Only heard one other station in 6 land. Not many people on ao-7 and hamsat, usually only one or two other people. Save your bucks for some used all-mode rigs and you can get on. I'm surprised there are few HEO equipped stations around, why wait? Thanks, patrick n2oeq

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Next trip ??
by Alvaro de Leon Romo 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

John this is the grids that I still needed in case you want to know NV DM19-DN00-01-21 CA CM79 OR CN72-93-94-95 DN02-03 Many thanks for DM28 , unfortunately I lost you in the others :-(( Whoe are close or know who live in that grids ??? Al XE2AT _________________________________________________________________ Nuevo Messenger www.prodigy.msn.com Windows Live Messenger en Prodigy/MSN

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cross yagi phasing?
by Steve Attfield 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

when doing a phase line for a crossed yagi to give it a circular polarization. how do you make sure that you have electrically 1/4 wavelength of line? it strikes me that this would greatly matter or else the antenna wouldn't be fully circularly polarized. -Steve VA3SAX

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TROPOSHPERIC DUCTING FORECASTS
by Gunther Meisse 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

An interesting story which arrived at our TV station this morning, TROPOSHPERIC DUCTING FORECASTS The troposphere is the lowest portion of the earth's atmosphere, extending from the earth's surface to approximately 4 to 12 miles above (varying by location and season). Under certain conditions (discussed below) FM radio and TV signals in the VHF and UHF frequency bands can propagate over great distances through the troposphere due to a phenomenon called tropospheric ducting. A Canadian meteorologist and self-avowed radio/TV "DX" (long-distance) enthusiast, William R. Hepburn, has developed a method for predicting tropospheric ducting and provides forecasts (available on the Internet) using this method, which predict radio and TV signal strength propagation as a result of the ducting phenomenon. "William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts" are available online at www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html. The principal content on this Website is the forecast maps. Six-day preview as well as 42-hour preview (in 6 hour increments) maps for virtually every region of the world are provided (an example map of Eastern North America is shown here). The purpose of these maps is to display potential duct paths for VHF, UHF and microwave signals, indicated by the color shading on the maps using the "Hepburn Tropo Index" (see scale on the left-hand side of the map). This index indicates the degree of tropospheric bending forecast to occur over a particular area, which is an indication of the overall tropospheric radio signal strength on a linear scale from 0 to 10 (with 10 representing an "extremely intense opening" for propagation by ducting). Also shown on the maps (indicated by the letter "U") are predicted "unstable signal areas" where weather conditions could potentially disrupt signal paths and cause unusual and sometimes rapid variations in signal strengths. Mr. Hepburn's Web page also provides some background information on ducting, indicating that vertical boundaries between different types of air masses (for example, warm air over cooler air) can refract radio signals. When the vertical boundary becomes especially sharp, the amount of refraction can become so severe that signal propagation is extended a great distance as though caught in a duct, thus the reference to tropospheric ducting. The raw data for the maps (temperature, humidity & pressure) are extracted from the Meteorological Service of Canada's global weather model. Mr. Hepburn has written a proprietary algorithm which approximately mirrors the atmospheric conditions necessary to produce tropospheric ducting (warm dry air overriding cool moist air). He developed this algorithm from over 30 years of real-time distant radio & TV observations coupled with 25 years experience as a meteorologist. Using a freeware meteorological program called GrADS, the data is ingested, the algorithms are applied, and the maps are produced. According to Mr. Hepburn, in the U.S., the Gulf States & Florida are most susceptible to ducting, especially during the spring months when the sea temperatures are still relatively low. In the Midwest, Great Lakes & Northeast, ducting is more common in the fall. Ducting is rare west of the Rockies except along the Pacific Coast & Hawaii. The ducting forecast Web page is just one of the sites featured on "William Hepburn's Radio & TV DX Information Centre" Website (www.dxinfocentre.com), which also includes information on radionavigation, worldwide broadcast station lists, and a collection of "TV DX photos" showing screen shots of distant TV signals (as far as 1,000 miles away) received by Mr. Hepburn in Grimsby, ON, Canada (located about 50 miles NW of Buffalo, NY).

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Re: KD6PAG Results of Southwest US grid square trip. --text follows this line--
by John Mock KD6PAG 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

from the trip as they don't count for awards i'm looking for. However, i would like it if someone i worked in DM06, DM83, DO30, EM15, EM28, EM45, EM69, EN16, FN02, FN10, FN30 and/or EN90 would work me at/near home soon, to reduce the amount of mail sent/received. By the way, i forget to mention that there were a total of 18 grids worked. on this trip from 39 different locations, making a total of 192 QSO's. Cards were generated in both JPEG and PDF formats, so they would be web- viewable, using homebrew PERL code. So i'm printing these directly from Firefox (via Acrobat reader). The cards print onto 4x6" card stock and are trimmed to postcard size, using non-photo blue to mark the cuts. (If you make your own cards, PLEASE cut them to postcard size!!) Without some automation, this would clearly be too much work (and not nearly enough fun). -- KD6PAG (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer) -------------------- [Note: If i'm in your address book, please replace 'qsl.net' with 'amsat.org'.]

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Cruise Ship Contacts!
by Paul Lenharr II 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hello everyone! I had a great cruise and due to weather conditions (rain and wind), I wasn't able to work the birds as much as I would have liked to.... Oh well... Anyway, I did manage to make a few passes and I have to say that there was a great turnout on almost all of the passes. Thanks to N2BX for being on ALL the passes! A familiar voice that I was glad to hear each and every pass. I will have the grid squares emailed out to all of you sometime this week. If you contacted me on either A0-27, or A0-51 during the last week, please send me an email with the details. While I have received quite a few, I know for a fact that I am missing some of you guys. I would have kept track of them myself, however my voice recorder took a crap (Murphys law) and I was only able to write down the ones I could remember and some partials. Kind of hard standing on the front of a ship with a HT in one hand, Pocket PC AND GPS in the other and writing at the same time. All the while fighting the wind! =) Thanks again for all the contacts! 73, -- Paul D. Lenharr II (KB3NDS) VUCC #1522 - 50mhz Six Club Member #2350 Skywarn Spotter # CS-19 "Pain is temporary, Pride is forever!" Charles County Tactical Response Team NREMT-I, Firefighter, Haz-Mat Technician Department of Homeland Security Instructor (301) 399-9504

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AMSAT-BB August 2007