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

I: footprint edge
by Francesco Grappi 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

Hi Bob, W7LRD Unfortunatelly on previous pass AO-7 was active in "A" mode, (145,900 USB "UP" and 29,450 USB "DOWN") I had a good window to US and Canada ....,I called cq ... for entire pass on the middle frequency of the transponder ... but I didn't heard nobody else on frequency ... See you next window. 73 Frank IW4DVZ North of Italy JN54IL -----Messaggio originale----- Da: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] Per conto di w7lrd(a)comcast.net Inviato: sabato 26 gennaio 2008 20.58 A: AMSAT-BB Oggetto: [amsat-bb] footprint edge Hello-The next few passes of AO-7 will have a small window from Seattle to parts of Northern Europe. If you are in that area look for me on about 145.952. It might just work! 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle, Wa. CN87 -- "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it" _______________________________________________ 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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old-sat questions
by Auke de Jong, VE6PWN 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

Hello List, With the recent "resurrections" of old sats lately, I have decided to do some listening for other old sats which might, one day, un-fail. I think that the most likely ones would be Oscar-6 and Oscar-8. According to what information I have found thus far, their original modes of failure were battery-shorts a-la AO-7/AO-40, therfore they might also un-short based on my extremely limited knowledge of their design(assumptions comparing to ao-7) and regain their power supply. The problem that I am having, is that I can't find much information about AO-6's beacon transmitter frequencies for which to listen. Can anyone here offer some information about the beacon transmitter frequencies used for AO-6, and perhaps any other tech info such as how they might behave without command-station intervention? '73 Auke VE6PWN

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footprint edge
by w7lrd＠comcast.net 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

Hello-The next few passes of AO-7 will have a small window from Seattle to parts of Northern Europe. If you are in that area look for me on about 145.952. It might just work! 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle, Wa. CN87 -- "if this were easy, everyone would be doing it"

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Re: AO-16 report
by Tom Clark, K3IO 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

Mark, N8MH commented > Actually, this is a great idea, Greg. It's the basis for AE4JY Moe Wheatley's > AO40RCv program--the 400BPSK demodulator. In fact, his source coded is > posted--it should help with the programming I'd think. It provided button > pushes, com port selection, radio choices, etc. > > Not sure there is ENOUGH carrier..at least from what I've been hearing. But I > haven't looked at it with a waterfall yet; Drew KO4MA was doing that during > our initial tests--he could see the carrier well as I recall. > The BPSK modulator should have zero carrier in the middle unless it has drifted out of balance. I would be surprised if the carrier rejection is any greater than ~-20 dB below the sideband level -- this corresponds to the supposed 180° phase shift being off by about 0.1 radians (i.e. ~6°). If you try to inject carrier by simply turning on a BFO and receiving the signal as DSB, you will get distortion. This is because you want to extract the 2 sidebands with the same phase. You will be better off throwing away half the signal and receiving it as a SSB signal. One way to properly phase the signal is with a Costas loop demodulator. Such widgets were the hardware PSK demodulators offered by TAPR (designed by K3IO & N7CL) and a different design by G3RUH; the TAPR design was sold commercially by Paccomm as the PSK-1 (Google Paccomm PSK-1). These designs have been built with both 400 BPS (for AO-40) and 1200 BPS (for the PACSATs) data filters. These devices have a PLL to generate a coherent carrier and do not suffer the 3dB SNR loss; the PLLs will also help to track the satellites Doppler. As Mark pointed out, a similar design was done in software for use with a Soundblaster for AO40's 400 BPS BPSK by Moe Wheatley, AE4JY. You can fetch a copy at Moe's web site at http://www.moetronix.com/ae4jy/ao40rcv.htm. Moe's web site has the source code in C++ and you will probably want to modify the data filters by a factor of 3-4. Moe has also implemented a DSB demodulator in his SpectraVue SDR software that supports N4IP's RF Space SDR-14 and SDR-IQ receivers (see http://rfspace.com/Home.html). For those of you using a Flex SDR (http://www.flex-radio.com)like the SDR-1000 or -5000 (or the SoftRock, or a similar QSD design)as your receive IF, you should be able to do a proper demod on the AO-16 signal (including a properly phased carrier generated in a software PLL) using the [DSB] mode (also please try the Synchronous AM [SAM] detector)in PowerSDR. I haven't tried any of the SDR approaches myself, so I don't know about the AFC characteristics in [DSB] and [SAM]. Perhaps AE4JY or N4HY or AB2KT can comment. 73, Tom

