January 2008 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: FO-29 Status
by T.Komatsu 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

Auke, At the FO-29, solar cells generate 16--18W of Power. This means that when the bird was in sunlight, this amount of power is enogh for linear transponder operation. If the cause of battery failure was internal short, then FO-29 will be hopeless. However, if the cause of battery failure was "open-mode" by high impedance internaly, then FO-29 will be kept in operation, provided solar cells receives enough sunlight. (Operational only in no-eclipse period) (If the batteries which went to braking-down of AO-40 became "Open-Mode",then may be able to bring AO-40 back to life.) 73s, Toyo Komatsu JA0CQP

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Kaguya heard
by David 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

Hello All, For the last two nights I have been receiving the Kaguya lunar satellite's carrier on 2263.6MHz. Using nothing more than an unmodified MMDS, BBQ grill and PCR-1000 receiver. My MMDS downconverters have a nominal 1951MHz Local Osc so the IF will be around 312.6MHz. The problem is that they are filtered for 2300-2400MHz input and 349-449MHz output. AO-40 on 2401.3MHz was marginal in a couple of cases. Despite this, birdies on 312.56MHz and the lousy overcast weather for the last two nights, I heard the signal shift ~22kHz over an hour. It was 20dB over the noise according to the spectrum display and quite audible. Must be the MMDS filtering is poorer than I thought. For the record: Equipment:- Pacific Monolithics MMDS, 60cm BBQ grill with flyscreen mesh, ICOM PCR-1000, DL4YHF's Spectrum Lab software. 73 de David VK5DG

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AO-51 L/U nomal, GO-32 crash
by Mineo Wakita 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

AO-51 L/U JA5BLZ>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:22:29z] <UI>:GE to ALL JE9PEL>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:22:37z] <UI R>:=3523.05N/13936.61E- Yokohama Japan {UIV32} JA5BLZ>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:22:49z] <UI>::JE9PEL :GE 599 TNX JA5BLZ>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:23:22z] <UI>:=3336.80N/13340.72E-Kochi Japan {UISS52} JE9PEL>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:23:49z] <UI R>::JA5BLZ :Hello via AO-51 de JE9PEL JA5BLZ>APRS,PACB-1* [01/21/08 09:24:42z] <UI>::JE9PEL :RGR CU AGN 73 GO-32 KISS [2008-01-21 09:36:48z] TechSat-V4.2 [2008-01-21 09:37:18z] TechSat-V4.2 [2008-01-21 09:37:48z] TechSat-V4.2 [2008-01-21 09:38:18z] TechSat-V4.2 [2008-01-21 09:38:48z] TechSat-V4.2

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Re: FO-29 status
by JA0CQP 21 Jan '08

21 Jan '08

Auke, As basic idea, all of us want to keep every birds life as longer as possible in operation. This is reason why the operation of FO-29 is limited as just single pass in a single day for the time being. To prevent further damages to the batteries which may cause total death of the bird, limitation of usage is essential to save her life. After the bird got full sun shine at every time and the transmitter being kept ON at any time, then we will be able to use FO-29 all over the world again. Untill that time, the limitation should be allowed. 73s, Toyo Komatsu JA0CQP ----- Original Message ----- From: "Auke de Jong, VE6PWN" <sparkycivic(a)shaw.ca> To: "JA0CQP" <ja0cqp(a)po30.lcv.ne.jp>; <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 12:43 PM Subject: Re: FO-29 status >I don't fully understand what you mean by "untill the bird obtain less than >25% of eclipse ratio, Max 20 minutes in Non-eclipse period and 10 minutes >in eclipse period are operation limit in One day". Does this mean that the >satellite can only run for one pass over Japan each day, even if it has >coverage for many passes? Does this also mean that activating the >satellite more than once in a single day might cause harm somehow? > > I dont' want to seem snoopy, I just don't like to see a useful satellite > being un-used just because it needs to be woken-up by somebody who knows > the "secret" codes ;) > > '73 > Auke > VE6PWN

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Mounting G-5500 Separately
by Ken Owen 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

Hi folks: I would appreciate some advice about mounting the Yaesu G-5500 rotors separately on a single mast along with a vertical antenna. I will be mounting the rotors to a heavy duty mast, as opposed to a tower. I purchased the separation kit (which does allow the EL rotor to be mounted to a mast). What I want to do is have the AZ rotor mounted at the top of the mast and have a small section of mast extend beyond the EL rotor, to which I will mount the EL rotor. Finally, I want to mount a vertical antenna at the top of the small section of mast that the EL rotor is mounted on. Has anyone tried this sort of thing before? It seems that the main issue is how to attach the second mast section to the AZ rotor. Could that be done with a second set of mast brackets? Thanks in advance, N6KTH

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Re: mode s converter
by Stefano Simonetti 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

