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

SO-67
by Vincenzo Mone 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

Hi to the list, I would like to know if the SO-67 is active. Anybody heard it? I have just now a pass but I do not hear anything On 435.350 Mhz. Any help will be really appreciated. 73 de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 *************************************** ***** GSM +39 338 9749786 ***** ***** SMS +39 338 9749786 ***** ***** FAX +39 328 7244294 ***** *** 2nd e-mail: vimone(a)tin.it *** ***************************************

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FW: Sumba Test Schedule
by ps8rf Piraja 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

Hello Piero, The times reported on the website of SA AMSAT ( http://www.amsatsa.org.za ) and with the time told by Mike, DK3WN (thanks Mike) do not correspond with the schedules resulting from my simulations. For the Sumba not go active on Europe the satellite had to be activated and deactivated in the region of Africa the same would happen to North America, but I do not know if someone has the privilege of controller in North America to enable and disable the transponder. I do not know if I was wrong or the controlers team of Sumba have mistake with respect to time and the regions reported. 73, Piraja, PS8RF. > Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:11:02 +0200 > From: pbaudino(a)formatnet.it > To: ps8rf(a)hotmail.com > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Sumba Test Schedule > > ps8rf Piraja ha scritto: > > The SA Amsat warns on its website that tomorrow 24th October, will test the tranponder of SumbandilaSat. Some regions of the planet will have the privilege. So, good luck. > > > > > > Test Schedule > > > > 24 October all times in UTC: > > > > 07:35 – 07:46 (over Eastern part of Southern Africa) > > > > 09:06 – 09:21 (over central part of Southern Africa) > > > > 19:52 – 20:03 (over Western part of Canada / North America) > > > > 20:42 – 20:55 (over Eastern part of Southern Africa) > > > > 22:15 – 22:27 (over central part of Southern Africa) > > > Hi Pirajá, > > when another test over central Europe ? > > '73 de Piero IZ1ERR _________________________________________________________________ Você sabia que pode acessar o Messenger direto do seu Hotmail? Descubra como! http://www.microsoft.com/brasil/windows/windowslive/products/tutoriais.aspx

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Operated from DM05
by w6zkh＠comcast.net 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

On the AO-27 pass @ 2200z or so, I happen to be in DM05 by happen chance meeting with David K6CDW, and so I threw out the portable and did one pass from near the Bakersfield Airport. If anyone I worked need DM05, shoot me a card or eQSL and I'll shoot one back... John W6ZKH

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Re: Sumbandilasat SO-67 pass over USA and Canada
by John Mock KD6PAG 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

I tried at 10:55 PDT (presumably 1755Z) from CM88. But i had lots of trees, haven't used that antenna in a long time and various forms of 'operator error' are likely (since i'm out of practice). I didn't hear anything that sounded modulated. Did anyone else hear anything? -- KD6PAG (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)

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LVB tracker
by Drew Squires 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

Has any Amsat member experience using the LVB tacker with Yaesu G1000DXC and KR-500 rotators? Is it easy?possible?Or impossible ? With thanks Andy VK3AS

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A small step back into things
by Michael Tondee 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

Those of you who have seen my post to this forum in the past know that I've unfortunately had to sell some of my gear on and off to make ends meet. I went from a TS-2000X to an IC-820 to no satellite stuff at all. Just recently I had to part with my HF rig as well. I was determined though that I wasn't going to give up and an FM LEO capable station seemed feasible and better than not having anything at all so I have started pursuing it. I just got my Yaesu VX-3R HT from the UPS man Friday, it is primarily to be my receive radio as I already have another 2 meter radio. I have felt like a kid who couldn't play with his new toy though because my adapter to be able to hook up an external antenna to the SMA connector on the HT was back ordered. We have a few repeaters here but I'm out in the sticks and the rubber ducks on these little rigs are notoriously dreadful. Anyway finally decided to step outside the house tonight about the 1800 UTC pass of AO-51 and see if I could hear anything but noise. Amazingly enough, even with just the stock rubber duck, I could hear stations. Everything was down in the noise and not really discernible enough to copy but I could tell people were there. I don't think I really needed much more antenna and I probably would have had decent copy. It was only a small step and there is much work to do but it did make me feel as if I had actually moved forward on getting back on the birds. Just wanted to share, 73, Michael, W4HIJ