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OSCAR-11 Report
by Clive Wallis 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

OSCAR-11 REPORT 26 January 2008 This report covers the period from 19 December 2007 to 26 January 2008. After two months of silence from 20 November, when eclipses started, the satellite resumed transmissions on 22 January 2008. This was three complete 20.7 day watchdog cycles after the satellite switched off. At the time of writing signals are consistantly strong, although the polarisation is very variable, with a cycle time of around 20 seconds, causing deep fading if the antenna polarisation is fixed. This suggests that the satellite may be tumbling. If the current watchdog cycle continues uninterrupted, the 145.826 Mhz. beacon should switch off around 01 February and on again around 11 February. However, if low battery voltage causes the watchdog timer to reset, then the beacon should switch on 21 days later. The real time clock in now very stable although it has lost a further 7.09 days since 20 November. On 26 January it is 81.36403 days slow. I am indebted to Peter ZL3TC, Mark KU7Z, Gene WA4UKX, SWL Mark in CM87, Ron G4PGY, Julian WB9YIG, John HB2HSH and Edward BX1AD for their reports. Many thanks. The satellite is now in continuous sunlight, and this is expected to continue until mid March, when eclipses will start again. Unfortunately eclipses will then become a permanent feature of the orbit, which is likely to prevent any periods of sustained operation after March. The current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. The real time clock is showing a large accumulated error, although over short periods timekeeping is accurate to a few seconds per month. The day of the month has a bit stuck at 'one' so the day of the month may show an error of +40 days for some dates. The time display has switched into 12 hour mode. Unfortunately, there is no AM/PM indicator, since the time display format was designed for 24 hour mode. More data is required to determine exactly when the date changes. The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is controlled only by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at any speed. When telemetry was last received it showed that one of the solar arrays had failed, and there was a large unexplained current drain on the main 14 volt bus. After 23 years in orbit the battery has undergone around 100,000 partial charge/discharge cycles, and observations suggest that it cannot power the satellite during eclipses, or sometimes during periods of poor solar attitude. The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The ON/OFF times have tended to be very consistent. The average of many observations show this to be 20.7 days, ie. 10.3 days ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. However, poor solar attitude may result may result in a low 14 volt line supply, which may cause the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and reset the watchdog timer cycle. When this occurs, the beacon is OFF for 20.7 days. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website. If you need to know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio clip for you to hear. There is an example of the latest telemetry received from the satellite. The website contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT141.CWV, to prevent duplication. 73 Clive G3CWV xxxxx(a)amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

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Re: AO-16 signal periodicity
by Mark L. Hammond 27 Jan '08

