January 2009 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

SKN 2008/2009
by John Marranca, Jr 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

Happy New Year, everyone... Last night's Straight Key Night was fun! I was pretty impressed with the amount of stations on the linear satellites participating in the event. Worked a few, missed a few, but still enjoyable all night. 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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USB to serial converters
by Mark Spencer 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a USB to serial convereter that works well with SAT32PC and an ICOM 706 or a FT 736. Conversely if anyone has had bad experiences that would be usefull to hear about as well. I've heard that some USB to serial converters work better than others. Many thanks Mark VE7AFZ __________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now at http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com.

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ARISS Update--25th Anniversary of Ham Radio in Space--Jan 1, 2009
by Frank H. Bauer 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

All, Happy New Year!! The ARISS team hopes you are all enjoying the diverse amateur radio opportunities that have occurred on the ISS over the past several weeks. We want to thank Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, for his outstanding support to the ISS Ham Radio community. His efforts have been phenomenal! This e-mail provides an update of the ARISS special event opportunities for the next two weeks. As previously mentioned, the ARISS team is currently celebrating 25 years of amateur radio operations from space. This past week, the ISS Ham radio system was configured in the L/V crossband repeater mode. This configuration will continue through to Saturday when a school contact is scheduled around 10:35 UTC. After the school contact on Saturday January 3, it is our plans to have Mike Fincke reconfigure the radio to support V/U crossband repeater operations. As a reminder, that configuration has a 145.99 MHz uplink frequency including PL tone of 67.0 and a 437.80 MHz downlink frequency. All repeater operations are being performed in low power (5 W) mode. It is our intent to keep the repeater active in this configuration for 2 weeks (through January 17). We are also considering follow-on experimental operations of the 9600 baud packet radio system and the L/V crossband repeater. Stay tuned for future updates. As a reminder, a special certificate is being developed for those who communicate with the ISS. This certificate will be awarded to those that have had 2 way communications with the ISS on Voice, Packet (APRS), or through the voice repeater. And those that have heard the ISS from space in any of the ARISS operations modes (Voice, SSTV, School Contact, Voice Repeater, Digital). Valid dates to qualify for certificate: November 30 to January 15. To receive the certificate: A) Please note on your QSL the ARISS mode of operation (e.g. SSTV, voice, school, etc) and whether the contact with you was 1 way (receive only) or 2 way. B) Send your SASE to the normal ARISS QSL volunteer distributor in your area of the world. C) On the outside of the QSL envelope, please include the words "25th Anniversary Certificate" D) Make sure your envelope is big enough to accept an 8.5 by 11 inch certificate and includes the proper postage. E) Go to www.ariss.org if you do not know where to send your QSL and please use one of the standard international QSL distributors that are noted on the Web page. Important note: We will be sending your certificate to the volunteer distributors in bulk AFTER the event is over. (This saves workload and money). So do not expect to see it until 1-2 months after the event closes on January 15. We would like to remind everyone that ISS flight requirements related to EVA and vehicle activity may require the radio to be off for some portion of this schedule. And school contacts and general QSO opportunities by the crew will also preempt this schedule for short periods of time. (But remember that if you hear these, you still qualify for a commemorative certificate). Continue to enjoy the ARISS ops on ISS in 2009! 73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT-NA V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman

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Re: WA4SCA ISS Last Pass
by Ron Miles 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

K7WIN...Congratulations Jeff and thanks for the new mode. Solid L/V mode QSO on the ~16:32 UTC pass. Seems like I was running enough power on the uplink to ionize every fluorescent light bulb on Station! Happy New Year. Ron n6paa

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Re: lindenblad observations
by Joe Krepps 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Ed, I googled "AA2TX Lindenblad" and found: http://www.arrl.org/qst/2007/08/monteiro.pdf Hope this helps & 73! :) Joe WB3CFN

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WA4SCA ISS Last Pass
by dcowden＠nc.rr.com 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Thanks Alan, WA4SCA, For the short contact. Solid 59 Copy most of the pass. I had trouble with my TX doppler. 73, Don N8DDK

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Re: FM receiver filters
by Bob Bruninga 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

> I suggest you consider AFC. > Not enough demand for that wide a filter. Won't work for packets, or at least would require a long TXD making packet communicatiosn inefficient. As to rarity, only one filter in the whole world is needed and that is on the uplink receiver. This lets eveyrone on the ground use conventional rigs without mods, and with minimal doppler uplink tracking. Too many simple satellites are being built without considering the need for a wider bandwidth receiver on the uplink. The difficulties of such an approach for users is very obvious on the ISS cross band repeater, which is using a stock amateur transceiver with a 12 KHz wide receiver on the uplink, which makes even 5 KHz step tuning on the uplink be out-of-bandwidth splatter half the time. This is not a complaint at all. The ISS team is to be congratulated for making the most of what they were able to get up there. It just takes more skill by users on the ground... It is good to see this new UK project planning on a wider uplink RX filter. Bob, Wb4APR

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Ham-Mag - Work satellites with your HT
by Trevor 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

The first English issue of the free electronic Amateur Radio magazine Ham-Mag is now available and features an article on working satellites with your HT by K6LCS. The first issue can be downloaded from the magazines website at http://www.ham-mag.com/ and if you subscribe (free) the magazine will be emailed to you each month. Note: The subscription page email address field assumes the @ character is Shift-2 rather than the Shift-Quote used on some national keyboards. The magazines editor is looking for articles for future issues. 73 Trevor M5AKA ----

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817 and satpc32 problem solved!
by Tim Goodrich 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Hi all, A few days ago I posted the problem I was having with my new 817 and satpc32. After emailing with the very kind Erich (creator of the software), we were able to find the source of the problem in the CAT delay setting (standard value was 110, but mine needed to be higher for some reason). Below is my email to him with observations for any who might be experiencing similar difficulties. The strangest thing..... I came home and changed the CAT delay from 110 to 200. It worked! Both the mode and frequencies were changed for vfoa and vfob and everything was good. Out of curiosity (and thinking it might help with any troubleshooting you may need to do), I changed the CAT delay to 150. My observations were that both the mode and freq. would change for vfoa and vfob, but the interval settings did not work. What I mean by this is the radio would switch between both vfo's on a very rapid basis, basically whenever there was the slightest Doppler change, it would retune. Obviously, this would make the receive audio extremely choppy. To sum it up: 110-change downlink freq. and mode, change uplink mode only, rapid toggling 150- change downlink freq. and mode, change uplink freq. and mode, rapid toggling 200- perfect Tim KC2DDS/AG

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Active- ISS L / v Repeater 07.18utc UK / Europe Pass
by David Barber 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Repeater active for 07.18utc UK / Europe Pass. Max 20dg elevation here so too low for Tx antenna. Excellent signal via repeater from IW4DVZ calling CQ. No other stations heard. Recorded downlink. David G8OQW

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