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

[amsat-bb] 2nd Announcement AMSAT’s LCROSS “Lunar Bash” Live Special Event
by Samudra Haque 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

[I am requesting all to circulate this notice to a wide variety of attendees, students, teachers - 73 de N3RDX/S21X] Announcing AMSAT’s LCROSS “Lunar Bash” Live Special Event * 2009 AMSAT Space Symposium Celebrating 40 Years in Space *NEW: with an exhibit of NASA educational materials for the LRO/LCROSS program suitable for K-12 students *NEW: live updates of the mission progress from the Flight Directors Blog Date: Friday October 9, 2009 Location/Time: 0600-0900 Crane A/B, Four Points Sheraton Hotel at BWI Airport Hosted by Samudra Haque, N3RDX, N3RDX(a)amsat.org Open to All 2009 AMSAT Space Symposium Attendees Let’s Kick Up Some Moon Dust ! Join us in the Crane A/B rooms between at 0600 (event starts 0630) with other early bird AMSAT attendees for a Presentation and Live Simulcast of NASA’s Return to the Moon – and an once-in-a-lifetime event of the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) impact into the Cabeus crater on the Lunar Surface estimated at 0730 EDT. The event will showcase NASA documentaries on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and LCROSS missions, the Music Video “Water on the Moon” by NASA Deputy Project Manager John Marmie and will shift to the live video stream with commentary from NASA TV shortly before the actual impact event. As the best viewing of the impact site from Earth will be available to ground based telescope located in the Mid-West and points towards the West Coast we hope to see pre-recorded images/video clips well after the impact event as it is relayed from observing communities. If such images are available, we will post them during our open session. Educators and Students can obtain digital copies of the presentation materials from the host and can review “On the Moon” Educators guide which contains learning activities for Students. *In collaboration with NASA

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SatPC32 doppler.sqf file
by Bato, Andras 08 Oct '09

08 Oct '09

Gentlemen, It seems the doppler.sqf file is missing grom the SatPC32 software which is the best stand alone satellite tracking software I've ever seen. Would someone send me -or to the list- a sample file to be able to track satellites using Doppler tuning? Otherwise CAT works fine with my FT-847. May you have success with SatPC32 and in satellite tracking. gl de ha6nn Andras

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70cms in Canada
by Graham Shirville 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Looks like more potential QRM to the amateur satellite service:( http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=220962 73 Graham G3VZV

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Nice video on amateur satellite and supporting space science
by Fabiano Moser 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Re- sending. Take time to watch! Good Job Henk ! 73 Fabiano > >> Hello all, >> >> In case you didn't see the announcement about a video produced by Henk, below is the link. It is a really nice video showing amateur radio contribution to space science. I plan on using this video when I give presentations to high school students. I also plan on showing it to my bosses so I >> can get more science missions made available to the amateur radio community. >> These two satellites have been a learning experience. There are some things I will want to do differently. I enjoyed getting reports from you and working with you. I want to do it again and it looks like it may happen. We have another science experiment in proposal and are starting to get some >> funding. The mission will be to map the radiation environment in real time. The trick will be to get the potentially large amount of data down. 9600 baud may not be fast enough. I will try to work something out to stay within the common amateur radio gear. I may have to switch to KISS mode for >> more compact data. >> >> Also, if anyone has captured any audio, hold on to it. I know one of the experiments was to try out FX.25. This is an experimental protocol that wraps forward error correction data around the standard AX.25 packet. This method allows standard TNCs and software to decode error free packets >> while allowing FX.25 decoders to recover AX.25 packets with a few bit errors. We tried getting the FX.25 software completed but time constraints have been the issue. Last Friday, we were able to test the FX.25 decoder on some audio files and were able to recover corrupted packets. Our small >> sample showed up to 50% recovery rate. We will be processing more audio files. Our next step is to make the code available. It runs on linux only. Our first problem was trying to get access to the raw data stream before any AX.25 decoder. We were able to find where to tap the raw bit stream in >> the soundmodem software and pipe it to our FX.25 decoder program. We will write up some >> documentation and release the software in the next couple weeks. You can try running your audio files through the software and see if you see any improvements. >> >> So, next question. How many people are running linux for their ground station? How many would be interested? We are thinking for the next satellite to develop a telemetry protocol with forward error correction that will greatly improve packet decoding. We will target FM modulation since that >> is easier to track and capture. Since we only know how to program in linux, we would target that platform. Anyone wanting to port to Windows or Mac is welcomed to our code. >> >> Ivan >> >> >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGvRnqII0j8&feature=channel_page >> (enable HD for best quality) >> >> 73, Henk >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- 73 Fabiano Moser CR7/PY5RX ARISS-PORTUGAL (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Representative at Teleconference and Portugal Telebridge Coordinator. AMRAD/AMSAT-CT http://www.amrad.pt/ariss.php "There is no great talent without great will. (Honoré de Balzac)"