27 Jan '08

Here's a link to a graph and some audio files; I forgot them on the first send! Sorry. http://www.dk3wn.info/sat/afu/sat_ao16.shtml ________________ Interesting data from Mike DK3WN! Mark N8MH >From: "Mike Rupprecht" <mail(a)mike-rupprecht.de> >To: "'Mark L. Hammond'" <n8mh(a)embarqmail.com> >Subject: AW: AW: AW: AW: AW: Help needed--AO-16 telem >Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:27:02 +0100 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 >Thread-Index: AchgKvZ3P6FZ18PKRfSduIgzex5w3AAA8lvg > >Hi Mark, > >yes, I think it's the same situation here in europe. There are some stations >in the south of Europe with big stations and it seems they block the >transponder ... > >There is indeed an interval of 14 seconds, that means 4.28 rpm - right? > >73, Mike > > >-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- >Von: Mark L. Hammond [mailto:n8mh@embarqmail.com] >Gesendet: Samstag, 26. Januar 2008 15:52 >An: Mike Rupprecht >Betreff: Re: AW: AW: AW: AW: Help needed--AO-16 telem > >Thanks for the report, Mike! I'm glad you were able to make some contacts >via AO-16. > >The bird is quite busy here in the US, so making a QSO can be challenging >here, too. > >It's NICE to have AO-16 voice pileups on a "dead digital bird" :) > >73, > >Mark N8MH > >At 03:23 PM 1/26/2008 +0100, you wrote: >>Hi Mark, >> >>wow, great signals from AOS till LOS. >> >>Just worked (quite easy) some european stations (I6VMS, TA1D, OT4B and >RK3DXB). It's much QRM over Europe but with some discipline good QSO's are >possible. >> >>Thank you so much for all. >> >>73, Mike >> >> >> >> Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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AO-16 signal periodicity
by Mark L. Hammond 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Interesting data from Mike DK3WN! Mark N8MH >X-BINDING: pd02.embarq.synacor.com >X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined >X-CNFS-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=eTZUOTcYMmIA:15 a=8N5pNyA62PUA:10 a=Aza6Yw9YCZ4R+/7toVlBpg==:17 a=kxRU16pYAAAA:8 a=I2cWxC-P83Qs_bLxeIkA:9 a=A3zKyMl3O8P-v7Y0GwoA:7 a=iJP2CJsKPvG24uzA3iAhMztdHWUA:4 a=cvn8laQl214A:10 a=50e4U0PicR4A:10 a=PthV78sun1KT-ggwoAEA:9 a=Jv9cjD3ahT8RivWRcPsqCSrGXB4A:4 a=1Vq_FK4TplAA:10 a=CxA2Utj4LuEA:10 a=jkCuhmbb9PDjgNrtS5MA:9 a=-s-skpXRXbqpOtPb:18 a=bliBVldoaqZXmdE7:18 >X-CM-Score: 0 >X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine >Authentication-Results: spam03.embarq.synacor.com smtp.mail=mail(a)mike-rupprecht.de; spf=unknown >X-RZG-CLASS-ID: mo07 >X-RZG-AUTH: j/gCopV6EOvJkd7l0rsPX3RjtBH0bSjW8tsupzwqwzrbunA3QB/qOO8SEA74nBp5hKxSoIyC >From: "Mike Rupprecht" <mail(a)mike-rupprecht.de> >To: "'Mark L. Hammond'" <n8mh(a)embarqmail.com> >Subject: AW: AW: AW: AW: AW: Help needed--AO-16 telem >Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:27:02 +0100 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 >Thread-Index: AchgKvZ3P6FZ18PKRfSduIgzex5w3AAA8lvg > >Hi Mark, > >yes, I think it's the same situation here in europe. There are some stations >in the south of Europe with big stations and it seems they block the >transponder ... > >There is indeed an interval of 14 seconds, that means 4.28 rpm - right? > >73, Mike > > >-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- >Von: Mark L. Hammond [mailto:n8mh@embarqmail.com] >Gesendet: Samstag, 26. Januar 2008 15:52 >An: Mike Rupprecht >Betreff: Re: AW: AW: AW: AW: Help needed--AO-16 telem > >Thanks for the report, Mike! I'm glad you were able to make some contacts >via AO-16. > >The bird is quite busy here in the US, so making a QSO can be challenging >here, too. > >It's NICE to have AO-16 voice pileups on a "dead digital bird" :) > >73, > >Mark N8MH > >At 03:23 PM 1/26/2008 +0100, you wrote: >>Hi Mark, >> >>wow, great signals from AOS till LOS. >> >>Just worked (quite easy) some european stations (I6VMS, TA1D, OT4B and >RK3DXB). It's much QRM over Europe but with some discipline good QSO's are >possible. >> >>Thank you so much for all. >> >>73, Mike >> >> >> >> Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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(no subject)
by John Hackett 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

