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

Scouts and AA4RC
by Andrew Glasbrenner 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

If you happen to hear Robin, AA4RC on the air this weekend, please give him a call or allow him some room on the FM satellites. He is camped out at Talladega Speedway with 10,000 Scouts and has been on the air showing off ham radio and amateur satellites. Sounds like a good time! 73, Drew KO4MA

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AJAX
by Bob McGwier 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

I am looking for anything remotely resembling expert advice on AJAX. I am looking for recommendations on books, development tools, etc. Please respond directly to me. I am doing an open source project and I want to do a lot of the work using AJAX. Such as http://www.n2yo.com AWESOME. 73's Bob N4HY ARRL SDR Working Group Chair Member: ARRL, AMSAT, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. " Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair. ", Kafka

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CJ7EWK from Vancouver (CN89), so far...
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

Hello from Vancouver! I am enjoying this quick vacation to Canada. I made my trip to grid CO80 - the ski resort at Whistler, north of Vancouver - on Friday. Due to constant rain and some snow, I did not attempt to work the radio from up there. I was able to do some operating on Saturday from the Vancouver area, and hope for a little more tomorrow (Sunday). For Saturday, I parked near an elementary school in the suburb of Burnaby, east of downtown Vancouver. It was on a high spot in this city built on hills, and a good spot for satellite operating. On AO-16, I used one of my FT-817NDs (I did not bring both of them) with a Maldol AH-510R telescoping whip. To avoid stressing the BNC connector on the radio, I put a short length of coax on the radio with an adapter so I could hold the antenna away from the radio. I used the strap on the radio's carrying case to put the radio around my neck, and used the mic with my other hand. I was able to do a good job with the antenna in this unusual configuration. It was a challenge to break through the eastern wall of stations on the first AO-16 pass, but was able to work 7 stations on the 2237 UTC pass and one more QSO on the later pass at 0016 UTC. Later in the evening on AO-51, I used the same AH-510R whip directly on my IC-T7H HT. For the first pass I tried at 0150 UTC, I worked 8 stations. Thanks to Angelo N5UXT, for trying to cut a hole in the early part of the pass so I could get in with my HT/whip station. I knew I would be at a disadvantage in leaving my Yagi and log periodic antennas at home, but it helped to keep my checked bag a little lighter - and less for the airport security to get curious about. I worked 3 more stations on the western pass at 0330 UTC. I may be able to get on AO-16 Sunday afternoon. There is a slight possibility I might get on VO-52 in the late morning. It may be on a western pass only. I now have a small "netbook" laptop, which has been very useful on this trip. I can run a tracking program - for this experiment, VO-52 - and follow the program's display to set my transmit frequency up to the satellite if I try a pass. I do not have both of my FT-817NDs with me, and I have only had this laptop since last Tuesday - not enough time for me to get the CAT cable working between this laptop and the radio. I will start my experimenting with this laptop to control both of my 817s, which would help me out a lot. :-) For anyone who works CJ7EWK this weekend, I will be happy to QSL our contact(s). Please e-mail me the QSO information, and I will send you my CJ7EWK QSL after I return to Arizona if you are in the log. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (CJ7EWK on the satellites this weekend) http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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ANS-314 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-314 ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor(a)amsat.org In this edition: * AMSAT President's Message * Second European CubeSat Workshop * Satellite Shorts From All Over * ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 3, 2008 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.01 AMSAT President's Message AMSAT News Service Bulletin 314.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-314.01 I just arrived home on Monday night, Nov 3rd from my trip to the Southeast to attend the the AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting and the 26th Space Symposium along with some personal travel. As you probably know by now, AMSAT has undergone a change in leadership as a result of Rick Hambly's decision not to serve another one-year term as President. At the meeting in Atlanta, the Board voted to appoint me as President. I am honored that the Board has placed their trust in my leadership and I look forward to working with the Board, the Senior Team, and our membership as we move forward into 2009. First, many thanks to Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC and his team of volunteers for putting together and hosting an