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

true duplex radios
by D. Craig Fox 31 May '09

31 May '09

Greetings. Ok so this issue gets revisited every few months or so-- as it seems. I have a nice list of many fully duplex VHF/UHFradios-- I forget who put together-- that list is taped to the wall next to my station. This comes in handy for shopping on eham, ebay, etc. However, I am wondering if it needs some updating. No clue here. Maybe it is current. Ok well almost. I know it does not list the new Alinco DJ-G7. Ok so the main reason for the post is first to ask (for the hums): does the Kenwood TH-F6A operate in fully duplex mode? the reviews on eham were not exactly clear on this point. If so, then any peculair problems SO The second reason for this post is to ask if anyone perhaps has a more up to date/complete list of truly duplex radios (ie, can do sat work!) ;-) Thanks and 73s Craig NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.

6 5

FT-847 vs IC-910
by Eric Fort 31 May '09

31 May '09

For vhf/uhf satellite use I'm seriously thinking about selling off my FT-847 for money toward a IC-910. Could some of you on this list comment on how these 2 radios compare for satellite (and if you know vhf/uhf weak signal) work? why one radio over the other? What are your thoughts and experiences with the IC-910 ? Same question for the FT-847. Thanks, Eric AF6EP

4 3

BBC - Judica-Cordiglia brothers
by m5aka＠yahoo.co.uk 31 May '09

31 May '09

>From http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2009/bbc_radio4_space_radio_drama.htm A drama by the Britsh Broadcasting Company (BBC) based on the Judica-Cordiglia brothers interception of transmissions from early Russian space missions can now be heard on the web. Direct link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kk4cc 73 Trevor M5AKA RSS Daily Radio News: http://www.southgatearc.org/ Daily News via Email: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2783644&loc=en_US Submit your news: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news_1.htm or email editor at southgatearc.org ----

2 1

ANS-151 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins
by Dee 31 May '09