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ANDE Awards have been mailed
by Henk, PA3GUO 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Dear all, ANDE Awards have been mailed this weekend. Details are available here: http://www.ande-deorbit.com/status.shtml In case you did not sign up yet, there is still a chance to do so: http://www.ande-deorbit.com/submission.shtml Mailing may take a week or so, but you should expect them one of these days in your mailbox ! For those interested, on the website there is the full overview of all telemetry of the final days (incl. the very last one, by JA0CAW). Also all the TLE (kepler sets) since launch: http://www.ande-deorbit.com/ande_all_tle.txt Mike & Henk http://www.ande-deorbit.com

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AO-51 orbital questions
by Greg D. 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Hi folks, I'm writing my monthly newsletter article for our ham club, and thought I'd talk a little about AO-51's recent challenges, experiments, and results. You think you understand this stuff, until you try to explain it to someone else... AO-51, I thought, is in a sun-synchronous polar orbit, right? I thought that sort of orbit is characterized by having the satellite fly over the same point on Earth at about the same time every day. If so, then why do we have periods of eclipse and periods of no eclipse? If it's not sun-synchronous, is it in some other special form of a polar orbit, or just in a polar orbit? And, about the battery temperature. I get the idea of turning on all the transmitters, so that we "radiate" some of that excess power into space in a more useful way - in the form of RF. But, it would seem that the difference is maybe a watt or so, at the most, which doesn't seem all that significant. And since the power amps are never all that efficient, aren't we mostly just moving the point of dissipation from the batteries to the transmitter modules? I can see how this would help the batteries, but how does it help the spacecraft overall? Is this because of how the thermal design was done? And, more to the point of all this power stuff, does the power really need to be dissipated? I mean, you can put a solar cell in the sun, with no load, and it's not going to explode from not having some place to dump it's charge. Is there a need to take a certain amount of power from the solar cells, in order to maintain their own health? Or, is this really due to the design and function of the battery charging circuitry? Finally, I seem to recall that the spacecraft entered the no-eclipse period before the last crash. Is that the right sequence? Any connection between the two events? Thanks for your help, and also to the command team for the latest configuration. Next good pass is tomorrow; time to fire up the old S-and receive system. Greg KO6TH _________________________________________________________________ Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008

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Re: Spoutnik 41-AMSAT-F
by Jean-L. RAULT 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Bob Cutter a écrit : > Is it possible to get a QSL for a contact with > Spoutnik 41? > > I have seen the log on AMSAT-F. > > 73, Bob KI0G Yes Bob, it is. Just send me please your report with a self addressed enveloppe and 2 IRCs to my home address. 73 Jean-Louis F6AGR Former AMSAT-F president

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AO-16 with small stn.
by ANTHONY JAPHA 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Drew asked for reports from portable/small stations using AO-16, so I offer my experience. Just had Qs with VE2AHD and K8ALM on a 17 degree pass here in FN30, New York City. I was inside my apartment (brick building with metal windows) on the 17th floor, with many obstructions outside. Using 2 FT-817s, 5 watts up into 3 el; preamp and 7 el down. This is my portable gear used inside (temp in the 20s today). Can't wait for spring! There may actually be very short windows--1 or 2 minutes--from here to G-land, etc. This looks like a great bird. I love the SSB downlink. Tnx to all who made it happen. 73, Tony, N2UN ANTHONY JAPHA tjjapha(a)earthlink.net EarthLink Revolves Around You.

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QSL Cards with AMSAT Logo
by Clint Bradford 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

I have already obtained permission to use our logo...Who has had a great experience with a QSL card maker who will print the AMSAT logo on the card? Clint Bradford, K6LCS / KAF3359 909-241-7666

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AO-51 Mode Change (NEW MODE V/US)
by Andrew Glasbrenner 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

This morning, January 25th, AO-51 was switched to a new mode. Currently both the S band downlink of 2401.200 and the 435.300 downlink are on and tied together to the 145.920 receiver. This creates a single repeater that can be heard on either downlink. In the past the satellite power budget would not allow simultaneous S and U downlinks for more than a few moments, but the current no eclipse season allows us try try this new combination. The L/U BBS and U band telemetry will be off during this period, except for brief periods when command stations will be collecting telemetry. During these passes, the S band downlink may be shut off temporarily. Give this new mode a try this weekend. If you like using S-band AND working lots of stations, this mode is for you. Currently we plan to run this mode through the end of the month. 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Ops