excellent AMSAT Symposium in Atlanta. Attendance was lower this year than in past years, probably due to the impacts of the slowing economy, relatively high transportation costs, and lack of news concerning Eagle. Those that did attend the Symposium, however, benefited from an excel- lent weekend of presentations, discussions, interaction with fellow AMSAT members, and an opportunity to meet with the AMSAT leadership. The efforts of Robin's team, coupled with the contributions of Gould Smith, WA4SXM and Martha Saragovitz, resulted in a Symposium that ran very smoothly, with attendees enjoying the presentations, a Friday night President's Club social that was open to all Symposium attendees, the Saturday night banquet, and the Field Ops Breakfast on Sunday Morning. Dan Schultz, N8FGV was a masterful banquet speaker who through excel- lent slides and dry wit explained the upcoming Hubble Repair Mission. Dan also was our editor for the "Proceedings of of the 26th Space Symposium" which is an excellent compilation of papers, most of which were presented at the Symposium. (I encourage you to order a copy of the Proceedings if you weren't able to attend.) In addition, for the first time that I can recall, there were TWO major prizes given away at the Dinner (Icom IC-910H and a Kenwood TS-2000), both of which were won by women who attended the banquet. Judy Perkins, KE7ERI of Lilburn, GA won the IC-910 and Flo Bower of Pinson, AL won the TS-2000 (she is working on earning her ham license). Many thanks to both Icom and Kenwood for their support of AMSAT. The Symposium closed on Sunday following an excellent two hour "Intro- duction to Digital Signal Processing" workshop conducted by Phil Harman, VK6APH that was well attended. Overall, AMSAT enjoyed an excellent weekend in Atlanta. During the Board meeting on Thursday, Oct 23rd and the Annual Meeting on Saturday morning, Oct 25, we took time to thank Rick Hambly, W2GPS for his four years of faithful and extensive service to AMSAT as President. Rick tackled many difficult issues and sought to move AMSAT forward in a number of areas. These included dealing with changes in the regulatory environment (Orbital Debris), establishing a relationship with University of Maryland-Eastern Shore that resulted in relocation of the AMSAT Integration Lab to Pocomoke, MD, working on the difficult issue of ITAR (International Traffic of Arms Regulations), revamping the AMSAT senior leadership team organizational structure, initial discussions with Intelsat on a possible 'rideshare' opportunity, and 'filling in' as our webmaster when we lost the volunteer who handled that function. Much of what Rick did was 'behind the scenes' activities that took many hours, required dedicated followup, and received little fanfare. Many thanks to Rick for his significant efforts to make AMSAT better. During the past four years, no one dedicated such a significant portion of their life to AMSAT as Rick. At the Annual Meeting on Oct 25, I gave a presentation that briefly reviewed where things stood within AMSAT, discussed some of organizational issues that effect our ability to get projects completed, and mentioned some of the 'outside factors' that have impacted AMSAT. I also outlined some goals for 2009. You can download the presentation (in PDF format) off the AMSAT website. There is a link on the main page. While the 'bullet points' provide key comments, the presentation doesn't have the 'talking points' that I made during each slide, so please be aware of this limitation when reviewing the material. We made the Annual Meeting available via EchoLink, and we did have members listening 'live' and submitting questions during the meeting. Thank you to those individuals who participated in the Annual Meeting. In upcoming 'Apogee View' columns of the AMSAT Journal, I will discuss some of the challenges facing AMSAT and what is happening in a number of areas. Some of these issues were discussed at the Annual Meeting. Please don't forget that we need volunteers in a number of technical and non-technical areas. The July/August issue of the AMSAT JOURNAL had a brief 'We Want YOU' ad that highlighted some of the areas where AMSAT needs assistance. Please review that list and if you're interested in helping AMSAT, contact Gould Smith, WA4SXM as noted in the ad. Finally, please don't hesitate to contact me directly if you have suggestions, comments, or concerns that you would like to share. I will make every effort to respond to e-mails that I receive, but please keep in mind that I travel extensively which may limit my ability to respond quickly. Please know that I read every e-mail that I receive from AMSAT members and that I appreciate every person's willingness and time spent to share their thoughts and suggestions. 73, Barry Baines, WD4ASW AMSAT President [ANS thanks Barry, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.02 Second European CubeSat Workshop AMSAT News Service Bulletin 314.