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

Skeds for WAS
by John Papay 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

I am looking for anyone in Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Delaware that could sked with me on AO51, AO-16, VO52 or FO29. Thanks. Email: k8yse(a)amsat.org John K8YSE EN91 North Royalton, OH

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AMSAT Field Day 2008 Results (3rd time is the charm)
by Bruce 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Dang...had to enter this manually into my email client. Sorry about that. 73...bruce Forgot all about this due to the hurricane. Here are the results from field day this year. Any ties in score are listed in alphabetical order. Certificates will be given out at the AMSAT Symposium later this month. 1 W5MSQ 43 2A EMERG 2 W9LDX 34 3A EMERG 3 W0MA 23 4A EMERG 4 W9LJ 22 2A EMERG 5 W8DXA 21 2A EMERG 6 N5JO 20 1AB EMERG 7 W8TNO 19 3A EMERG 8 W2MMD 18 8A EMERG 9 W5IU 17 3A EMERG 10 K4HEX 15 2A EMERG 11 VE7RAR 11 1D EMERG 12 W6ASL 11 1D COMM 13 KF4XB 4 1D COMM 14 W6NWG 4 5F EMERG 15 WD9EWK 3 1B EMERG 16 KH6E 2 2A EMERG 17 W7DU 2 4A EMERG Some statistics from past field days. 2005 2006 2007 2008 Satellites 8 7 5 8 QSO's 120 258 207 220 Stations 11 21 13 17 -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on SkyScanner Satellite Radio Network on Galaxy-25 @97° West, Transponder 23 (12115 Vert), Symbol Rate: 22425, APID: 1794 (DVB Free To Air) Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org

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AMSAT 2008 Field Day Results (reformatted)
by Bruce 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Forgot all about this due to the hurricane. Here are the results from field day this year. Any ties in score are listed in alphabetical order. Certificates will be given out at the AMSAT Symposium later this month. 1 W5MSQ 43 2A Emerg 2 W9LDX 34 3A Emerg 3 W0MA 23 4A Emerg 4 W9LJ 22 2A Emerg 5 W8DXA 21 2A Emerg 6 N5JO 20 1AB Emerg 7 W8TNO 19 3A Emerg 8 W2MMD 18 8A Emerg 9 W5IU 17 3A Emerg 10 K4HEX 15 2A Emerg 11 VE7RAR 11 2A Emerg 12 W6ASL 11 1D Comm 13 KF4XB 4 1D Comm 14 W6NWG 4 5F Emerg 15 WD9EWK 3 1B Emerg 16 KH6E 2 2A Emerg 17 W7DU 2 4A Emerg Some statistics from past field days. 2005 2006 2007 2008 Satellites 8 7 5 8 QSO's 120 258 207 220 Stations 11 21 13 17 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on SkyScanner Satellite Radio Network on Galaxy-25 @97° West, Transponder 23 (12115 Vert), Symbol Rate: 22425, APID: 1794 (DVB Free To Air) Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org

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AMSAT 2008 Field Day Results
by Bruce 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

I had forgotten all about this due to the hurricane. Anyhow.... Here are the results in order of how they placed. Any ties in scores were listed alphabetically. Certificates will be given out at the AMSAT Symposium Banquet later this month. 1 W5MSQ 43 2A Emerg 2 W9LDX 34 3A Emerg 3 W0MA 23 4A Emerg 4 W9LJ 22 2A Emerg 5 W8DXA 21 2A Emerg 6 N5JO 20 1AB Emerg 7 W8TNO 19 3A Emerg 8 W2MMD 18 8A Emerg 9 W5IU 17 3A Emerg 10 K4HEX 15 2A Emerg 11 VE7RAR 11 2A Emerg 12 W6ASL 11 1D Comm 13 KF4XB 4 1D Comm 14 W6NWG 4 5F Emerg 15 WD9EWK 3 1B Emerg 16 KH6E 2 2A Emerg 17 W7DU 2 4A Emerg Here is a quick list of statistics. 2005 2006 2007 2008 Satellites 8 7 5 8 QSO's 120 258 207 220 Stations 11 21 13 17 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on SkyScanner Satellite Radio Network on Galaxy-25 @97° West, Transponder 23 (12115 Vert), Symbol Rate: 22425, APID: 1794 (DVB Free To Air) Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org

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ARRL VUCC
by Jim Danehy 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