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Re: AO-16 with small stn.
by John Marranca, Jr 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Reid, et al: Yep...the 817 works great! In fact, on the 2120z pass, I worked you with an 817! What is annoying though, is the amount of QRM. Some of it actually sounds intentional. 73 de KB2HSH -- _______________________________ John Marranca, Jr PBX Technician/Shop Steward CWA Local 1122 BN Systems, Inc Orchard Park, NY (716)972-2006

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QSO via AO7
by F2lq＠aol.com 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Good afternoon To night i have qso a K station asking my call , but it was just at the end of the pass ! Sorry...a next time perhaps ! If you read this little return... 73's Guy F2LQ IN98eb

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Re: AO-16 report
by Mark L. Hammond 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Actually, this is a great idea, Greg. It's the basis for AE4JY Moe Wheatley's AO40RCv program--the 400BPSK demodulator. In fact, his source coded is posted--it should help with the programming I'd think. It provided button pushes, com port selection, radio choices, etc. Not sure there is ENOUGH carrier..at least from what I've been hearing. But I haven't looked at it with a waterfall yet; Drew KO4MA was doing that during our initial tests--he could see the carrier well as I recall. 73, Mark N8MH _______ Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:55:47 -0800 From: "Greg D." <ko6th_greg(a)hotmail.com> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: AO-16 report To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Message-ID: <BLU133-W280FF8A5783F16558CB4AAA9390(a)phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" If there is a slight carrier on the downlink side, I wonder if someone with a sound card and a "bit" of spare time could work up an automatic tuning adapter? Zero beat the carrier by tickling the mike up and down buttons; something like that. You'd need to sample (tap into) the received audio, and manually get the receiver close. Then let it run. Crazy idea? Greg KO6TH

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Re: AO-16 report
by John W Lee 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Also if you have an SSB receiver with DSP or automatic notch filter, you can eliminate the carrier completely. 73, John K6YK On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:43:26 -0500 "Andrew Glasbrenner" <glasbrenner(a)mindspring.com> writes: > Hi Ray, > > Thanks for the report, and I hope you don't mind that I have > included part of it in this email to -bb in response to a few > comments I've seen. As Ray and others have noticed, there is indeed > some carrier on the downlink. It isn't what we might have designed > for a voice system, but given how this came about, it's tolerable. > >> > 73, Drew KO4MA > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: RaySoifer(a)cs.com > > The uplink is very sensitive indeed, and the downlink is as > expected given the power level. I would add, though, that in > addition to the DSB audio, there is a carrier output which helps to > tune in the downlink signal. It's not really DSBSC (suppressed > carrier) but more like DSBRC (reduced carrier, relative to what it > would be on AM). > > _______________________________________________ > 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: the state of AO16 batteries
by Mark L. Hammond 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Hi Robert, Great question!! We can get VERY little telemetry out of AO-16 given its current health condition. We get a bit of MBL telemetry, and it looks fine--but it doesn't say a whole lot. During the multiple attempts of loading the housekeeping code to AO-16, the bird ran JUST long enough to spit out ONE "regular" telemetry frame--and I recorded the pass, so I caught the packet :) The voltages on the batteries look good, based on one telemetry frame. We don't know how the batteries will hold up during various eclipse periods. But you can be sure we'll do our best to manage what we have the ability to manage with the bird. We are able to set the power output of AO-16, so that is an obvious way to help manage its power budget. Also, we can shut the transmitter OFF, should it be necessary. User observations and feedback will be very helpful when we resume esclipes in the new "best pipe mode"! 73, Mark N8MH -----Forwarded Message----- >From: Robert Turlington <rob_g8ate(a)hotmail.com> >Sent: Jan 25, 2008 11:02 AM >To: Amsat Buleitin Board <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >Subject: [amsat-bb] the state of AO16 batteries > > >Hi All >does anyone know the condition of AO16 batteries (bearing in mind its age) at the moment the Sat is in full sunlight all of the time but after the 27th March it starts its eclipse season,so it will be interesting to see how things go on! >PS. I will be looking for contacts with NA on late afternoon/early evening mid atlantic passes over the next few days.Regards Robert G8ATE >_________________________________________________________________ >Who's friends with who and co-starred in what? >http://www.searchgamesbox.com/celebrityseparation.shtml >_______________________________________________ >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 -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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AO-16 report number 2 from Copenhagen
by OZ1MY 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Hi all, A few observations from today: The transmit frequency seems to change a little. On the first pass I used today I had to go up 500 Hz on the downlink to hit the right frequency. On the later passes the change was smaller. As others have observed the carrier is there. Tuning to zero beat puts you spot on frequency. Following Toms e-mail I tried to change to FMN (3.5 kHz deviation) on the transmitter. That makes the audio sound better - but my downlink signal to noise ratio decreased. That was to be expected. I do not know about other areas of the World - but here over Europe the background noise on the downlink is very high. Did not experience the normal FM quieting effect by increasing the uplink power. I do not understand that - any ideas ? Is AO-16 making the noise itself ?? The polarity of the downlink antenna is difficult to make out. I thought it is RHCP - but Mark says LHCP. For me on the passes to the East RHCP is best ! Passes from the South - LHCP is best ! That is a general observation - some times it helped to switch during the passes. AO-16 might be tumbling a lot ? Another thing is that using Noise Reduction on my IC-910 helps a little - not much. Have fun and thanks to the team and the builders. 73 OZ1MY Ib

