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

From CO8LY in AO-51
by Eduardo Somoano C 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Dears Freind Hams AO-51 This week the AO-51 UP TX 145.920 or 145.880 ???, Im not sure what frecuency is most better . I receive okey in 435.300 DOWN I wait ur answer. Gook luck. 73 Eduardo. CO8LY

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PO-63 Status?
by Doug Kuitula 16 Dec '08

16 Dec '08

Hi all, Does anyone know the status of Peheunsat-1 (PO-63)? The Weekly Satellite Report only states that it is in orbit and I could not find it listed on any of the AMSAT sat status pages. I tried listening to the listed frequency (145.825mhz FM) and heard nothing. I also can find no website for it either.Thanks in advance. 73 de Doug KA8QCU

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SO-50, YES!
by Mark Lunday, WD4ELG 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Tonight, I worked into SO-50 for the first time. All it took was some patience and listening. My FT817 pair and Arrow antenna worked just fine. I did notice that I could hardly hear anything at the beginning of the pass (330 AZ), but heard the signals quite loudly at the end (180 AZ). The elevation went as high as 70 degrees, and I had good copy from 70 degrees at peak all the way down on the descent. I presume this was due to the rotation of the satellite, which explains why I did not hear anything on the ascent. Also, all I heard was courteous and professional behavior during the pass. I was impressed, there was no "gaggle" of rudeness. Kudos to W8KHP and AA5PK who provided me with new grid squares and copied my 5 watts. To the other FB ops who called but I could not copy, my apologies. I will catch you on a future pass. Thanks to all. This is the BEST hobby, and AMSAT has added a whole new level of excitement for me! Now, the one remaining bird I have not worked is DO-64... Mark Lunday WD4ELG wd4elg(a)arrl.net http://wd4elg.net

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FS: DB6NT MKU 232 A2 preamp
by Christopher Best 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

I have a DB6NT preamp that I picked up a few years ago for use with AO-40 while I was in college. Right now I do not have the time or equipment to work AO-51. It is a MKU 232 A2 Super Low Noise 2.4GHz HEMT Preamplifier with 1268MHz Notch Filter. Measured from the factory with a noise figure of 0.68dB and 40dB gain. Would like to see someone get some use out of it. $100 + sh. 73, Christopher, KB3DXR

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For Sale: Icom 12at, 1.2 GHz HT
by K & R Yoksh 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Hi, I'm selling my like-new Icom 12at, 1.2 GHz handie-talkie. It covers 1260-1300 MHz FM and is outputs up to 1w. It does PL, RIT, etc and features 10 memory channels. It comes with the original Icom battery pack. I'm not sure what these are selling for, so please email me with an offer. Paypal only. I will ship next business day. I will package well and ship insured to your location in the continental USA. Please contact me off list at k0kn at amsat dot org. Thanks. 73, Kyle K0KN

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AO-51 notes and observations
by Andrew Glasbrenner 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Just a few notes on AO-51 to share with the group. We are now back to the "normal" uplink arrangement. 145.920 and 435.300 for normal repeater use, and 145.880 and 435.150 for QRP use ONLY. While switching between the two pairs tonight I heard folks calling stations that were operating on the other repeater. Sorry for the confusion by switching back so fast to the 145.920 uplink, but we had to do it to make the QRP channel available. I'm convinced not all of our problems are related to the cordless phones. I heard tonight whistlers, blowing in the mike, and folks giving extended CQs. All of these are totally unnecessary, but to be expected out of some portion of the newbies just getting their feet wet on satellites. I caught some callsigns of some of the ops exhibiting shall we say a lack of "finesse" when it comes to those types of behavior, and will be dropping them a friendly email pointing them to some suggestions. I encourage other regulars to do the same, with a gentle hand. Ben Jackson's guide is a good reference, available at http://www.innismir.net/etc/CourteousAO51_v1.1.pdf . The biggest thing is to not get wound up too tight about the whole thing. To quote my favorite SciFi show, "This has all happened before, and will all happen again". Those that knew and loved UO-14 know what I mean. If it really gets your goat, c'mon up to AO-7, FO-29, and VO-52. We need more SSB/CW ops to use these birds, and it's easy as pie. Got an 817 or other capable rig with 2m and 70cm? Add an arrow, other small beams, or good omnis preferably with preamps, and a PC with SatPC32, and start making QSOs. We are working on finding the general location of the cordless phones, but it takes time. Today I mailed out DVDs with SDR recordings of FO-29's transponder and the QRM to some folks that will treat it as an Easter egg hunt and find the general location of these troublemaker phones from their Doppler curves, and then we'll work at shutting them down. 73, and thanks for the support, Drew, KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations

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Re: ??4MB this morning on FO-29
by Wayne Estes 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Luciano PT9KK wrote: Out of curiosity, today at 15:22 UTC I heard on FO-29 ??4MB on orbit 60,879 around 435,841MHz. ??4MB signal was really booming in Brazil. I wonder who would be this ??4MB. It was great to hear an American stations on satellite after so long... Wayne W9AE replies: My guess is that you heard Jim Huhta AA4MD who is active on satellites. He lives in Tampa, Florida. That is barely in the footprint from Campo Grande, Brasil. It is also possible that Jim AA4MD was operating portable from Central America while doing volunteer medical work. Several years ago he made many Japanese hams very happy when he operated on AO-40 from Belize. Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA

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ISS 9K6 with ICOM 910
by Dave Aitch 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Anyone using the 910 on the VHF port for full duplex 9K6 operation with the ISS ? I use a DSP2232, and of course, the upper part of the 910 does the transmitting and the lower for receiving, as with GO-32 9K6. The hardware/software I use is HALLOSAT by DB3DH, for rotator and radio control. I'm using UISS for decoding/displaying. 73, Dave.

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A0-51 Goat Rodeo
by Rick - WA4NVM 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Hi All, I think we had folks transmitting on one uplink and being heard on the other downlink. For those that didn't know, they activated both pairs last night and switched back to 145.920 uplink for the 435.300 downliink. See http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php I'm guessing this is why some folks called and didn't get a responds. ?? 73, Rick - WA4NVM

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ISS back in 1200 bps packet mode
by Greg D. 15 Dec '08

15 Dec '08

Hi folks, I listened in on the 22:50z pass of the ISS. Received 1200 bps packet on 145.825, so they've apparently switched it back for the week. Tried doing the email thing again, but no apparent success this time. Greg KO6TH _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. http://windowslive.com/Explore/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhe…

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