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

antennas and schedule for AO-7?
by Bill Dzurilla 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, Today I listened for the first time for AO-7. I read all the info pages about this bird, but did not see anything about a key question: when is the bird in mode A and when in mode B? Is there a schedule, or do we have to listen on both 10m and 2m until we hear the beacon? Anyhow, this morning there was a high pass and I heard the sat loud and clear in mode A, although it was not at all busy. Just 2 or 3 stations calling CQ on cw, no ssb at all. I was able to hear my own ssb signal on the downlink. Was wondering what is a good antenna for receiving the 10m downlink. I have a vertical that usually performs quite well for regular HF work, but I lost the sat signal when the bird was still quite high, 25 degrees or so. This surprised me, as the vertical has a low angle of radiation. Is there any SSB activity on this sat? 73, Bill NZ5N ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: Press Release - Ozsatgroup and Amsat Australia
by Tony Langdon 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

At 10:42 AM 2/18/2008, Paul Paradigm wrote: >In Victoria > >VK3JED Laverton, Melbourne on 144.296MHz SSB simplex >VK3JED Laverton, Melbourne on 439.175MHz FM simplex with a 91.5 Hz CTCSS >tone Slight correction: These are actually in Preston. Also, VK3RTL Laverton, Melbourne, 438.600MHz FM, -5 MHz offset 73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com

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Press Release - Ozsatgroup and Amsat Australia
by Paul Paradigm 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

The Ozsatgroup and Amsat Australia to move to a week night national satellite net. With the aim of improving participation and accessibility, the Australian National Satellite net has been moved from the 2nd Sunday to the 2nd Tuesday of each month. This long running net allows amateur radio operators who are operating or have an interest in working in the satellite mode, to make contact with others in order to share their experiences and to catch up on pertinent news. The net is also a means of making 'skeds' and for a general 'off-bird' chat. The week night net will be held at 8.30pm eastern / 9.30z or 10.30zdepending on daylight savings. For the first time, in addition to our Echolink conference, the net will also be available via RF on the following repeaters and links… In New South Wales VK2RMP Maddens Plains repeater on 146.850MHz VK2RIS Saddleback repeater on 146.975MHz VK2RBT Mt Boyne Repeater on 146.675MHz In Victoria VK3JED Laverton, Melbourne on 144.296MHz SSB simplex VK3JED Laverton, Melbourne on 439.175MHz FM simplex with a 91.5 Hz CTCSS tone In addition to RF, operators may join the net via Echolink by connecting to either the Amsat-NA or VK3JED conferences. The net is also available via IRLP reflector number 9509. The Ozsatgroup and Amsat-VK are also keen to have the net carried by other echolink or IRLP enabled repeaters and links in order to improve RF coverage. If you are interested in carrying our net on your system, please contact Paul via email at vk2txt(a)gmail.com The new week night net commences on the 11th of March 2008. Listeners are also reminded of our HF net which is held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. See www.amsat-vk.org or www.ozsatgroup.info for details. ''''Amsat-VK site to be updated'''' Amateur satellite operations is one of the most interesting and rewarding modes in our hobby. The birds are relatively easy to access and require very little hardware investment to get started. You can gain access to the FM 'repeaters in the sky' with just a dual band handheld operating on 2m and 70cm. These easy-to-use and popular FM satellites will give hams national communications and handheld access into New Zealand at various times through the day and night. Ozsatgroup members can be found operating on most passes on all satellites and will be happy to assist newcomers in any way they can. Finally, the Ozsatgroup and Amsat Australia wish to thank the Illawarra Amateur Radio Society for carrying our net on the Coastlink repeater network and Tony - VK3JED for the use of his linking system. 73's from The Ozsatgroup and Amsat Australia

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really strange RX
by Auke de Jong, VE6PWN 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

I cannot identify what it was that I just heard: at 20:55, i was bringing my dial up to try and hear IO-26, but I was startled when I came accross another signal several hundred KHz below my destination! I stopped to see if it was juse local noise, and found that it was indeed LEO in origin. I picked it up at about 435.801MHz while rotating the beam from the north to my east. As far as I can tell, there is no satellite using a frequency in that range, on the list found on the AMSAT website under "Satellite Frequencies". The signal seemed to be strongest in the direction of IO26/KO25. judging by the rate of doppler-shift it must probably be either one of those satellites. It also faded out just before IO26/KO25 were near my horizon, given the inaccuracy of my PC clock, they might have been exactly at the horizon. It's been a week since I synchronised my clock, it was 4 seconds behind. The signal sounded exactly like AO-16 MBL mode before they put it in voice mode. I think I even heard a packet or some form of data transmitted once during this pass. Is it just a typo where IO26 is actually lower in frequency by about 60KHz? Might it somehow have drifted that far down? Or is it another satellite altogether? Auke de Jong VE6PWN DO33go Edmonton, AB