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the state of AO16 batteries
by Robert Turlington 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Hi All does anyone know the condition of AO16 batteries (bearing in mind its age) at the moment the Sat is in full sunlight all of the time but after the 27th March it starts its eclipse season,so it will be interesting to see how things go on! PS. I will be looking for contacts with NA on late afternoon/early evening mid atlantic passes over the next few days.Regards Robert G8ATE _________________________________________________________________ Who's friends with who and co-starred in what? http://www.searchgamesbox.com/celebrityseparation.shtml

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Spoutnik 41-AMSAT-F
by Bob Cutter 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Is it possible to get a QSL for a contact with Spoutnik 41? I have seen the log on AMSAT-F. 73, Bob KI0G ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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AO-16 reception on mode-AM
by JA0CQP 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Hi All, On the 06:06(UTC) pass over Japan, I have tried to receive downlink signal from AO-16 on mode-AM. As a result, I have enjoied better sound quality and easy tuning than USB in spite of heavy QRMs. (However, against deep QSB, USB mode offers some advantage for better readability. .) TRX which I used is Kenwood TS-2000 with SatPC32 At the TS-2000, minimum tuning step on the VHF, and UHF bands mode-AM are 5KHz, hence "fine tuning" by SatPC32 was absolutory necessary. Thanks to SatPC32. 73s Toyo Komatsu- JA0CQP

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Re: RFI identification
by Wayne Estes 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Joe (no callsign given) wrote: Computers are also extremely noisy! When operating HF I never use a computer, every one I have ever had or used, adds at least 10 DB to the noise floor. Wayne replies: How close are your HF antennas to you computers? I don't notice an increase in the HF noise level from the computers in my house, but my HF vertical and HF dipole feedpoint are both 60 feet from the house (and even further from neighbor's houses). At the closest point the dipole's wire is less than 30 feet from two computers in the house. Do you use CRT monitors with your computers? I found that CRT monitors generate much more RF noise than the average home computer. LCD monitors produce far less RFI. Weak-signal ham operators should NEVER use CRT monitors. Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik

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AO-16 report
by Piero Baudino 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Hi to the group! Just worked AO-16 this morning: - worked RW3XL and EB3SA between 5.24 and 5.35 UTC - very strong signal, sometimes better in LHCP, using my 2x15 elements antenna and PREAMP (always S7-S9 on IC-910) - voice quality better on USB - very diffult to tune the downlink, between 437.034 (AOS) and 437.014 (LOS) for me... - uplink very sensitive, worked all the pass with only 1-2 W and my 2x7 elements antenna (always on RHCP) Many thanks to the AO-16 command team, great job guys! '73 de Piero IZ1ERR (JN35UI)

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