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

ANS-209 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 27 Jul '08

27 Jul '08

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-209 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 *************************************************************** *** 2008 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting *** *** October 24-26 in Atlanta, Georgia *** *** http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2008/index.php *** *************************************************************** In this edition: * AMSAT-UK Hosts Successful Space Colloquium * Delfi-C3 Amateur Radio Transponder Activated * AMSAT 2008 Field Day Summary * Cal Poly Requesting Beacon Capture Help * AMSAT Journal Update * Satellite Shorts From All Over * ARISS Status Report for the Week of July 21, 2008 SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.01 AMSAT-UK Hosts Successful Space Colloquium AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.01 A successful 23rd AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium was held at the University of Surrey, Guildford, England this weekend. Prof Sir Martin Sweeting, G3YJO Chairman AMSAT-UK, opened the Colloquium on Friday. This was followed by the keynote speech given by Dr Rob Gowen, Department of Space & Climate Physics (Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London and Coordinator of the UK Lunar Penetrator Consortium) on "Science Penetrators for the UK MoonLITE mission". On Saturday the Delfi-C3 team gave a presentation on their exciting new satellite. Its SSB/CW 435/145 linear transponder will activated soon and is sure to prove popular with satellite enthusiasts world- wide. Saturday's Colloquium schedule also included presentations from AMSAT-DL on both the eagerly awaited P3E High Earth Orbiting satel- lite and the pioneering Mars Orbiter P5A. This will be the first private venture spacecraft to travel to the Red Planet providing Radio Amateurs with some true DX signals. A complete listing of the Colloquium Technical program can be found at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/640/213/ The IARU Satellite Forum chaired by the IARU Satellite Adviser Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV also met during the Colloquium weekend. The main topic included Band planning for satellite operations on frequencies in the Amateur Service. The Colloquium included a live webcast of the proceedings via http://www.batc.tv/. There was a Live Chat page available to enable web viewers to post messages. [ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA and AMSAT-UK for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.02 Delfi-C3 Amateur Radio Transponder Activated AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.02 The Delfi team activated the Amateur Radio 435 to 145 MHz linear transponder onboard the satellite activated just before they left the Netherlands to attend the AMSAT-UK Colloquium which was held July 25-27 at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England. The Amateur Radio satellite Delfi-C3 (DO-64), built at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, was launched in April. Since then it has been collecting educational research data for use by the university students with the assistance of Radio Amateurs around the world. Members of the Delfi-C3 team gave presentations during the Colloquium about their exciting new Amateur Radio satellite. The transponder can be accessed with these frequencies: Transponder mode beacon: 145.870 MHz CW Linear transponder downlink: 145.880 - 145.920 MHz Linear transponder uplink: 435.570 - 435.530 MHz All frequencies are +/- Doppler shift that can be up to 3 kHz at 145 MHz. As it's an inverting transponder a LSB signal on the uplink would be translated to a USB signal on the downlink. The transponder mode was switched on during this weekend whenever it was within range of Europe and automatically switched back to science (telemetry) mode when it entered eclipse about 1 hour later. Rob, PE1ITR reported from the Netherland on Saturday, July 26, "Today I made my first QSO around 10:53UTC and worked HA2RD with 5x7 signals. I also heard F5ETM." Alan, ZL2BX said, "The transponder was on over ZL this morning 2036UT pass with weak signals from transponder downlink and beacon. It was active again on the 2212UT pass with very good signals from both trans- ponder downlink and beacon." More information on this satellite can be found at: Delfi-C3: http://www.delfic3.nl/ Delfi-C3 Videos on YouTube can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/DelfiC3 [ANS thanks the Delfi-C3 Team and AMSAT-UK for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.03 AMSAT 2008 Field Day Summary AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.03 AMSAT Director Contests and Awards Bruce Paige, KK5DO, provided an executive summary of participation in the 2008 AMSAT Field Day. The results will be published in the July/August AMSAT Journal. This includes some really nice photos that were sent in. Detailed results will also be posted in an ANS bulletin. This year, we had 8 satellites used. There was even one QSO on AO-16. A total of 120 QSO's were reported and we had 17 stations submit scores. The most contacts were done on VO-52 this year. Behind that was AO-7. Here are some statistics from this year and previous years: 2005 2006 2007 2008 Satellites 8 7 5 8 QSO's 120 258 207 220 Stations 11 21 13 17 Watch your mailbox for your copy of the AMSAT Journal and standby for more Field Day news via ANS. [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.04 Cal Poly Requesting Beacon Capture Help AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.04 Jason Anderson, KI6GIV, at California Polytechnic State University is requesting amateur radio operators worldwide to assist with capturing the telemetry of the Cal Poly CP4 satellite. Jason wrote, "We have seen some unpredictable behavior on our satellite, CP4. Since we only have contact with the satellite once every 12 hours, it would be extremely helpful if we could get some global support with collecting beacons to get a more complete picture of the the satellite's health." Please send any collected data (audio or decoded binary) via email to:, jander06(a)calpoly.edu Satellite Link Information ------------------------------ Frequency: 437.325Mz Modulation: FSK (but uses LSB cheat to make AFSK) Radio Mode: LSB (neccesary for LSB cheat) Baud Rate: 1200 Beacon rate: 1 beacon/minute (maybe change to 5 minutes if satellite changes mode) [ANS thanks Jason, KI6GIV for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.05 AMSAT Journal Update AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.05 AMSAT Journal Editor, Ed Long, WA4SWJ reported that the next issue of the Journal has been delivered to the printer and will be on its way to your mailbox soon. Ed reminds members to get busy, "I am PAST DUE for articles for the next issue. If you have an article you would like to submit to the Journal please send it as soon as you can to: journal at amsat dot org." [ANS thanks Ed, WA4SWJ for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.06 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.06 + The European Space Agency has announced the commencement of payload selection for VERTA-1, the Vega second flight. The primary objective of the VERTA-1 mission is to demonstrate the multiple-payload capa- bility of the Vega launch system into a low-Earth, Sun-synchronous orbit in the 500-800 km altitude range. Payload opportunities are open to any private or public entity, without restriction as to nationality. For more information see: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Home/SEM3MKXIPIF_0.html + FO-29 has been only turned on over Japan for several months as the ground controllers worked on battery power managment to conserve this satellite for as long as possible. This past week several reports have been received that FO-29 has been heard over most of its orbit in other parts of the world. Frank, VK5MFW reported contacts with ZL2BX and ZL1BVA. Mak, SV1BSX reported a contact with SW1JGW and DL6HP. Users are encouraged to continue to be careful with this satellite's power budget and cease operation if the downlink signal weakens or experiences FM shifting. [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-209.07 ARISS Status Report for the Week of July 21, 2008 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 209.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. July 27, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-209.07 1. School Contacts European Space Camp 2008 held at the Zanka Children and Youth Centre in Zanka, Hungary for the children of ESA employees. had an ARISS contact on Thursday, July 24. The Hungarian Astronautical Society (HAS) organized the event. The Radio Club of the Puskas Polytechnic (HA5KHC) provided equipment and support the contact. United Space School in Seabrook, Texas is slated for an ARISS contact on Wednesday, July 30 via the telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium. These students come from around the world for a two week session, during which they stay with local host families while being mentored by astronauts, engineers, and scientists to design a mission to Mars as their team project. Class sessions are held at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. 2. Kuwait Science Club Contact Successful On Monday, July 14, youth attending the Kuwait Science Club participated in an ARISS contact via the telebridge station WH6PN in Hawaii. Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ, answered 16 questions posed to him by 12 children and was answering the 17th question when the signal faded out. The audio from this event was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) con- ference room server which received 11 connections from 3 countries. It was also fed into the EchoLink JK1ZRW (277 208) server and into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010. More information and the audio file may be found on the ARISS-Europe Web site. See: http://www.ariss-eu.org/2008_07_15.htm 3. ARISS TIM The ARISS team is meeting in Moscow this week for a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM). The conference will be held July 21-23. [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. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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LVB Tracker
by Ronald A. Stunden 27 Jul '08