31 May '09

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-151 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: * AMSAT-UK shop change * Satellite info * Satellite Shorts * ARRL Presidential Award * "Echoes of Apollo" event. * ARISS Schedule SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.1 AMSAT-UK shop change AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.1 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 31, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.1 After several years of running the AMSAT-UK shop, Jim G3WGM has handed the reins to Ciaran Morgan M0XTD. Ciaran obtained his full license in April 2008 and enjoyed organising a very successful ARISS contact between Budbrooke School in Warwick, England and Richard Garriott K5KWQ whilst he was onboard the International Space Station in October 2008. The AMSAT-UK shop has been an important source of funds in the past and Ciaran is revamping the current shop to help it to continue to make a valuable contribution to the funds into the future. The shop has had a policy of only stocking items that are difficult to obtain in the UK and, initially, that policy will remain whilst Ciaran gets familiar with the stock and identifies other possible options. Suggestions are always welcome and a new email address (amsat-uk-shop(a)amsat.org) has been setup. Please send the suggestions in and keep checking the web site for updates. Due to the level of sales of software, and compatibility issues with the more recent Microsoft Operating Systems, it has been decided to stop selling InstantTrack and QuickTrack. WiSP and SatPC32 licenses will continue to be issued from the shop Also, there are currently no books for sale - we are looking at this but suggestions are always welcome. On the hardware front, we have restocked with the ever popular LVB motherboards and we also have a limited number of complete kits for the LVB Tracker unit. Half of the new kits also include the AMSAT-NA enclosure with compatible display unit! We are also investigating restocking the 2.4GHz signal sources from G0MRF and the G7HIA 2.4GHz patch kits - please keep a watch on the website for more details. The AMSAT UK website can be accessed via http://www.uk.amsat.org/ - the shop is accessed via a link on the left hand side of the web page. 73 Ciaran M0XTD [ANS thanks Ciaran,M0XTD, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.2 Satellite info AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.2 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 31, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.2 AO-51 will be configured for Field Day with dual repeaters, 1268.700/435.150 and 145.920/435.300. No PL tone is required. Please note that the 435.150 downlink is left hand circular polarized, and the 435.300 transmitter is right hand circular polarized. This configuration will be available for the week preceding Field Day, through the Field Day weekend (June 22nd-28th, 2009). AO-7 has returned to experiencing short eclipses each orbit, thereby preventing the 24 hour timer from switching modes. AO-7 has been observed to favor Mode U/V (B) almost exclusively during these periods. Please check http://oscar.dcarr.org/ or http://www.planetemily.com/ao7/ao7log.php for the most recent reports of the current mode. GO-32 still in bootloader status, return of the BBS is unknown. [ANS thanks Drew, KO4MA, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.3 Satellite Shorts From All Over AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.3 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 31, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.3 + A compendium of non-ham spacecraft frequencies can be found on-line at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/spectrumreform/Spectrum_Plans_ 2007/NASA_Strategic_Spectrum_Plan_Nov2007.pdf + Lately, a growing number of observers are reporting intense "flares" coming from the International Space Station (ISS). During some night time flybys, the luminosity of the space station surges 10-fold or more. Some people have witnessed flares of magnitude -8 or twenty- five times brighter than Venus. (via SpaceWeather.com) + A video of the Minotaur launch that lofted the latest flock of cube- sats (PharmaSat, Hawksat, CP6) to orbit can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEf9trI1Hf8 + Watch for Franco's HB9OAB - CN2AB satellite DXpedition to Morocco between June 27 and July 20. Franco says he favors operation via VO-52. QSL eQSL or BURO via HB9OAB. + An online video simulating a flyover of Mars Olympus Mons volcanco can be found at: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/05/mapping-mars-mt.html [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.4 ARRL Presidential Award AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.4 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 31, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.4 FRANK BAUER, KA3HDO, RECEIVES ARRL PRESIDENT'S AWARD On Saturday, May 16 during the forum featuring Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, at the Dayton Hamvention, ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, presented former Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) <http://www.rac.ca/ariss/oindex.htm> International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, with the ARRL President's Award. Bauer, who stepped down from ARISS <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/03/25/10724/> and Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation's (AMSAT) <http://www.amsat.org/> duties this past March, served as ARISS Program Leader and ARISS International Working Group Chair. Since 1991, he served as AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight Programs. The ARRL Board of Directors voted to create the President's Award in 2003. The President's Award is to go to an ARRL member or members who "have shown long-term dedication to the goals and objectives of ARRL and Amateur Radio," and who have gone the extra mile to support individual League programs and goals. Nominations for the award come from directors and are approved by the ARRL President and the Executive Committee. Under Bauer's leadership, Amateur Radio activities have been on human spaceflight vehicles, including NASA-sponsored ham radio activities on the shuttle, Space Station Mir and the ISS. Starting in 1983, Bauer led the Goddard Amateur Radio Club team that provided around-the clock space shuttle retransmissions from the WA3NAN club station. These retransmissions provided the international ham radio community up-to-the-minute information during the flight of Owen Garriott, W5LFL, on STS-9 <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-9.ht ml> and subsequent SAREX flights. In the days prior to the Internet, these real-time bulletins and frequent orbital element updates could only be obtained through Amateur Radio. "For well over a decade, I have been fortunate to be part of a group that has been leading international teams together to focus on Amateur Radio on the ISS," Bauer told the ARRL. "As AMSAT Vice President for Human Spaceflight since 1991, I have really worked to get this international team to work as one, focusing on Amateur Radio. It is very critical to get all the space agency partners to have a vested interest in making sure we do Amateur Radio right on the ISS. We need to keep the partnership we have with our international team in good stead." [ANS thanks ARRL for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.5 "Echoes of Apollo" event. AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.5 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 31, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.5 Commemorating the 40th year anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon July 20th, 1969, many large commercial dishes worldwide will be active "on the air" on 23 CM on the weekend of June 26th (Field Day weekend). At present there are many very large commercial dishes as well as many Amateur radio dishes that will be activated on SSB and CW. Some of the larger dishes will make a two way QSO between small Mode "L" satellite stations possible. The Stanford 150' dish will be participating using various calls, including W6TE. A list of participating dishes will follow. W6TE will be on the air and testing the Big Stanford dish at various times... call for possible schedule (559) 260-5511 cell) 73, [ANS thanks Dave Smith, W6TE and the Echoes of Apollo Event Team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.6 ARISS Schedule AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.6 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 25, 2009 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.6 1. Upcoming School Contacts An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact was scheduled for Miyahara Junior High School in Saitama, Japan on Tuesday, May 26 at 11:12 UTC. Speaking in Japanese, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA will chat with the students about life in space. Mahopac Public Library in Mahopac, New York has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Wednesday, June 3 at 15:47 UTC. This contact will be facilitated by telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium. This school district public library serves six public and five private schools, with a total of 26,485 served. The library will coordinate this question and answer session with the Putnam Emergency Amateur Radio League. Kawanishi Seiwadai Community Center in Hyogo, Japan has been scheduled for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Saturday, June 6 at 07:55 UTC. The community center was established in 1987 and serves the area's 5000 households. To prepare for the contact, children researched the ISS and studied space and the global environment. This ARISS contact will be conducted in Japanese. 2. ARISS International Team Meeting Held The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) International Team meeting was held on Tuesday, May 19. Topics of discussion included the upcoming face to face meeting in the Netherlands and SuitSat-2 status. See: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/arisstel2009-05-19.htm 3. ARRL Article on Dayton Hamvention, Garriott The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) published a story in its May 22 issue of the ARRL Letter about the 2009 ARRL National Convention, Dayton Hamvention and Richard Garriott, W5KWQ. The item on Garriott covers his presentations at the ARRL and AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) forums, the ARRL Expo, and the ARRL Youth Lounge. See: http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/09/0522/ The ARRL Letter has a circulation of 115,000. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information] /EX 73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org

1 0

Frequencies for CubeSat
by Andy Brian 31 May '09

31 May '09

Hi, I'm looking for any comparison which frequency select for cubesat (command, telemetry). I know that many of designers used UHF UHF, but link budget margin that better to use VHF - smaller path loss for about 10dB what are the main reason for use UHF --> antenna size, free frequency on UHF band, other losses, ground station antenna gain or ?? Thanks for help and comments, best regards Andy

1 0

true duplex radios
by D. Craig Fox 31 May '09

31 May '09

Sorry for the typos in the last- good reason why one should not send posts to listservs late at night after one's bedtime! hihi Anyway, thanks and 73s Craig N6RSX NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.

