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

Re: SSTV etc from the ISS
by G0MRF＠aol.com 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hi Simon / Miles. You have both mentioned MMSSTV and not VoxRecorder. Will MMSSTV also save Audio QSOs?? David 'MRF In a message dated 10/10/2008 13:26:44 GMT Standard Time, ka1rrw(a)yahoo.com writes: A vox recorder will work, however a running SSTV problem will work much better. Just make sure you save the images to disk. Most if not all SSTV programs have an Auto Receive move and will save to disk. **************

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A little help please...
by Joseph Seibert 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

I'm going to be demonstrating satellite operations to a group of six High School students this afternoon. They're all working on their Tech Class licenses and I'm trying to get them interested in satellite operations. We even have the local newspaper's reporter lined up to watch, so their will be some good public relations. We'll be on the 2300 UTC AO-51 pass and would be appreciative if anyone who could contact us. We're pretty far west so it'd be great if stations on the west coast or our Canadian neighbors would give us a try. The call sign will be our club call, AL7YK and grid is AP90ds. We'll be using our club's arrow antenna with a IC 91AD HT. Well also be on AO-7 on most of Sunday's passes who anyone who'd like to work our grid. Thanks. Joe Seibert- AL1F Bethel, Alaska

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AO-16 this weekend?
by n3tl＠bellsouth.net 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hey everyone, How about some AO-16 contacts this weekend? I’ve mentioned in posts to the BB this week that I would like to apply for a separate Satellite Communications Achievement Award from AMSAT using only confirmed contacts on AO-16 in this unique and, most likely, “one off” operating mode of V-FM up and U-DSB down. It’s a real hoot to work, as some of you know – and there’s no guarantee we’ll have AO-16 much longer. That’s been reported in the just-arrived (July-August) issue of “The AMSAT Journal” by Drew, KO4MA. The first report on AO-16’s rebirth appeared in the March-April issue of the Journal. As I write this, I’m one state/Canadian province/DX country away from the 20 necessary to apply for the award, but I’d like to work as many as possible before AO-16 goes silent again – and maybe forever. Here’s the list worked by N3TL so far in AO-16’s “bent pipe” mode: Venezuela Ontario California Florida Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Massachusetts Michigan Mississippi New York North Carolina Ohio Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Thanks to Clare, VE3NPC, who read an earlier post in which I referred to my interest in trying for my own little AO-16 award. He made a pass later than day and we had a great contact. Thanks again for that, Clare! I’m thrilled to have made contacts with the stations that made the very fist voice contact on AO-16 back in January (as reported in the earlier Journal article mentioned above) – N8MH and KO4MA. That’s pretty cool! So, if you live somewhere not listed above and have the time and gear to make a pass of AO-16 that includes north Georgia in the footprint, I’ll be listening for you! As for the necessary gear, I’m routinely using a “poor man’s full duplex” station – transmitting from my Yaesu VX-7R HT into an eFactor omni antenna mounted on a photo tripod and receiving on a Yaesu FT-817ND connected to my Elk log periodic. On passes to my east, I'll use my "base" transmitter, a Yaesu FT-857D into the eFactor omni, with the RF out on the 857D routinely set to 5 watts. I’m manually tuning for Doppler on the receive side, and hand-holding the Elk to track the receive side manually. It’s a little challenging, but a lot of fun! FYI – the frequency pair is 145.920/FM up (the same as AO-51’s “normal” 2 meter uplink) and 437.026/DSB (+/- Doppler) down. Listen in upper sideband, and start looking for AO-16 at about 437.036 at AOS, tuning down from there. No matter where you live, you really ought to work some passes of AO-16 if you can. There’s a historical significance to this current mode and the story behind it that’s pretty special, I think, and worthy of our interest and attention. 73 to all, Tim – N3TL AMSAT Member No. 36820 Athens, Ga. – EM84ha