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Yaesu G-5500 Azimuth Rotator Fluctuation Problem
by Gary Schuchardt 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

I have a Yaesu G-5500 EL/AZ Rotator and the EA4TX RCI-SE interface board. Presently, I am using Nova tracking and ARS interface software. The elevation rotator moves very smoothly and accurately as it should tracking designated satellites. However, the azimuth rotator fluctuates back and forth within ~2-3 degrees. The fluctuation is very visible on the tower. Has anyone experienced a similar problem with their rotator? This is almost as if there is some type of interference between the rotator controller and the interface. Is there anything within the controller that might cause this problem? Thank you. Gary N0EZH Chesapeake VA

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SatPC CAT error (satIni.sqf-parport.sqf)
by TimN5KI 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

When setting up CAT with my FT-847 and SatPC this error came up. This happen when it said to pick a comm port BUT all I have was a LPT1 open. I un-installed the program and the same error. I'm unable to open the software to correct the mistake. Any ideas? Tim N5KI EM65bj

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TNC3S
by Peter Gibson 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

Hi I have just bought a SYMEX TNC3S It not been used for a number of years and only came with manuals Anyone got the software disk it came with How do I reset the unit as it set for a very high baud rate 115.000 Peter

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AO-27's Signal as of Late
by John Marranca, Jr 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

Happy Saturday, everybody! Before I pull out a ladder, and climb to the roof of my garage to check for any antenna problems, is it just me...or is AO-27's signal degrading? It seems to be in much worse condition than a few months ago. John KB2HSH -- _______________________________ John Marranca, Jr PBX Technician/Shop Steward CWA Local 1122 BN Systems, Inc Orchard Park, NY (716)972-2006

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OSCAR-11 Report
by Clive Wallis 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

OSCAR-11 REPORT 17 February 2008 This report covers the period from 21 January to 17 February 2008, overlapping the previous report by a few days, to include the two periods of continuous operation.. The satellite was heard from 22 January to 01 February and from 11 February to 15 February. Signals have been very variable in strength sometimes very strong, sometimes undetectable, even at high elevations. Low signal strength was particularly noticeable at AOS and LOS, and also towards the end of the transmission periods. The transmission period which started on 11 February was prematurely terminated four days later, on 15 February. If the watchdog timer has reset, it should switch-on again around 07 March. There should be a short period of transmissions before permanent eclipses start in mid March. After March it is unlikely that the satellite will support any sustained period of operation, and will only transmit for a short time, possibly less athn a single orbit, every 21 days. The real time clock now serves as a crude indicator of the state of the satellite. Between 22 and 29 January the clock was stable to within two seconds. During the next two days it lost 4.3 hours Between 11 and 15 February the real time clock showed a steady loss of time every orbit. During the four days the clock lost 4.8 hours. When last heard the clock was 82.76424 days slow. I am indebted to Peter ZL3TC, Chris M0DQO, Tobias DG3LV, Edward BX1AD, Mark KU7Z, Gene WA4UKX, SWL Mark in CM87, Ron G4PGY, Julian WB9YIG and John HB2HSH for their reports. Many thanks. The satellite is now in continuous sunlight, and this is expected to continue until mid March, when eclipses will start again. Unfortunately eclipses will then become a permanent feature of the orbit, which is likely to prevent any periods of sustained operation after March. The current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. The real time clock is showing a large accumulated error, although over short periods timekeeping is accurate to a few seconds per month. The day of the month has a bit stuck at 'one' so the day of the month may show an error of +40 days for some dates. The time display has switched into 12 hour mode. Unfortunately, there is no AM/PM indicator, since the time display format was designed for 24 hour mode. The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is controlled only by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at any speed. When telemetry was last received it showed that one of the solar arrays had failed, and there was a large unexplained current drain on the main 14 volt bus. After 23 years in orbit the battery has undergone around 100,000 partial charge/discharge cycles, and observations suggest that it cannot power the satellite during eclipses, or sometimes during periods of poor solar attitude. The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The ON/OFF times have tended to be very consistent. The average of many observations show this to be 20.7 days, ie. 10.3 days ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. However, poor solar attitude may result may result in a low 14 volt line supply, which may cause the beacon to switch OFF prematurely, and reset the watchdog timer cycle. When this occurs, the beacon is OFF for 20.7 days. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website. If you need to know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio clip for you to hear. There is an example of the latest telemetry received from the satellite. The website contains an archive of news & telemetry data. It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT142.CWV, to prevent duplication. 73 Clive G3CWV xxxxx(a)amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

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ESA to support cubesat launch
by G0MRF＠aol.com 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

_http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEMSJ8QR4CF_index_0.html_ (http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEMSJ8QR4CF_index_0.html)

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