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

AO7 PH7PCF
by k3szh＠netzero.net 04 Apr '08

04 Apr '08

Great job and congratulation Aldert on your 1000 plus qso's on AO7, it's a wonderful satellite on which we can actually have a meaningful qso.I am glad to be one of your many friends to be part of that. 73 Joe Amsat 3788 _____________________________________________________________ Own the Ultimate Platinum Credit Card. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2221/fc/Ioyw6i4tDlh8nJcx8oh1fYl100Tk…

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Easy to make, low cost omni-directional antennae
by Graeme Nelson 04 Apr '08

04 Apr '08

Hi all, I'm wanting to make an antenna for "talking with the birds", mainly ISS and LEOs. Thank you to Don ZL1THO and John KB2HSH for the suggestions and encouragement they have already e-mailed me. I have done some more thinking since then and come up with the following list of criteria for the first antenna I make for satellite work: * easy to make * lost cost * omni-directional * good performance, especially for satellite work, without moving it * portable enough that I can pack it into the van when I go on holiday and it won't take up much space (it needs to share the space with all the stuff for my wife and 3 children, as well as me). It would also be nice to be able to store it in the corner of my office at work if I so desire. When I started looking in earnest last Friday, a ham colleague of mine did a Google search an came across a turnstile antenna that looked promising (http://www.wb8erj.com/turnstile_antenna.htm). That evening, I noticed the eggbeater on the web site of John KB2HSH (http://kb2hsh.blogspot.com/), which looks nice and easy to build. I then did some searching and came upon the Eggbeater II by Jerry K5OE (http://members.aol.com/k5oejerry/eggbeater2.htm), arguably a better fixed antenna for satellite use than the original eggbeater. A while later, I also found the EZ-Lindenblad by Tony AA2TX (http://www.arrl.org/qst/2007/08/monteiro.pdf). I am currently leaning towards the EZ-Lindenblad (for 2m) and a parasitic Lindenblad (for 70cm ... when I get hold of the design; I intend to e-mail Tony about it if/when I go ahead with the EZ-Lindenblad). How do these antennae compare performance-wise? Am I leaning in the right direction (EZ-Lindenblad), or should I be looking at something else? Your input would be much appreciated. TTFN., Graeme ZL2GDN

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G-5500 rotor schematic source?
by Joel Kandel 04 Apr '08

04 Apr '08

Anyone happen to know a source of a schematic for the Yaesu G-5500 rotor pair? Thanks, Joel Kandel, KI4T

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Re: Re-purposing ATVs
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 04 Apr '08

04 Apr '08

Hi Guys, I am not being negative and "Yes if Only" - However there is more than the provision of amateur radio equipment and antennas to consider. It would not meet with the original objectives for the spacecraft - Apart from the consideration of the rubbish on board it would become another piece of "junk" in space and therefore a hazard especially when it starts to fall into the orbit paths of other spacecraft. Someone would have to be responsible to monitor and control this aspect which among many other considerations would I regret mean it would be rejected. Don't forget that this is only the first of a number of these spacecraft to be launched and the past few weeks with the dummy runs being used as part of a procedure for the future. This area alone must have cost a significant amount time and money for the Safety Cases,Risk Assessment, documentation ,training etc. etc. etc. I regret to say I do not think that we would have any positive agreement for a re-run of these costs just for the sake of amateur radio. I am sure that the "SuitSat" team and others participating in some of our projects could confirm the way things have changed since our earlier days. The process and current difficulties in time and costs now do mean it is very hard going for our hobby sad to say. Ideas are always worth listening to and also prove a useful learning curve to all, so thanks for your proposal and I really do wish that it could be adopted. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat -UK Amsat NA

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Best HT's for sats?
by Bill Dzurilla 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

I've made many sat contacts with my VX-2R but am thinking about upgrading to something with 5 watts output. I used a borrowed IC-W32A and Swan Island and it worked fine, although I could not hear my downlink in full duplex mode, too much desensing. Not sure full duplex is even worth the extra money, as it seems that most duplex HTs have a similar desensing problem. I was thinking about trading in the VX-2R for an FT-60 or a VX-6R, any comments on these or other sat-friendly HTs? 73, Bill NZ5N ____________________________________________________________________________________ You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com

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antenna opinion?
by W0DXZ＠aol.com 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

I am going to put up a simple satellite antenna system. Simple means, that I won't be able to control the polarization, I am going to use linear 144-432 beams. I will be able to rotate AZ of course, AND elevation. Question is,,, how big of beams (how much gain) do I need for each band. I don't want the pattern to be so tight I am constantly changing the rotor,,, would something like 8 ele on 2 and 16 el on 432 do the job? I can use a pre-amp on receive (separate coax lines) Any recommendations for antennas? I just don't want to go through polarization switching. And,,, would it be any benefit to turn the beams somewhere between horizontal and vertical,,, at a 45 degree angle, for polarization? Or is that a waste of time, or would it make things worse. Bob W0DXZ DM-33 AZ **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)

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Re: Best HT's for sats?
by John Marranca, Jr 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

TH-D7A. Full Duplex...AND APRS capable. Ordering mine tomorrow. 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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Re: Re-purposing ATVs
by richard＠g3rwl.demon.co.uk 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

> I was reading about the Jules Verne docking at the ISS today and all of a sudden it occurred to me: instead of using the spacecraft fuel to de-orbit, what if it was placed in a higher orbit, and there was a ham package on board? What a wonderful idea. > You might convince ESA to linger a bit before deorbit to conduct some experimentation using amateur radio but I suspect they will want to clear that double decker bus sized satellite from the sky. And what goes up comes down. Bump Jules Verne up to 500km and it'll be back down at the ISS altitude in about ten years; if theres enough fuel for 1000 km the chances get better. But they'd probably want an inclination change at the very least. 73 Richard G3RWL

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Re-purposing ATVs
by wa6ilt＠verizon.net 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

I was reading about the Jules Verne docking at the ISS today and all of a sudden it occurred to me: instead of using the spacecraft fuel to de-orbit, what if it was placed in a higher orbit, and there was a ham package on board? Dave Reinhart wa6ilt(a)amsat.org

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Re-purposing ATVs
by RFI-EMI-GUY 03 Apr '08

03 Apr '08

Decomposing garbage could provide fuel for a thermoelectric generator as well as gas for station keeping jets. ------------------------------ Message: 16 Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:23:16 -0700 From: "Jeff Moore" <tnetcenter(a)gmail.com> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Re-purposing ATVs To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Message-ID: <00fb01c895b7$cdddd440$f6ab0048@TNTCENTER> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" They have to fill it with garbage first :-) Jeff Moore -- KE7ACY ----- Original Message ----- From: <wa6ilt(a)verizon.net> I was reading about the Jules Verne docking at the ISS today and all of a sudden it occurred to me: instead of using the spacecraft fuel to de-orbit, what if it was placed in a higher orbit, and there was a ham package on board? Dave Reinhart wa6ilt(a)amsat.org -- 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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