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-314.02 Following on from the successful "Vega Maiden Flight CubeSat Workshop" held at ESA/ESTEC in January 2008, which was the first CubeSat workshop to be held at European-level, the ESA Education Office is pleased to announce the Second European CubeSat Workshop one year later as planned. This Second European CubeSat Workshop will take place in ESA/ ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands on 20-22 January 2009. Since the first workshop, the ESA Education Office in the Directorate of Legal Affairs and External Relations in con- junction with the Directorate of Launchers has selected nine CubeSats (plus two backups) from European universities for launch on the maiden flight of the Vega launcher, now sched- uled for November 2009. The nine CubeSats will be deployed from three different deployment systems mounted on the support structure of the main payload, LARES (LAser RElativity Satellite), into an orbit of 350 km by 1450 km at an inclination of 71 degrees. The launch opportunity is offered by ESA to the selected CubeSats free of charge, and recognises the growing importance of the CubeSat as a powerful hands-on space education tool. It is intended as a first step to boost student hands-on development of CubeSats in Europe, thus providing a suitable and qualified space workforce for the future in complement with other education project activities. The ESA Education Office solicits abstracts to be submitted for oral or poster presentation from both European and non-European partici- pants. The amateur radio based CubeSat Ground Segment and Operations (GENSO network) along with new ground station technologies and oper- ational methods/techniques/software are planned for discussion. [ANS thanks ESA and SpaceDaily.com for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.03 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 314.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-314.03 + Congratulations to Joe, K3SZH for reaching 7000 contacts as recorded in the informal AO-7 log. Joe's presence and patience has helped countless hams in learning the personality of this unique satellite. See http://www.planetemily.com/ao7/ao7log.php to review the AO-7 log pages. + Kudos, a hearty handshake, and a pat on the back are in order to Robin, AA4RC who got on the air this weekend to demonstrate amateur radio and amateur satellites to 10,000 Scouts camped out at the Talladega Speedway. Robin also lead the team hosting the 2008 AMSAT Space Symposium in Atlanta. + Fernando, EC1AME has put 3 videos of Monday´s school contact in Spain at: http://www.ea1uro.com/isstation.html. + The 35th Eastern VHF/UHF Conference is scheduled for April 17-19, 2009 in Enfield, CT. Additional information and call for papers will be available soon. + Mineo, JE9PEL reports that the most recent photos received from the Cute-1.7+APDII camera (CO-65) can be viewed on-line at: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/cut17ap4.htm http://lss.mes.titech.ac.jp/ssp/cute1.7/blog/1_25_rev2%20_Caption.jpg + UniverseToday.com announces Space Lifestyle Magazine. Its a free, digital magazine, with a full color layout just like a print maga- zine, but its all online. SLM has feature articles about all as- pects of space - NewSpace, NASA, military, science and astronomy - but mostly it's about the people that make the space sector tick. See: http://www.newforks.net/spacelifestyle.html. The subscription is free but they do ask for e-mail, home address, phone number in the registration process. (source UniverseToday.com) [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-314.04 ARISS Status Report for the Week of November 3, 2008 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 314.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 9, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-314.04 1. School Contacts An ARISS contact was held with St. Thomas' Primary School in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on Tuesday, November 4. The school has its own radio club and has been using packet radio prior to the contact. Topics of space, science and technology have been taught and students, ages 4-12, have participated in related activities such as building models of space stations, using a telescope to explore the night sky, building crystal radios, producing a video and creating an ARISS Web site for the school. An ARISS contact was held with Dibrugarh University in Assam, India on Friday, November 7 via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. The university considers this event a great achievement with planned media coverage. Anderson's Creek Primary School in Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Monday, November 10. Telebridge station VK5ZAI will assist with the contact. Students have researched the International Space Station and its experiments and determined the long term impact of these studies. They have studied the history of space exploration and the reasons why humans seek to broaden their horizons. The school has hosted evening sessions to introduce stu- dents to astronomy. The Newcomers Club in Saitama, Japan has been scheduled for an ARISS contact on Saturday, November 15 at 10:22 UTC. Community involvement and media coverage is expected. 