27 Jul '08

Great I just turned on the G5600 and LVB Tracker and getting "Warning Bad EPROM DATA", Can I try to reload the Eprom or do I have to order a new one?? Thanks Ron

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Presentations on P3E and the Mars Orbiter P5A
by Trevor 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

The Amateur Radio Mars Orbiter P5A and the High Earth Orbit (HEO) P3E will feature in presentations given by AMSAT-DL on Saturday July 26th, at the AMSAT-UK 'Satellite Weekend' which is open to all. The Amsat P5-A will be the first spacecraft built by Radio Amateurs to go to the Red planet and the first ever private interplanetary spacecraft. It will use frequencies in the Amateur Satellite Service allocations at 2.4 and 10 GHz. A video of P5-A 'With AMSAT P5-A to MARS' can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIJ548EyUME Pioneering spacecraft like these demonstrate the need for the both the Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite Services to have access to Low Noise Floor allocations in the microwave spectrum so they can carry out weak signal experimentation. The P3E presentation by Peter Guelzow DB2OS takes place at 11:30 am (1030 GMT) on Saturday. He will followed by Achim Vollhardt DH2VA with the presentation on the Mars Orbiter P5A. Thanks to the BATC both presentations will be streamed live to the web at http://www.batc.tv/ New for 2008, it has been arranged with the University for "walkin" day visitors for £10 per day. For this, you do not get any meals, only attendance at lectures/beginners sessions. It does not entitle you to any other of the functions. There is no need to book, just turn up on the day. It would help if you could let us know in advance if you intend using this facility, please email g3wgm(a)amsat.org For further details see http://www.uk.amsat.org/Colloquium/ Programme: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/640/213/ Travel information: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/23/52/ A site map showing location of the Management Building and the adjacent main car park and conference visitors parking can be seen at http://www.uk.amsat.org/images/stories/uosmap6.jpg AMSAT-UK Tel: +44 (0)1258 453959 Email: g3wgm(a)amsat.org Join AMSAT-UK Online at: https://secure.amsat.org.uk/subscription/ Webcast: http://www.batc.tv/ AMSAT-UK Web: http://www.uk.amsat.org/ ---- __________________________________________________________ Not happy with your email address?. Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html