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RG316 / Ireland
by Amateur Radio Station W4MPS 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Many thanks for the replies re RG316 and also for the several links showing coax comparison charts. Very helpful. I'm old school and familiar with RG58 and RG8, and started to get confused when they came out with 9913. With all the new stuff, I'm clueless, HI. I'm using a 6 Ft length of RG316 with an SMA connector at one end for my handheld, and a PL259 type on the other end for the Elk. So no adapters, which I like. That gives me plenty of length for waving around the Elk during a pass. So far, I don't see any obvious degradation of signals compared to my RG58 cable with adapters, although I have no way of measuring. Bottom line...if I can work 'em, I'll be happy. The small diameter cable will be great for traveling. I'll keep field testing until we leave next week. I'll be QRV from County Cork, Ireland from October 16 through October 26. Most of the time will be in Grid IO52, although we may also travel to IO42 and IO51 (if the family ever lets us out of the pub). I've made a number of transatlantic contacts to the UK and Portugal via AO-51 using my FT-60R at 5 Watts and an Arrow antenna from my previous QTH in New Jersey (FN20)standing on my back deck. I was blown away by the experience. Ireland is closer than both UK and Portugal so I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to make a few Q's back home. So, keep an ear open for me when the mutual window is open. The call will be EI/W4MPS. 73 Marc, W4MPS Clayton, North Carolina

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FT-897 CAT Control
by Jesse Morris 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

There have been several posts here and elsewhere that suggest that it is not possible to change the frequency of the FT-897 via CAT during transmit. Is that really true? If it is that would seem to make it unsuitable for satellite operations but I know many people use it (and the 817/857). Thanks for the info. de Jess - W4MVB

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Re: UWE-2 news?
by Mike Rupprecht 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Andy, they disabled the beacon to save energy. 73, Mike DK3WN ----- original Nachricht -------- Betreff: [amsat-bb] UWE-2 news? Gesendet: Mi, 07. Okt 2009 Von: andy thomas<andythomasmail(a)yahoo.co.uk> > Any news of UWE-2? I have never heard her and I see a relevant observation > on the DK3WN satblog. > > 73 de andy g0sfj > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > --- original Nachricht Ende ----

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Radio Amateurs supporting a mission in space (video)
by Henk, PA3GUO 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Dear all, Very often I find it difficult to explain to 'outsiders' what HAM radio is all about. Therefore I have released a short video on YouTube about the recent ANDE-2 experiments and how radio amateurs world-wide contributed to this mission. When I was young I watched the first Space Shuttle flight on TV. A far away, fantastic scientific event. Many years later we as radio amateurs are given opportunities to engage directly in space-experiments. It's a thrill ! Featured in the video are the launch and deploy from STS-127, as well as reception and decoding of the satellite's radio signals received from space. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGvRnqII0j8 For highest quality ensure you enable HD (it does slow-down the download a bit though) Best regards, Henk, PA3GUO

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Understanding ITA
by Wayne Estes 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

I just read the article about ITAR in the Jan/Feb 2009 AMSAT Journal. I have to say that the article didn't help me understand ITAR at all. It seems to have skipped the first several steps in the explanation. For example, what criteria are used to judge that a device has dual use as a munition? It is not at all obvious to my feeble mind how a 23 GHz amplifier or IHU-3 (computer) can be judged to have dual use as a munition. What criteria does ITAR law use to EXCLUDE devices that have obvious dual uses as munitions? For example, GSM cell phones have been used to remotely control explosive devices that killed thousands of U.S. servicemen. Are they not regulated because they are too ubiquitous to control? Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik

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CubeSat article in SatMagazine
by Trevor . 07 Oct '09

07 Oct '09

Page 43 of the October issue of SatMagazine features an article on CubeSats titled 'A Costing + Pricing Challenge', see http://www.satmagazine.com/2009/SatMag_Oct09.pdf 73 Trevor M5AKA Daily Amateur Radio Email/RSS news: http://www.southgatearc.org/ ----

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