2. Italian Students Question Astronaut via Radio On Tuesday, October 28, students attending Scuola Media Statale Donato Forlani in Conversano, Italy participated in an ARISS contact with Mike Fincke, KE5AIT. To prepare for the event, the students made satellite contacts and received SSTV pictures, sent from the ISS by Richard Garr- iott W5KWQ. On the day of the contact, twelve students were able to pose one question each to Fincke as an audience of more than 500 stu- dents, parents, teachers and visitors watched. Fincke spoke to the students in Italian at the beginning and end of the contact. Two tele- vision stations (CANALE 7, TeleNorba) and three newspapers (L'Informa- tore, Il Levante, Il Fax) covered the event. 3. School Contact in Rome, Successful Students attending Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù in Rome, Italy exper- ienced an ARISS contact on Thursday, October 30. Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, answered twelve questions. More than 150 students, parents, teachers and guests were present. Also present were ESA representative Mr. Dieter Isakeit, Head of the ESA/ESRIN Corporate Communication Office (LEX-COR) and Mr. Daniele Giannini, President 18° District of City Hall Rome. Mr. Isakeit translated the astronaut's answers, provided infor- mation and offered souvenirs. Four television stations (Regional RAI 3, SAT2000, Telelazio, Rete Blu) and RADIO RAI 1 covered the event. The audio was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers and received 6 connections from stations in the U.S., U.K. and Belgium. It was also fed into D-Star net and was repeated to 40 nodes in Europe, 70 nodes in USA and 20 in the rest of the world. 4. Budbrooke School Contact Update Students attending Budbrooke Primary School in Warwick, England spoke with Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, during an ARISS contact on Friday, October 17. The British Amateur Television Club posted video of the event. Go to: http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1 and select "Richard Garriott HD" or "Richard Garriott SD." 5. ARISS Simulated Contacts Scheduled Chris Hadfield, KC5RNJ/VA3OOG, and Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, have been scheduled for ARISS simulated contacts on Thursday, November 6 at approximately 14:30 UTC. The astronauts will speak to two groups of students at a Canadian school for these events. These training ses- sions are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS- equivalent equipment. Hadfield and Coleman are currently assigned as back-up Expedition 19 crew members. 6. Training Sessions Successful ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, ON1DWN, participated in a successful simulated ARISS contact with students at Technopolis in Mechelen, Belgium on Monday, October 27. He answered twenty-two questions posed to him by the students. ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers took part in an ARISS review session on Friday, October 31. He is currently back-up for Frank De Winne. 7. Amateur Radio Newsline Reports on Garriott's Mission On Friday, October 24, the Amateur Radio Newsline Report 1628 posted a story on Richard Garriott's participation in ARISS activities during his ISS mission. The article, "Ham Radio in Space: Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, Mission a Success for Ham Radio," covered Garriott's involvement in the Scout Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), SSTV, and his contact with Owen Garriott, W5LFL. 8. NASA HQ Cites Stories on Garriott NASA Headquarters News Service picked up on reports of Richard Garr- iott's mission, citing articles from CTV (Canada) and the Bennington Banner (Vermont). Both stories are about amateur radio operators who made radio contacts with Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, while onboard the ISS. To view the articles, go to: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081025/space_radio_081 025/20081026?hub=Canada http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_10813257 9. AMSAT Symposium held The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) held its Annual Meeting and Space Symposium on October 24-26 in Atlanta, Georgia. ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, attended and gave a talk on the ARISS program. ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, presented an update on SuitSat-2. The presentations have been posted to the AMSAT Web site. See: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/Presentations/AMSAT%20Symposiums/2008%20Sym posium/ 10. ARRL ARISS Program Manager Interviewed The ARRL (American Radio Relay League) ARISS (Amateur Radio on the Inter- national Space Station) Program Manager Rosalie White, K1STO, was inter- viewed on QSO, a ham radio interview and talk show. White spoke about Richard Garriott's flight, the ARRL, ARISS and AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satel- lite Corporation). The interview took place on Friday, October 24 and ran three times over the weekend on the Nashville station and again on a Miami station. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. And with that remember, that no matter how much you push the envelope, it is still stationery. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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Re: Scouts and AA4RC
by Sebastian 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

