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

ANS-116 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-116 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 In this edition: * Two Weeks and Counting for AMSAT at Dayton * Maurice-André Vigneault, VA2MA Appointed as Canadian AMSAT Delegate to the ARISS International Working Group * Satellite News From India * APRS Satellite Fleet Expansion Planned * UT1FG/MM Wet Grids DXpedition in Range of Americas Now * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.01 Two Weeks and Counting for AMSAT at Dayton AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.01 A little over two weeks remain before AMSAT opens its 40 Years of Amateur Radio in Space display at the Dayton Hamvention held on May 15-17. AMSAT's activities begin on Thursday, May 14 with setting up the booth display. The traditional Thursday Night get-together will be held in a new location, the 'Tickets Pub' in suburban Fairborn, Ohio. The AMSAT Forum will be held on Saturday, May 16 in Meeting Room 5 from 11:15 to 13:30. The schedule includes: + AMSAT VP-Member & User Services and SuitSat-2 Systems Engineer Gould Smith, WA4SXM will give a talk on "SuitSat-2 Status Report." Members of the SuitSat-2 team will have a complete operational SuitSat prototype with an experiment at the AMSAT Booth. + AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Will Marchant, KC6ROL, will give a status on the ARISS program. + ARISS Hardware Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, will give a talk on "Antennas for the Columbus Module." + Richard Garriott, W5WKQ, will speak at the AMSAT Forum about his ARISS activities while onboard the ISS. He will talk about his training, flight, and ham radio operations during the AMSAT Banquet. Richard will also be at the AMSAT booth to meet members on Friday and Saturday. Specific times will be announced soon. The outdoor satellite demonstration area will be managed by Drew, KO4MA and Keith, W5IU. It will feature two types of operational stations. One will be the basic handheld station and the second will feature full computer control. Since this is the 40th Anniversary of AMSAT, we have a great new tee shirt design by Steve Kenwolf to celebrate the event. Forty years of AMSAT memorabilia will be on display. As always there will be new pub- lications, frequency chart, LVB Trackers and premiums for membership renewal. Check out all the details, including making your AMSAT Banquet reser- vations on the web pages: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2009/Dayton.php [ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.02 Maurice-André Vigneault, VA2MA Appointed as Canadian AMSAT Delegate to the ARISS International Working Group AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.02 AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW has appointed Maurice-André Vignault, VA2MA/VE3VIG, as the Canadian AMSAT delegate to the ARISS International Working Group. He replaces Stefan Wagener, VE4NSA who resigned due to personal reasons. Maurice-André was first licensed in 1990. He served 38 years in the Canadian Air Force, Communications and Electronics Branch. He is an active amateur radio operator with satellite experience dating to 2001. He has been conducting an ongoing satellite com- munications course starting in 2006. He conducted an ARISS School contact in January 2007. He is active in demonstrating satellite communications at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. He is a member of the Radio Amateurs of Canada and AMSAT. As a member of the AMSAT Field Operations Team, he serves as an Area Coordinator for Ottawa, representing AMSAT in his local community and serving as a mentor to hams wishing to learn about the satellite communications. Barry noted in an e-mail to ARISS International Working Group Chair- man Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, "AMSAT is proud to be able to send such a qualified member to serve with the ARISS Working Group. AMSAT looks forward to many years of continued cooperative activities with ARISS in human space flight." The ARISS International Working Group includes two delegates appointed by AMSAT. Previously, AMSAT VP-Human Space Flight Will Marchant, KC6ROL was appointed the US AMSAT delegate to the ARISS International Working Group replacing Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. Both Maurice-André Vignault and Will Marchant will be attending the upcoming ARISS International Working Group meeting taking place in June 2009 at ESA/ESTEC in the Netherlands. [ANS thanks AMSAT President Barry, WD4ASW for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.03 Satellite News From India AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.03 This week India's ISRO Space Agency successfully launched RISAT-2 and ANUSAT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR in Sriharikota. RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite with the capability to take images of the earth during day and night as well as cloudy conditions to enhance capability for earth observation, especially during floods, cyclones, landslides and in disaster management. ANUSAT is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the over all guidance of ISRO and will demon- strate the technologies related to message store and forward operations. ANUSAT specifications have mentioned amateur radio uplink and downlink frequencies will be used but no user information has been released at this time. The satellite is designed for digital store-and-forward operation. ANUSAT has a telemetry beacon on 137.400 MHz. David, VK5DG reported, "I just heard AnuSat go over with a loud carrier on 137.400 MHz but no modulation detected. I am using keps for space track object 34808." Additionally, Rodney, KC0ZHF reported, "I also monitored the frequency on orbits 48 and 49 of the satellite and heard a very strong carrier. I scanned UHF frequencies but did not hear any additional downlinks." In other Amateur Radio news from AMSAT-India Nitin, VU3TYG says the April 2009 newsletter is available at: http://www.amsatindia.org/Newsletter AMSAT-India Secretary, Pop, VU2POP says, "We have received many appli- cations for the VO-52 operating award from several different countries. Certificates will be posted by end of May 2009." The certificate is available to Amateur Radio operators who establish two way contact through VO-52 between January 26, 2009 until May 10, 2009. If you find yourself in India remember to attend the AMSAT-India Workshop on 10 May 09 at the Little Lilly English School, Vidyar- anyapura, Bangalore. [ANS thanks Space Daily Express, Pop VU2POP, and Nitin VU3TYG for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.04 APRS Satellite Fleet Expansion Planned AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.04 Writing from the US Naval Academy Satellite Development Lab this week Bob, WB4APR reported on new satellites with the same APRS packet relay as PCSAT and the ISS that are in the works. Bob said their design will use the new Byonics all-on-a-board Packet TNC/Radio/Telemetry system. This makes it possible to build a packet satellite out of a single 3.4" square board and 5 NiCd batteries and that is all you need for a tiny APRS satellite. Bob said, "We are ordering a bunch of them on the APRS Space Channel of 145.825 MHz and hope to encourage other schools and universities to consider including one of these packet transponders in their missions. If we can get up to a dozen of these in space, we will have almost global coverage 24 hours a day from anywhere on the planet!" These systems are still under development. No launch dates have been announced at this time. [ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.05 UT1FG/MM Wet Grids DXpedition in Range of Americas Now AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.05 Captain Yuri of the MV Bluebill is now operating as UT1FG/MM from his ship through June, 2009. His sea voyage will take him from Northern Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico up to the Miss- issippi River, then southward toward Mexico and Central America. Yuri says his current plans are to operate on AO-27, AO-51, SO-50, VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. Over the past two years he already has logged many North American stations from his ship operations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. QSL via home call UT1FG. This week Angelo, N5UXT reported working UT1FG/MM in GM24 via FO29. [ANS thanks Yuri, UT1FG/MM and Angelo, N5UXT for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.06 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. April 26, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.06 + Check out William's, PE1RAH design for an ultra-small linear satellite Mode-UV transponder with 23dBm PEP output on 2 meters. He made a video which can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j60SJroodg + The PS8DX Teresina DX Group is on the air this week from Brazil's Canary Island GI97bf on AO-7, FO-29, AO-51, VO-52, SO-50, and ISS (if available). + Remember the Hudson Valley Satcom group Net 8 PM EST on Thursday evenings on Echolink node n2eyh-l. + Insight as to future amateur satellites in planning can be gleaned from the IARU coordination data available at: http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/ + The ISS will be on the air with an ARISS contact with the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on Space Day, May 2 at 15:23 UTC. This will be a telebridge contact via station W6SRJ in California. Stu- dents will be pre-recruited, but Space Day participants will also be invited to ask questions. Visitors will participate in hands-on activ- ities, meet astronauts and learn about space from experts and museum displays. [ANS thanks everyone 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. With that recall the incident of the bicycle that could not stand up because it was two tired. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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IC-7000 and Sat tracking programs?
by Bill Dzurilla 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