Thanks for the answers, I have here a 50MHz block, I will try, thank you, I already saw those projects at the ao40 days...Now finally I will make the circuit. I was also wondering if a wifi access point beacon would do the work. ISM band starts at 2400 and channel 1 is from 2401 to 2423 with the center of 2412. I tried but heard nothing, I don't know if there should be RF around 2401-2402 from an access point beacon tuned on channel 1. What do you think about? 73 - Steve - IW1RDZ ----- Messaggio originale ----- Da: Diane Bruce <db(a)db.net> A: Bruce Robertson <ve9qrp(a)gmail.com> Cc: Stefano Simonetti <iw1rdz(a)yahoo.it>; AMSAT BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Inviato: Domenica 20 gennaio 2008, 20:29:32 Oggetto: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: mode s converter On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 02:03:57PM -0400, Bruce Robertson wrote: > On Jan 20, 2008 12:44 PM, Stefano Simonetti <iw1rdz(a)yahoo.it> wrote: > > Hi to all, I would like to test my "old" AO40 13cm converter (2400-2402MHz) to see if it is still alive... > > ... > > If you need a cheap-and-dirty signal source, try using one of those > small, canned RF oscillators at 40 MHz. Properly powered with a 5v http://www.db.net/~db/gen_2400.pdf > voltage regulator and a 9v battery, it will produce a harmonic signal > that you'll hear well from right next to the downconverter, and, with It works a treat. There is a design using a filter here: http://www.g4dmf.co.uk/2400/2400.html I've not gotten around to building it. > a gain antenna, from some distance away. Don't worry about building it > an antenna. If you're not sure if what you're hearing is the sig gen. > or a birdie, just blow on the sig gen, and its frequency will warp! The problem with the xtal module is which harmonic are you listening to? It's good enough for tweaking your converter and making sure things work, but it's not going to reliable to use as a frequency standard. ;-) > > At $2, it was all I used to hack and tweak my downconverter. I got > this idea from a VE2 ham's webpages, but I can't seem to google them > up right now. I took one off an old 386sx board; Just about any old xtal module will multiply up into 2.4. - 73 Diane VA3DB -- - db(a)FreeBSD.org db(a)db.net http://www.db.net/~db ___________________________________ L'email della prossima generazione? Puoi averla con la nuova Yahoo! Mail: http://it.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

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mode s converter
by Stefano Simonetti 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

Hi to all, I would like to test my "old" AO40 13cm converter (2400-2402MHz) to see if it is still alive... I have not any kind of RF generator and I am wondering if some satellite has now active some tx in that band. Thanks, 73 IW1RDZ - Steve ___________________________________ L'email della prossima generazione? Puoi averla con la nuova Yahoo! Mail: http://it.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

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Re: echo
by Jim Shorney 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:22:11 -0500, Kevin J. Smith wrote: >Like Luc I could only barely make out a signal on >6.7925 but heard the signal on 7.4075 MHz more as continuous signal. By my >ear I could not distinguish between a ground wave and the moon reflected >wave, if there was one. It's really quite simple. According to the information provided on the HAARP web site, transmissions ran on a 5-second cycle. Carrier for two seconds, followed by three seconds of silence. Echo return time from the moon is 2.4 seconds. So what you would hear is two seconds of carrier, about a half-second break, then two more seconds of echoed carrier. This cycle was repeated continuously through the test period. My noise level was much lower this morning, but so were signals. Nothing was heard on 6.7925, but the transmit cycle was heard on 7.4075, peaking S3 with occasional peaks to S5. I could clearly hear echoes for a period, occasionally stronger than the transmitter as propogation fades took it down. Interestingly, every now and then the transmit signal would jump up signifigantly in strength for a split second. I wonder if anyone else noticed this? Perhaps something highly reflective was passing through the beam at those points. Rig was a Drake TR7, 500 Hz filter, Butternut 6-band vertical. 73 -Jim -- Ham Radio NU0C TR7/RV7, TR6/RV6, T4XC/R4C, L4B, NCL2000, SB104A, R390A, GT550A/RV550A, HyGain 3750, IBM PS/2 - all vintage, all the time! HyGain 3750 User's Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HyGain_3750/

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Re: echo
by John W Lee 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

About the same here. Much better on 6792 than on 7407. My antenna resonates best at 6950 Kc. Echos s0 to s3 or so, perfectly audible. 73 John K6YK CM97 IC-756 and dipole On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:56:32 -0500 "James" <kb7tbt(a)gmail.com> writes: > 5:10 - 5:25 UTC > > 6.7925 CW > > The HAARP transmitter s5 - s7 > > Echo s0 to s5 > > Kenwood TS-440s > G5RV Antenna @ 30ft > Lavonia, Georgia > Grid EM84km > > 73! > > > > James > KB7TBT > www.kb7tbt.com > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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echo
by dcowden＠nc.rr.com 20 Jan '08

20 Jan '08

I was able to record the Haarp transmission on 6.7925mhz this morning. Equipment used as listed below: SDR-IQ software defined receiver 6.7925mhz rf gain 20db if gain 18 db band span 30khz Noise Reduction OFF Off-Centerfed multiband dipole oriented SE-NW Hustler 6btv Multiband vertical The two antennas were connected in parallel via an antenna tuner to utilize both polarizations. I have attached a jpeg screen capture of the beginning of the transmission. The echos seem to be as expected. Thanks to Haarp for the opportunity Don N8DDK dcowden(a)nc.rr.com

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