What point exactly are you attempting to make with that statement? On Nov 8, 2008, at 12:20 PM, William Rochira wrote: > Looser > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Sebastian <w4as(a)bellsouth.net> > Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 3:34 PM > To: AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Scouts and AA4RC > > He is also on the SSB birds, as I just worked him on FO-29. > > Do you have any idea what his grid square might be? I asked him but > he wasn't sure. > > 73 de W4AS > Sebastian > > On Nov 8, 2008, at 10:19 AM, Andrew Glasbrenner wrote: > >> If you happen to hear Robin, AA4RC on the air this weekend, please >> give him >> a call or allow him some room on the FM satellites. He is camped out >> at >> Talladega Speedway with 10,000 Scouts and has been on the air >> showing off >> ham radio and amateur satellites. Sounds like a good time! >> >> 73, Drew KO4MA > >

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congratulations XE2AT
by Rafael Valdez G. 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

Congratulations to Al XE2AT for his 875 grids confirmed via Satelites... 73's and Dx's... Rafael Valdez Jr. XE2RV @ DL55 10-10 52716 VUCC Sat #164 http://sat-xe.blogspot.com EX-XE2PWF P Before printing, please think about your responsibility and commitment with the ENVIRONMENT. Antes de Imprimir, piensa entu responsabilidad y compromiso con el MEDIO AMBIENTE

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Nova
by Tim Tapio 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

Hello all! Does Nova install under Vista? I seem to be having issues. Thanks and 73 de Tim, K4SHF

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"NSF Taps Tiny CubeSats for Big Space Science "
by Timothy J. Salo 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

Space.com had an interesting article on the use of CubeSats to monitor space weather. http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/080827-nsf-cubsats-science.html While reading this article, it may be useful to think about how these activities might be leveraged into additional support for amateur communications payloads. For example: o Support space weather research. Could an amateur communications satellite be subsidized if it carried space weather instruments? Could a microsat focused on space weather research carry an amateur communications payload (particularly, if the amateur communications package carried space weather telemetry)? Could a network of amateur ground stations collect space weather telemetry? o Support space research (beyond space weather). There is actually a long history of using research payloads to support amateur satellites. Yet, this method of funding amateur satellite activities seems to often fall off the short list of ways to subsidize amateur communications satellites. o Develop the next generation of space scientists and engineers. There are persistent concerns that we aren't attracting enough students to the space sciences. By all appearances, this concern has been leveraged by the ARISS and related projects into substantial government support for amateur radio in space. Why can't we make more use of this scheme? o Supporting on-orbit experiments. Provide space and telemetry to on-orbit experiments provided by others. o Provide technical assistance to microsat developers. This might both provide a source of support and might help put more amateur communications payloads on small satellites. Most, if not all, of these approaches _have_ been used in the past to subsidize amateur communications satellites. But, the most widely quoted list of potential sources of funds seems to have devolved into: emergency communications and education. What about all of the other other proven methods of supporting amateur satellites? Perhaps, part of the problem is AMSAT's apparent nearly exclusive focus on amateur satellite users. Look at AMSAT's public image: its Web pages. Should there be more content on AMSAT's Web pages that might attract potential collaborators who have money? Potential developers? People with interests in amateur satellites and amateur satellite communications beyond using HEO voice transponders? What does AMSAT want to be when it grows up? Who is its target audience? Primarily amateur satellite users? Or, does it want to attract a broader audience? -tjs

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Re: last pass of AO-51
by Dave Aitch 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

I had a week in Bermuda recently. I only operated on AO-51 with a HT and an Arrow. It was the week with both channels on V/U, one channel was QRP. (I missed all the SSTV from the ISS.) I did work Dave ZLB and several others, but activity is just as rife, but with perhaps just a little bit more order. I am happy to say that my (limited) satellite activity experience through AO-51 from Bermuda to the U.S. was very much better than from the U.K. I did note also, that most USA ops did not give signal reports and only the first 4 digits of their IARU locator. Fine by me, if two ops have repeated call signs and know who is talking to who, then fair enough. It could be an idea to adopt that this side of the pond too. Just note the received satellite signal at the time of the QSO. ( Does it matter that much?) (NOTE U.S. Ops: Please slow down when saying your 4 digit locator. It will save you being asked to say it again) The problem over this side is lack of attention. Its been said many times before. If you cant hear the satellite, don't call through it, sort your receiver out. Agreed that SSB satellites are more orderly, but that depends on your downlink frequency. Listen across the downlink of 52 and 29 (even FO-20 when it was alive) it can be just as noisy with spurious transmissions from those searching for themselves on the downlink. For those on this list older & wiser than I, and have been working satellites since year dot, you have seen and heard it all before, I'm sure. I felt the need to make comment, even though this, and my previous comment, will probably not be read by those at fault. David. G1OCN. AMSAT UK 5766

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Nighttime Viewing
by Clint Bradford 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

> > You can see the ISS visually in a clear and dark sky... Really? See its running lights, perhaps? Bathroom light left ON? Or are we seeing the sun reflecting off of the object? Clint Bradford, K6LCS / KAF3359 909-241-7666

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