Hi from sunny Islamorada in the Florida Keys, EL94. Just waiting for SO-50 to come on around to give a few more people this semi-rare grid. There was a pile of QRM on both AO-27 passes this afternoon, but logged over 20 contacts. Good to hear a lot of old friends in there. Anyhow, back home I've put up an antenna for the linear sats but I'm having great difficulty getting my IC-7000 to work with computer control on all sats in full duplex mode (second radio is an FT-817, which the programs steer flawlessly). With SatPC32, if set as Radio 1, the 7000 works with sats with 70cm downlink, but not with sats with 2m downlink. Vice versa if set as Radio 2 - works with sats with 2m downlink, but not with sats with 70cm downlink. The author of SatPC32, Erich, has been helping me troubleshoot this issue. He has the program working perfectly with an IC-706 MKIIG but does not have an IC-7000 to test. So if anyone is using an IC-7000 and a second radio with SatPC32, please let us know if all is working. If yes, my problem must be related to the computer or the USB adapter, not to the radio or the program. I have also unsuccessfully tried 2 other sat tracking programs, 1) the new beta Sat Tracking feature of Ham Radio Deluxe, and 2) Orbitron with Wisp DDE driver. Has anyone had success with IC-7000 and either of these, or with any other satellite computer control program? Thanks for any info and 73, and hope to catch you from EL94 tonight o tomorrow, Bill NZ5N

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Re: DSTAR vs AO-51
by Luc Leblanc 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

On 25 Apr 2009 at 19:18, Dave Webb KB1PVH wrote: > Hey Luc, I can TX on DSTAR tonight, but I do not have the S mode capability. There is a close pass at 22:42 utc that I am willing to TX for you. Let me know. > > > Dave KB1PVH > > I will listen to you and will try to record with scanrec. Try 2 or 3 transmissions only when the satellite will be in your best range as you cannot hear your downlink you can step over someone else QSO Thank,s "-" Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE

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iss freq? 145.800 or 145.825
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

hi folks, the iss fan club web page is not giving me the correct freq the iss is on, is anyone working the iss packet station? if so what freq is in use today? thanks in advance. kc8gkf-5 moved over some so kc9doa-5 and mycall can be seen.