I was disappointed by N3TL's email posting on the AMSAT BB today concerning ARRL's VUCC program as it applies to satellite operating. I have been an ARRL member for 55 years. I have VUCC on both 6 meters and 2 meters. I also am on the ARRL DXCC Honor Roll and I have the ARRL #1 Honor Roll plaque for having worked all the DXCC countries. I have been around for awhile. I remember very well the Gus Browning , W4BPD QSLs from places that he never operated from or had permission to operate from. I also remember problems that the league had with Don Miller, W9WNV for the same reason in their DXCC program. I recently got back on the satellites (was on in 1974 through 1976). In about 6 weeks I have worked over 130 Grid Squares. My goal is a VUCC on the satellites. Some of those have been Grid Expeditions. Not so certain now that I want to continue to expand my efforts and money (SASE and outgoing postage) only to have the league question the legitimacy of those operations. Does the ARRL question the "Rovers" that take part in the ARRL VHF contests ? I am unaware of any of those operations from rare grids being challenged or disallowed. Someone please correct me if I am in error on that opinion. I had been planning to do some grid expeditions myself. There should be some communication and understanding by the league that is missing at this time. It is a shame that there is inconsistency and selective application of documentation and confirmation standards of where you were operating from. Disappointed but not surprised by the ARRL's AD HOC rule enforcement. Jim W9VNE EM79tb Cincinnati, Ohio

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ARRL, AMSAT, and Publicity
by Clint Bradford 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

On Oct 7, 2008, at 12:00 PM, amsat-bb-request(a)AMSAT.Org wrote: > Your comment that the League is not interested in satellite > operations is, > in my opinion, also proper. Sorry if I am repeating myself, but WE are responsible for educating the ARRL and the media when it comes to amateur satellites. We should NOT expect ANY non-AMSAT entity to know anything about this aspect of the hobby. It is up to us who are involved in our "specialties" to convey - intelligently and using proper, approved methods - that information to appropriate sources. Most of our news comes from "media alerts" nowadays. Knowing HOW to contact and WHOM to contact with media alerts is OUR responsibility. Clint Bradford, K6LCS / KAF3359 909-241-7666

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NOVA
by David H. Jordan 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Does anyone know if something has happened to NLSA?. I,ve emailed them about a problem with my NOVA soltware, but got no response. Tried to call, but answering message sounds like I'm calling a residence. Dave, AA4KN Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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(no subject)
by quadpugh＠bellsouth.net 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Hi group A middle school teacher ask me how ham radio helps teach science and geography. I hope some on the list would share a power point presentation with us?? thanks nick

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Re: Programming language recommendation?
by Greg D. 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