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Re crossed yagi question.
by Angus 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

OK now that I have a crossed yagi in the X format, I must say I am very pleased with its performance. Here is the question with the yagi in the X format, does it perform as well when set with delay lines to horizontal polarity as a yagi with the same gain beam width etc set in the horizontal polarity? I ask this as I don't have a lot of test equipment and most of my results are a 'by ear' equipment. I just wonder if anyone (someone will have I am sure) has done any checking to see what if any difference there is between X set to Horizontal and a normal yagi set in horizontal? Thanks for allowing me to ask what might be some very daft/odd questions hi regards Gus M0IKB -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 1384 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len

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go-32 techsat1b
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

Hi folks. well did not capture anything but did get my sqelze to break and a sound from it. I think something is wrong with go-32. will check back later. kc8gkf 1049 am pass USA 73 Degrees max Michigan

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go-32 techsat1b
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

Hi folks, going to try again this am pass. I feel there is nothing coming from go-32 again but will give it another shot. I Have a good pass at 73 degrees over head. I Thought I would let everyone know that you can get a whole page of data without moving the antenna or the doppler. This information is good to know. I have done it before. At least from this sat. The address to write techsat1b was no good but will keep trying. (website) Looks like the last time they reached up to her was 2002. Hopefully not. Anyway wish me luck. USA pass is 1049 am. kc8gkf

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DELFIC3 Transponder report
by Rob Hardenberg PE1ITR 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

Hi all, Today I could make my first qso via the delfic3 transponder with good signals around 10:53UTC: - wkd ha2rd 57 signals - hrd f5etm - ssb signals where to weak at < 4 degrees el - I could hear my cw downlink to <0.5 degrees el Thanks to command team to switch the transponder on remotly from the amsat weekend in surrey. At the moment there is no full-turn of the transponder but that will soon happen. 73 Rob PE1ITR http://www.pe1itr.com

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FO-29
by Frank Woolfe 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

Great contacts with ZL2BX and ZL1BVA on FO29's 0200UTC pass from the centre of VK "PF88jt". It seems another "Blast from the past" has come back to life (well done fella's) Unfortunately when it got further north the same problem as always north of VK, the 2m Rx bombarded with every Pirate in Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia etc...Who would build an uplink on 2m these days stick to the tried and proven 70cm up 2m down, the only way to go... Frank VK5MFW

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FO-29 is back again !
by SV1BSX 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

Hello all, after Robert-G8ATE's report on Amsat-BB, this evening I tried together with my friend Dimitris, SW1JGW, a test on FO-29. Well, yes indeed, the Satellite is active again ! Just after the AOS we heard clear the Beacon, and then I had a nice QSO with SW1JGW (21:36Z) ! After that I changed my frequency a bit lower and I had a 2nd QSO with DL6HP (21:38 Z). Both, Dimitris and I, we were QRP ! 5 Watts for Uplink were enough for excellent return signals on Downlink. By using QRP we tried to avoid any overloading of the bird. The Satellite was really Booming, always 55 - 59 with "crystal audio". However, at 21:38 my return-signal rapidly decreased, but even much lower it was easily readable. After that I interrupted my TX and I return onto Beacon frequency. Q5 now, but still "clear" ! Later I noticed that on my tracking software, precisely at this time the Satellite came on a new Eclipse ! So, probably the old-Batteries are not strong enough in order to support the same Downlink-power in eclipse, like that on Sunlight. Also I observed some FMing at this point and I lost the signal before the LOS, but on this direction I have not "clear horizon" (but High buildings), so I can't say with accuracy if the Satellite was still "ON" or not. Sorry ! Anyway, the FO-29 is back again ! Great news ! CU on FO-29 ! 73 de Mak, SV1BSX Email: sv1bsx "AT" yahoo .gr URL : http://sv1bsx.50webs.com

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Vertical MOXON antennas for satellites
by WB2LLP 26 Jul '08

26 Jul '08

My somewhat porous memory says that L. B. Cebik wrote a couple of articles on using vertical Moxon antennas to create omni-directional 144 and 432 antennas for satellite frequencies. I can not find those articles in my shack. Is there someone with a better organized magazine collection who can tell me what magazine and issue.? TNX es 73 de WB2LLP Gene

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