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How low can you go?
by n3tl＠bellsouth.net 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hey Everyone, This weekend, AO-51’s operations team is giving all of us who work the FM satellites a chance to answer the question in my post's title to our own satistaction. Here, I’m reaching for a fresh set of Duracells! I’ll be running QRO on them this weekend, though – pumping all 300 milliwatts out of my VX-7R HT into the new Elk log periodic antenna I’ve been running through the ringer for a week – with really good results. I challenge all of you who will be working the “QRP pair” on AO-51 this weekend to see how low you can go with the RF out and work the satellite. As many of you know, the Satellite Communications Achievement Award (No. 473) that just got posted to the AMSAT Web site for N3TL was earned solely on the basis of confirmed contacts I made while running 50 mW rf out of the VX-7R – on the same set of 2 AA Duracells. I’ll use the other alkaline-battery power setting this weekend, which is 300 mW. One of the elements of this very low power work I find most exciting is trying to “reach out” as far as I can. For me, it’s not the distance from N3TL in EM84 to the other station I’m working on fractions of a watt that is important. Rather, it’s the range from my location to the satellite at the moment of contact. That tells an interesting story, I think. Example – During my Duracell Experiment, I worked Jim, KC9ELU, on AO-51 when the satellite was at 8.6 degrees elevation to my west. I use Orbitron to keep track of upcoming passes, and its simulation mode lets me go back, after a pass, and check stats from contacts. When Jim and I worked, my 50 mW traveled 2,482.003 km (1,542.245 miles) to the satellite. Do the math – that’s 49,640.06 km (30,844.9 miles) per watt. I don’t expect to get close to those numbers at all on 300 mW this weekend, but I’m anxious to find out. I will post my farthest to-the-satellite distance that resulted in a two-way contact early next week. I hope others will do the same, including rf out and distance to the satellite during the contact. Not only is this fun (for me, at least), but it also provides a great test for our respective stations, letting us know “how low we can go” in, say, a true emergency and still complete effective communications. FYI – I always err on the side of caution when posting numbers like those above. That is, I always use the highest elevation/shortest range to my location. Even a few seconds during a contact has the satellites moving ever closer or ever farther from us, depending on which part of the passes our contacts occur. I use the highest angle/shortest range because I know it was no higher or no closer to me during the contact. I hope to try some SSTV reception, but probably on the higher angle passes here because I have no experience at all with SSTV. On the lower angle passes, however, I hope to work many of you on the QRP pair while I’m wearing out another set of Duracells – and in between passes of AO-16 (more about that in another post). 73 to all, Tim – N3TL AMSAT Member No. 36820 Athens, Ga. – EM84ha

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2M1EUB/P QRV SCOTLAND 11.10.08
by paul robinson 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hi group ill be qrv all birds from scotland ,from 11.oct.08 till 25.oct yes abt 2weeks! check out qrz.com under 2M1EUB listing for more info.should be qrv from north east and north west scotland!! de paul 2E1EUB

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Re: Contribution
by Clive Wallis 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Rob Redmon wrote - > I realize that accurate positioning is detrimental. I've been retrieving >TLEs for two weeks now and in that window, VO-52 has had 2 updates with >a 10 day cadence. Is ~10 days the usual tracking priority for such >satellites? Are there already "good enough" techniques for filling the >orbital element gaps? Are there more sophisticated public domain orbit >propagation algorithms just waiting to be tried out? The dawn of a new >solar cycle (24) is upon us. How does will already employed prediction >techniques stand up to the next solar max? The tracking algorithms for satellites have been developed over the years and AFAIK they are adequate, certainly for amateur use. The orbital elements contain a drag factor (orbital decay) which compensates the tracking for the gradual orbital decay. IMHO updating elements every 10 days is adequate for most satellites. If you use manual tracking the time interval between updates can be increased. I tracked OSCAR-11 (UO-11) manually for many years, and usually, only needed to change the Keplers about four times a year, when the predicted time error exceeded more than a minute or so. Satellites in very low orbits have a greater rate of decay, and it helps to update the Keps frequently, especially those nearing the end of their orbital life. The manned space stations have a high rate of orbital decay. Their orbital height is corrected by firing their thrusters, so frequent updating of Keps is needed. Regarding solar max, this will increase the decay rate, but in most cases this will be corrected by the increased drag factor in the Keps. > As part of my graduate curriculum, I am enrolled in an astrodynmics > course. The course >requires a course project. Three possible projects - Firstly, when satellites decay and burn-up in the earth's atmosphere, there is always an interest in predicting when this will happen, say a month before. In the past we have had several so called 'Chicken Little' competitions for the best prediction. I did a lot of work on this 20 years ago, but never finished the project. It was based on a statistical analysis of how the drag factor varied with height, the exosphere and solar flux. As a project you could reasearch any work on this topic, or try to produce a procedure for predicting satellite decay. Secondly, you could investigate tracking errors caused by changes of solar flux. The effect of these errors, and how often Keps should be updated. Lastly, there are at least two, possibly more different algorithms for tracking calculations. You could explore the differences, between them for amateur satellite aplications. If you are interested, I may be able to help. Please e-mail me direct g3cwv at amsat.org ( replace the ' at ' by @). HTH -- 73 Clive G3CWV Hitchin, North Hertfordshire, UK.