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AO-51 Apollo QSLs are in.
by Andrew Glasbrenner 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

The QSL cards for the July Apollo anniversary event on AO-51 are here and I'm starting on the stack this weekend. I'm pretty sure they should all be in the mail by next week. Thanks for all the interest and support. 73, Drew KO4MA

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Introducing qrpTracker, a $4 microwatt satellite tracker
by Bruce Robertson 25 Oct '09

25 Oct '09

Over the last couple of months I've ported the Plan13 satellite tracking algorithm to a library for the Arduino platform. To inspire Arduino hobbyists and fellow amsaters, I've made a website to explain and explore this material, http://sites.google.com/site/qrptracker/ There you'll find a 4 min. introductory video. Around 1:33, the Arduino demo starts. Though I was originally thinking of making a sort of doppler tuning dongle for my FT-817 -- a sort of LVBTracker for the trail -- along the way I've become aware that there are many uses of a $4 device that can track 13 tles all alone, and leave about 14kB for other programming, all with the possibility of average power use in the tens or hundreds of microwatts and SMD dimensions of 8mm^2. For instance, equipped with a low-power tracker like this, an amateur satellite could track its own location over the earth by means of a reliable real time clock, and it could change its mode depending on its calculated location, say turning off its beacon over the poles and oceans. (Plan13 *in* outer space!) I've implemented this idea in the demo http://code.google.com/p/qrptracker/source/browse/trunk/modeSwitcher_powers… Regions of earth, defined with latitude and longitude limits, are stored as an array, and when Plan13 finds the satellite is within one of these regions, it raises one of its pins to a 'high' state, otherwise, this pin is 'low'. When not calculating position, the AtMega328 can drop into a low-power sleep, consuming around 20 microWatts, but retaining the state of its signaling pin. The satellite uses the state of the pin to turn off its beacon, or to switch from a linear to an FM mode. I plan to illustrate this in a future screencast. Of course, the same idea could be implemented in a multitasking IHU of any platform. qrpTracker is offered as a simple means by which people can play around with satellite tracking in microcontrollers, and I welcome collaborators and bug reports at its open-source code repository at http://code.google.com/p/qrptracker/ Finally, if anyone has use of a chip that spits out AZ/EL and doppler info, either through serial-line requests or off of the I2C bus, I'd be happy to send off a chip loaded with the keps you need. Your application would have to supply the real time clock, and eventually the loaded keps would get stale, but by that time you'll be hooked and have the equipment to update the keps yourself :-) 73, Bruce VE9QRP

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SO-67 keps designation change
by Alan P. Biddle 24 Oct '09

24 Oct '09

Afternoon, There have been some changes of the Space Track designation for SO-67 recently. Originally, it was object 35867. According to the AMSAT-SA page, it is now object 35870, with the old 35867 now FRIGATE/IRIS according to Space Track. This is reflected in the AMATEUR.TXT list most tracking programs use. If you use the AMSATNAMES.TXT file in SATPC32, you will need to make the appropriate change. Of course, this assumes that NORAD is fixing a mistake and not introducing one. ;) Alan WA4SCA

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Re: antenna question
by Howie DeFelice 24 Oct '09

24 Oct '09

Some maritime TVRO antennas used a mechanical scan at the feed point. A motor would either rotate an attenuator disk or offset the feed in a circular motion. A resolver kept track of the feed location in relation to received signal strength. The antenna was then slewed in the direction of best signal in both AZ and EL. Sort of a poor mans monopulse system. This works OK for antennas in the microwave region but would not work to well for VHF/UHF low gain arrays. What might work well is to use a pair of antennas with a "doppler scan" circuit that steered the rotor toward the estimated direction of the signal. Howie AB2S _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: Simplify your PC. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WL…

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