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

WD9EWK @ Tucson AZ hamfest (18 October) - report
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Hi! I was at the Old Pueblo Radio Club hamfest in Tucson AZ on Saturday, 18 October 2008. It was a good event, with nice weather that morning. The hamfest was in the parking lot at Tucson's Kino Sports Complex (grid DM42me): http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32+10.793+N+110+55.819+W&i… I had an AMSAT table at the event, with the help of Larry Brown W7LB. Along with the AMSAT table, I had demonstrations using 3 satellites - AO-51 (2 passes), SO-50 (1 pass), and VO-52 (2 passes). We also copied the SSTV transmissions from the International Space Station during 2 passes, hoping that we might hear voices on the 145.800 MHz downlink. The demonstrations were well attended. Since AO-51 was set up in the "JOTA" mode (uplink on 145.880 MHz FM, downlink on 435.300 MHz FM +/- for Doppler) for the weekend, I wanted to work any Scout groups that might be on the passes. If a Scout was available at the hamfest, I wanted to put the Scout on the radio to work either other Scouts or anyone else who might be on those passes. I did not have any Scouts around for the first AO-51 pass I heard at 1336 UTC. I - and a few others - worked KT4BSA in North Carolina on this pass. For the second AO-51 pass at 1511 UTC, I was able to put a Boy Scout on the mic. Jim Fagan KE7IDC, a Tucson ham and Boy Scout, made his first satellite contacts using my portable FM satellite station (IC-2720H at 15W, Arrow Antennas handheld 2m/70cm Yagi) at the hamfest. I held the Yagi and took care of adjusting the 70cm VFO to deal with Doppler, and Jim did the rest. He made a total of 7 contacts in the span of 5 minutes - two Canadians, one Mexican, and 4 US stations. Jim had fun, and I had fun helping him make those contacts. Last night, I sent Jim and his father an MP3 with that audio and Jim's 7 contacts. Besides the AO-51 passes, I was able to do my first demonstrations at a hamfest via VO-52. Using my two FT-817NDs and my handheld Yagi, I was able to make a few QSOs on the two passes I had. I tried to work FO-29, but had a lot of difficulty hearing its 70cm downlink over the intermod from military UHF radio systems at Davis-Monthan AFB a few miles/km east of the hamfest site. I apologize to those who were hoping to hear me on FO-29 Saturday morning, as I was not able to overcome that noise. I was able to work one SO-50 pass along with the others I've already mentioned, ending up with 20 QSOs for WD9EWK (plus 7 for KE7IDC) at the hamfest. Not a bad morning. After the hamfest, I drove to a spot south of Tucson straddling a grid boundary (grids DM41mx and DM42ma): http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32+N+110+59.649+W&ie=UTF8&… This location is approximately 15 miles/25km south of downtown Tucson along the I-19 freeway. A casino, Indian reservation, copper mine, and an ICBM missile silo-turned-museum are all nearby. The Mexican border is only 50 miles/80km south of this spot. I wanted to work AO-16 from somewhere in southern Arizona, and possibly an AO-51 pass, before returning home. I was able to make 18 contacts from here - 14 via AO-16, 4 via AO-51 (including a Scout group in Texas using the special call W5S). Thanks to all who made contacts with me (and KE7IDC) at the hamfest, and to those who worked me from DM41/DM42 later in the day. QSLs for those who worked WD9EWK at the hamfest went in the mail this morning. I'm not the QSL manager for KE7IDC; his address on sites like QRZ.com is correct. Jim would appreciate receiving QSLs from the stations he worked. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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xmit sstv to the ISS
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Hi folks, one member just reminded me about what is the chance one station uplinking one picture uniterrupted? Maybe we could cordinate here and use are calls as a your turn my turn such as abzzz goes first as his starts with A, or use the last letter of the call such as kc8gkf and everyone with f in there call (last letter) thats there day to xmit up. something like that I think we could work out. That would cut down on the stations trying to xmit up. Or someone could pass out times to the users (get a list here) to xmit up. Anyother ideas? kc8gkf

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xmit sstv to the ISS
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Hi Folks, was just thinking about this again and these last two passes were quiet so maybe that would of been a good time to xmit up. hopefully they have the gear on and would maybe qsl us somehow or even not. I wonder if anyone xmitted to the ISS sstv the last two passes. Everyone was sitting there listening/waiting like me probley. Anyway I am sure they will let us know if and when they want us to xmit up. I heard someone mention it here earlier about maybe a day to xmit up. Would be nice to have a way to take turns. I think most of the users are here on this bb. maybe not. kc8gkf

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Richard Garriot Return.
by Angelo Friend 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Richard was on voice this morning. I worked Richard at 7:08am on 10/20/2008 on voice. 73 de Angelo -- See Exclusive Video: Hollywood Life's 5th Annual Style Awards http://www.hollywoodlife.net/Awards.aspx?AwardsID=style2008

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ISS Pass
by P. Thomas Gabel 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

No SSTV no audio on 13:46-13:56 pass over US at EN53. 73 Tom N9RPQ

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Re: Delfi-c3 Telemetry Capture & Decoding
by Clive Wallis 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Gerard wrote - >We have not published the telemetry format and conversion equations at >this point. The reasoning behind this is that all this has been i>ncorporated in RASCAL, so you can just read if off the screen there. Understood, but this would appear to encourage 'black box' operating, and discourage experimentation and self learning, which is what amateur radio and AMSAT is all about. >I would like to try some of my own software, which I've successfully >used on other AMSAT >birds in the past. I would need to modify this to >accept changes to the telemetry format and >equations. Could you please tell me how I can get this information. >Unfortunately, tuning and getting RASCAL to lock properly turned out be >harder than we thought. Therefore we have written a small manual on our >website and you can find it at http://www.delfic3.nl/rascal/ under >'instructions'. Yes, I've studied this. >The audio clip on our website is perfectly suited for this purpose and >has in fact been used by >ourselves and many radio-amateurs to get >their set-ups up and running. Thanks for this information. I've now recorded the audio on tape, and RASCAL appears to be decoding it OK. The data copied from the terminal window looks similar to that received from the satellite last week, and decoded by my hardware PSK modem & TNC. -- 73 Clive G3CWV Hitchin, North Hertfordshire, UK.

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Board of Directors Agenda?
by Timothy J. Salo 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Could someone please post the latest agenda for the week's Board of Directors meeting? It would be nice to have an approximate schedule as well (so we can attend for the topics in which we have interest). Thanks, -tjs

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ISS pass 12:30UTC approx., over IO75
by Gordon J. C. Pearce MM3YEQ 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

I heard one SSTV transmission but the signal was too weak to decode. Gordon

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ISS at 0900 UTC
by santanaamt＠aol.com 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Today woke up at the SSTV sounds. Two mages: #1 was a noisy one, very dark with like three light bulbs and #2 saw like a lenses, reminded me of Hal 2000 from the 2001 movie . . . . and in between, got out and saw ISS pass to the east from south to north!! A 2-0n-1treat!!!! Angel Santana - WP3GW

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Richard Garriot Return.
by Angelo Glorioso III 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

Richard Garriot was on voice this morning at 7:07am local time on 10/20/2008 and worked him 59 plus. Greatsignal and nice QSO. 73 de Angelo -- See Exclusive Video: Hollywood Life's 5th Annual Style Awards http://www.hollywoodlife.net/Awards.aspx?AwardsID=style2008

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