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RS-30 CW telemetry decode - official
by andy thomas 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Following CW telemetry table for RS-30 received from Moscow this morning. I will try to type it below in text form as a proper table. Name Decoding Assignement of parameters Limits RS30 Callsign UBS U=N * 0.087 Volts On board voltage N=115...175 IBS I=N * 0.02 Amperes On board current N=10...155 USUN U=N * 0.12 Volts Charge voltage from sun battery N=0...150 ISUN I=N * 0.01 Amperes Charge current from sun battery N=0...250 ITXA I=N * 0.01 Amperes DC Current of the 435 MHz Tx A N=0...200 ITXB I=N * 0.01 Amperes DC Current of the 435 MHz Tx B N=0...200 TTXA T=No decoding Temperature of the 435 MHz Tx A N=0...255 TTXB T=No decoding Temperature of the 435 MHz Tx B N=0...255 TNAP T=No decoding Temperature of the navigation unit N=0...255 TAB T=No decoding Temperature on board battery N=0...255 MSEP Table of operationa modes of the power supply N=0...255 MCON Table of operational modes of the controller N=0...255 SMA Table of operational modes of channel A N=0...255 SMB Table of operational modes of channel B N=0...255 MRXA Table of operational modes of Rx A N=0...255 MRXB Table of operational modes of Rx B N=0...255 RS30 Callsign Please note the document refers to a Tx frequency of 435.353 MHz. 73 de andy, G0SFJ

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Re: Richard Garriott Update Oct 9, 2008
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hi all, Thanks to Bob for all of the information in helping keeping amateur radio alive especially with respect to the our interest in satellites. But just a note to remind any readers that the frequency that Bob refers to for the APRS, is of course for the operations in the USA. - Bobs web pages which he refers to "Do" of course highlight this. Thank you again Bob for all of your time and effort in putting out so much interesting and useful information on this aspect of our hobby. Good Luck to all in following the Richard Garriott mateur radio projects. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat - UK Amast NA **************

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Richard Garriott Update Oct 9, 2008
by Frank H. Bauer 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