Hi Bruce, Wow, I had no idea these existed. The price certainly makes them very attractive, and it looks like some of the larger varieties have better I/O capabilities too (SPI, I2C), though I suspect some of the newer Stamps probably do too. I haven't poked around their site in a while. My Az/El rotor controller uses the 24-pin Basic Stamp-II, which at ~$50 (still!) was easily the most expensive component in the whole project. But, it works well, and I had a lot of fun working with it. That was my second Stamp project (the first was a simple phone patch controller). See http://home.wavecable.com/~ko6th, near the top of the page. Links to a brief description of the rotor controller design and an old copy of the source code are there in the upper left box. I'm a software engineer and project manager by profession, but it's all with embedded code - internals of operating systems, I/O drivers, protocol stacks, and stuff like that. I missed the GUI revolution (or more precisely, pre-dated it!), so my struggle right now is that I really want to write a nice mouse-driven front-end for my Yaesu 736R satellite rig to usably handle Doppler shift on the SSB/CW satellites, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I have the FM birds fully automated, but the CLI-based program I wrote for tracking frequency is horrible when you don't know before hand what frequency you'll be on. I have a book on "C++ GUI programming with QT3" for Linux, but haven't been able to make much progress yet.... Next project, after finishing my GPS module add-on for my Kenwood TH-D7... Greg KO6TH ---------------------------------------- > Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 15:49:16 -0300 > From: ve9qrp(a)gmail.com > To: ko6th_greg(a)hotmail.com > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Programming language recommendation? > CC: gordonjcp(a)gjcp.net; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > > On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:43 PM, Greg D. wrote: >> >> Hi Bruce, >> >> How does the Picaxe compare to the BASIC Stamp line from Parallax? I've built several Stamp projects, and they were very easy to deal with. >> >> Greg KO6TH >> > > I believe they are quite similar in concept, but when I looked into > these devices, the picaxe chips were much cheaper than the basic stamp > ones. For instance, SparkFun has the 14-pin version for $4. > http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=124 > It could be that since then Parallax have improved their low-end offerings. > > As one path for becoming familiar with this field, these chips have > the advantage (over atmel and PIC) that much of the communication code > being supported by built-in commands. SPI, I2C, serial, etc. can be > explored with relative certainty that you're not going to mess things > up. Of course, now that I know how things ought to work, I'm more > confident to work with the atmel line. I suppose the disadvantage is > that you learn a one-off programming language. > > I have found that the picaxe line are excellent for working with > children, as well. They were, after all, designed for the educational > market in the first place. > > A full comparison of these devices should probably also include the > Arduino boards, which provide a standard platform, and might be best > for those who do not want to get into soldering and breadboarding. > > Lest anyone think this has nothing to do with satellite work, let me > add two points: first, I have prototyped some code for the picaxe 28X1 > that changes the values of digital pots in response to GS232 codes, in > the manner of AA2TX's iRotor project. > > Second, I would love to see a really simple programmable device put > into orbit aboard a cubesat so that Middle School kids could write > programs here on earth, then submit them to the command station to be > uploaded to the bird. It would be a simple matter of specifying the > input signals for the device, say a couple of temperature sensors and > a light sensor, duplicating those materials in kits on earth, then > letting the kids write code that would produce telemetry or what have > you. Since the picaxe project is simply PIC code, using it would be a > matter of finding a space-hardened PIC of the proper kind and loading > it with the company's interpreter. One could dedicate one part of the > telemetry stream to the output of these students' programs. > > 73, Bruce > VE9QRP > >> ---------------------------------------- >>> Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 23:07:38 -0300 >>> From: ve9qrp(a)gmail.com >>> To: gordonjcp(a)gjcp.net >>> CC: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >>> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Programming language recommendation? >>> >>> I appreciate Gordon's expert opinion below. If you'd like something >>> that is very, very simple to work with in order to explore the world >>> of PIC programming, you should also consider the picaxe line of >>> products. These comprise PIC chips with a basic interpreter on >>> board. The wiring for the programmer is very simple, and the toolchain >>> is easy because it removes the compiling stage. >>> >>> While I'm trying to move on to the atmel line, using this inexpensive >>> programmer: >>> http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/index.html >>> >>> I still find the picaxe chips dead handy for all sorts of little >>> jobs because so much is built into them. >>> >>> As for computer programming, I would encourage someone returning to >>> this practice to consider adding one of the cross-platform scripting >>> languages to his or her arsenal. Ruby and Python are both good >>> choices. >>> >>> >>> 73, Bruce >>> VE9QRP >>> >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 7:18 AM, Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ >>> wrote: >>>> JW wrote: >>>>> Along the same line: anyone on here doing PIC programming or know of a >>>>> list for beginners? From CW keyers to Antenna control units and >>>>> everything in between it looks like it would be fun to program some >>>>> gadgets for around the shack... >>>> >>>> Without lighting up a PIC/AVR flamewar, I've pretty much entirely moved >>>> from PIC to AVR. The hardware is generally two to four times faster for >>>> the same clock rate (gets more done per cycle) and is easier to program >>>> - you can make up an AVR programmer for the parallel port that's >>>> basically three resistors! >>>> >>>> Furthermore, the toolchain is much better for AVR - Microchip are only >>>> interested in pushing their frankly dreadful Windows-only MPLAB >>>> software, while Atmel actively contribute to avr-gcc, a cross-platform >>>> toolchain based on the industry standard gcc. The whole AVR community >>>> seems a lot better than the PIC one, and I say that as a long-standing >>>> user of PIC microcontrollers. >>>> >>>> In short, PIC is great, but the community isn't as strong and the tools >>>> are rubbish. On the other hand, Microchip are always more than happy to >>>> sample parts and their customer support is *excellent*. >>>> >>>> AVR is technically superior in pretty much every way, with an excellent >>>> community. Unfortunately Atmel's tech support are a dour bunch who are >>>> often hard to get good information out of, and not great at sending samples. >>>> >>>> I haven't tried the ARM-based AVRs or the MIPS-based PICs yet, though. >>>> Those might be something to tempt me back to Microchip, if MIPS is as >>>> good as I remember it ;-) >>>> >>>> Gordon >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> 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 >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> See how Windows Mobile brings your life together—at home, work, or on the go. >> http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/msnnkwxp1020093182mrt/direct/01/ _________________________________________________________________ Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/msnnkwxp1020093185mrt/direct/01/ _________________________________________________________________ Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from Jamie. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!5…

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internet back
by Bruce 06 Oct '08

06 Oct '08

I got home from work tonight and cable tv and internet have finally been restored. Woohoo, finally. I have a few awards to post and take care of. 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on SkyScanner Satellite Radio Network on Galaxy-25 @97° West, Transponder 23 (12115 Vert), Symbol Rate: 22425, APID: 1794 (DVB Free To Air) Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org

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