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Personal home pages
by Dave Guimont 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

First, a thank you to all who responded to my request for personal home page storage....I will answer each when I've had an opportunity to try their recommendation... Roadrunner has allowed personal home page storage of the file itself, and not a presentation of the file. Since its inception I've listed the following files.....*.exe, *.zip, *.jpg, *.txt, etc. The document itself and not the presentation...Anyone could have access to those files, read them on line, and/or download them if they wish. I used ftp to do the uploading... They've recently made a change, and I can no longer upload the file itself. FTP is not the problem, I can upload the picture itself, but not the *.jpg..... tnx agn to the responders...I'll let u know... 73, Dave, WB6LLO dguimon1(a)san.rr.com Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...

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Re: FLTSATCOM Hacked
by RFI-EMI-GUY 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

You don't give any credit to our international ham's for policing their own. I am sure if Brazilian hams knew of a "pirate" on their own soil and were armed with Lat Lon of the station, there would be action taken. Secondly; all the encryption in the world is not going to protect the satellite from jamming by some miscreant or an accidental source. Personally when it gets to a point where to operate ham radio requires an RSA key, a digital mode and a VPN, I will lose total interest. There is no experimentation in that. I might as well log into my work e-mail which requires "an RSA key, a digital mode and a VPN". The AMSAT group is reluctant to pay for a launch opportunity let alone fancy authentication infrastructure. For the folks developing "bent pipe transponders" such as PE1RAH, I say press on, and make them as cheap and small as possible. On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:54:54 -0400, "RFI-EMI-GUY" <Rhyolite(a)NETTALLY.COM> said: > > I think it is less important to worry about technology that can't be > > hacked and more important to devise a scheme to locate the source of an > > interferer be it deliberate or accidental. With a bent pipe transponder > > scheme, if there are two or more satellites having overlapping > > footprint, you can monitor the downlink of each satellite and derive a > > time of arrival fix from each. Do some trig and get a fix on the > > possible locations. I am sure this is exactly what the DOD is doing to > > locate these pirates. > That leads logically to the next question -- what are you going to do when you find them? Do you expect International government support to send resources out to the location and shut down the offending station? How much are you (and the rest of the world) willing to pay for this? Better to lock the front door of the house, than to have to go wandering the rooms, listening for the yahoos that came in the back door and are eating your potato chips up in your kid's bedroom. As it becomes easier for the general public to get their hands on uplink gear cheaply, and to operate it with virtually zero knowledge of how it actually works -- the front-end of the birds must have a way to discriminate between "authorized" and "unauthorized" users... eventually. On-orbit infrastructure is too valuable to have it act as a "bent-pipe" in an environment where the uplink/downlink gear is easy to acquire and use. See previous note on possible uses of encryption technology along with decentralized authentication data... and more importantly, how much we'd be willing to pay for such authentication infrastructure... in our time to set it up, and in real money to have it accessible via the Net to all. Not cheap, but then again -- real security never is. Nate WY0X -- Nate Duehr nate(a)natetech.com -- Joe Leikhim K4SAT "The RFI-EMI-GUY"© "Use only Genuine Interocitor Parts" Tom Servo ;-P

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Web space
by Dave Guimont 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

Does anyone have a suggestion to locate a simple procedure to upload files to a site?.. Roadrunner had one for years, and I've been keeping files I've acquired throughout the years in operating hamsats since good old OSCAR.. No fancy graphics, no pictures, just *.exe, *.jpg, *.zip, *. txt and that sort of thing using ftp Roadrunner still has the space available free, but it will not let me upload the above. Any suggestions appreciated.... 73, Dave, WB6LLO dguimon1(a)san.rr.com Disagree: I learn.... Pulling for P3E...

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Off Topic: Live Earth veiws on DISH
by Armando Mercado 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

Sorry for the off topic post. DISH Network has live 24 hour veiws of Earth from a camera on EchoStar 11. Channel 212. It's been on since Wednesday but I just discovered it. Way too cool! 73, Armando N8IGJ

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ISS Timeline
by Jeff Thomas 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

Pretty interesting. Timeline of the ISS. http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm 73, Jeff K7WIN

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DSTAR vs AO-51
by Luc Leblanc 25 Apr '09

25 Apr '09

As my first test this morning it appears digital DSTAR pass through but unable to confirm if they will be decoded correctly as i am not in full duplex? Did anyone with DSTAR capabilities can send some CQ on the uplink or listen on the S downlink to see if something can be decoded? "-" Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE

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