All, The ARISS team has a lot of exciting activities planned for the next few weeks, including the flight of Soyuz 17S to space station with Richard Garriott, W5KWQ and Mike Fincke, KE5AIT on-board. The following represents some new information and capabilities that we are rolling out to the community to prepare for Richard's and Mike's flight. Please go to www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, www.arrl.org and www.issfanclub.com for real-time information updates. 73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT-NA V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman The ARISS SSTV team announces the new ARISS SSTV Web Gallery and Blog. A website has been established to enable amateur radio operators to share their pictures received from the International Space Station's SSTV system. People wishing to view photos captured from the ISS or upload their own captured pictures can go to http://www.amsat.com/ARISS_SSTV/. There is also a blog in which the ARISS SSTV Team will post announcements and additional information about the project. The blog can be viewed at http://www.ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/. To prepare for the upcoming SSTV operations, you are welcome to "try out" the new Web Gallery by posting past SSTV images (on-orbit and terrestrial). These will be deleted prior to the ARISS SSTV events that are planned for this weekend and during ISS Expedition 17 and Richard Garriott's flight (see below). ISS SSTV Operations Planned for October 12 The ARISS team received word from ARISS Russia delegate Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, that the current ISS crew expect to transmit SSTV on October 12 from 18:00-21:00 UTC. This is your opportunity to test out your SSTV reception capability and to post images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery. The planned downlink for this operation will be 145.80 MHz with Robot 36 as the expected SSTV mode of operation. AO-51 Special SSTV Mode Thanks to Drew, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA VP for Operations, this weekend AO-51 will operate in a special mode in anticipation of Richard Garriott's visit to the ISS. Richard's launch is currently scheduled for October 12th, with docking at the ISS on the 14th. Richard plans on being very active from the ISS ham station, including extensive operation with Slow Scan Television (SSTV). In preparation for this event, AO-51 will be configured with dual repeaters for the weekend of October 11th and 12th. The primary repeater on AO-51 will be configured with an uplink on 1268.700 FM and downlink of 435.300 FM, and will be designated for this period as an SSTV repeater. Users are encouraged to exchange SSTV images in ROBOT 36 mode, as an opportunity for others to practice receiving SSTV images from space before the ISS activity. Please keep the images transmitted to space-related themes, and to the ROBOT 36 mode. Polite and courteous operation among those sharing the uplink is crucial to the success of this mode. Concurrently, there will be a QRP voice repeater running on 145.880 FM uplink and 435.150 FM downlink. Users are asked to use 10 watts or less, and omnidirectional or handheld antennas only. Good luck receiving SSTV images this weekend, and from the ISS during Richard Garriott's flight. Richard Garriott Operations As stated previously, Richard plans to perform several school contacts and downlink SSTV images during his flight. He also plans to contact the general ham community in his free time and perform random scout contacts during Jamboree on the Air. SSTV downlinks are planned on 145.80. SSTV uplinks are not currently planned. The standard general contact frequencies will be used to support the Jamboree on the Air and general QSO passes. So that you are not calling CQ for naught, Richard's school contacts, thanks to Will Marchant, KC6ROL, Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, and Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, are tentatively scheduled as follows: Challenger Learning Center Combined Contact #1, telebridge via W6SRJ; on Thu 2008-10-16 16:39 UTC Howard B. Owens Science Center's Challenger Center (Lanham, MD) Challenger Learning Center of Columbia (Columbia, SC) Verizon Challenger Learning Center at MOSI (Tampa, FL) Brownsburg Challenger Learning Center (Brownsburg, IN) Budbrooke Primary School, Warwick, England, direct via GB4OBS Fri 2008-10-17 11:05 UTC Challenger Learning Center Combined Contact #2, telebridge via W6SRJ; on Fri 2008-10-17 15:30 UTC Indianapolis Challenger Learning Center (Indianapolis, IN) Challenger Learning Center at Paducah (Paducah, KY) Challenger Learning Center St. Louis (St. Louis, MO) Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy, Austin, TX, direct via K5LBJ Sun 2008-10-19 13:14 UTC Pinehurst School, Ashland, Oregon, telebridge via W6SRJ Mon 2008-10-20 15:13 UTC National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, direct via 9M2RPN Tues 2008-10-21 08:30 UTC

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help with satpc32
by RFI-EMI-GUY 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

I don't use SATPC, but will take a shot. Googling: Ole "error" 8004503a reveals a lot of text to speech problems with windows. 1) Does Satpc use speech? If so maybe you have a missing speech driver. 2) Since the error is in German, do you have languages set up correctly in the OS? perhaps that is problem. Message: 8 Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 06:55:20 -0500 From: "Nick Pugh" <quadpugh(a)bellsouth.net> Subject: [amsat-bb] help with satpc32 To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Message-ID: <000c01c92a05$e81170f0$b83452d0$@net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi AMSATers I had a hard drive failure . I am using XP. I went to the AMSAT and down loaded SATPC32 demo. After instillation and a reboot I get "Ole Fehler 8004503a. -- Joe Leikhim K4SAT "The RFI-EMI-GUY"© "Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." "Follow The Money" ;-P

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