1 0

Re: Re eggbeater performance - mobile
by Bob Bruninga 31 May '09

31 May '09

> It also has a null on an overhead pass. But that is quite insignificant. Looking at the gain plot of a 3/4 wave vertical (the 19.5" whip on 70cm) it is only down say 6 to 10 dB above 85 degrees. BUT the satellie is 10 dB or more closer when it is above 50 degrees which more than makes up for any loss of gain straight up. see plots on www.aprs.org/rotator1.html But yes, there can be a complete fade when it is perfectly directly overhead (extremely rare). But since the satellite is only above 50 degrees only 5% of the time, it is only above 85 degrees only 1/8th of that 5%, or much less than 1% of all access times. Again, losing less than 1% of access time due to a possible less than 1% chance of a fade is nothing to be concerned about. Just 2 cents worth... Bob, Wb4APR >> For mobile work on AO27, SO50, AO51 >> a 2 meter quarter wave whip is all >> you need... > >Absolutely, For a 19.5" whip in center of roof: > >1) Has 5 dBi gain above 20 deg on 2m >2) Has 7+ dBi gain above 30 deg on 70cm >3) Is an omni >4) does not sacrifice 3 dB for circular >5) Above 25 deg, satellite is 6 to 10 dB closer! >6) works the birds solid for the center of high passes >7) Simplicity at its best! > >Read about it: www.aprs.org/rotator1.html > > Disadvantage: The only disadvantage is TIME. > On the above web page you can also see that > satellites spend 70% of their daily pass > times below 25 degrees. BUT! For those best > passes in the morning and the evening (or > whenever) you can make solid contacts while > mobile for about 5 minutes. > > Also note, that you do NOT need any tracking > program to predict passes. AO51 schdule > repeats evry 5 days for example. Just write > down the CENTER pass of the morning and > evening for each day for 5 days. Update > those 10 times on a small 3/5" card on the > dash about once a month or so will predict > all passes whenever you are mobile. There > will be a pass 100 minutes earlier and 100 > minutes later each day too. So you can > predict all 6 passes a day from those same > 10 times. > > See how: www.aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html > > Bob, WB4APR

3 2

Re: GO-32
by Mark L. Hammond 30 May '09

30 May '09

Hi Shamai, You will need to download the following files in the same location as the telemetry program: http://www.dk3wn.info/files/ocx.zip And, you might need this: http://www.dk3wn.info/files/vbrun60sp3.EXE Mike links these at the top of his telemetry page...lots of decoders! And you'll need these for them. Hope that gets you up and running! 73, Mark N8MH >Hi, > >I downloaded and tried to run the program, but it gives me an error message >pop up: "Component 'MSCHRT20.OCX' or one of its dependencies not correctly >registered: a file is missig or invalid". Any idea? (I am running Windows >XP) > >thanks & 73 > >Shamai >4Z1WS >On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 10:14 PM, Mark L. Hammond <marklhammond(a)gmail.com>wrote: > >> Hello David, >> >> For what seems like an eternity GO-32 has been sending a telemetry >> packet at 9600 baud one per minute. So, NO, the BBS isn't open (and >> hasn't been for a long time). >> >> You can decode the telemetry GO-32 frames thanks to Mike DK3WN! >> Actually, he has decoders for just about every satellite ever launched >> ;) at <http://www.dk3wn.info/software.shtml>http://www.dk3wn.info/software.shtml >> >> >> 73, >> -- >> Mark L. Hammond [N8MH] >> Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

1 0

ON7EQ heard in GI84ow
by ps8rf ps8 30 May '09

30 May '09

Hello all, On 05/28/2009 around 20:39 and 20:40:30 UTC in the 58029 orbits AO7. I heard the station, Jean-Jacques, ON7EQ - in GI84ow - 4757 (Miles) or 7616 km. Unfortunately I can not contact due to problems in my uplink. I'm manually controlling the uplink and that made it difficult to contact. All contact via satellites that I hear, are routinely recorded. A small part of the audio of Jean-Jacques, ON7EQ via AO7 was added on youtube, the audio is not in good quality. For me it was fantastic in the case of a signal via AO7. I hope soon to maintain contact with our friend Jean-Jacques in two ways. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggNmQqxARWY 73, Piraja, PS8RF. _________________________________________________________________ Emoticons e Winks super diferentes para o Messenger. Baixe agora, é grátis! http://specials.br.msn.com/ilovemessenger/pacotes.aspx

1 0

HD Video of satellite FM Data download (or: Amateur Radio is cool)
by Henk, PA3GUO 30 May '09

30 May '09

Dear friends, This morning I have uploaded a new High Definition (HD) video: http://www.vimeo.com/4911267 COMPASS-1 is the first CubeSat of the Aachen University in Germany. It is a 10x10x10 cm cubic satellite with a mass of less than 1 kg. Daily download of satellite data is delegated to a team of radio amateurs around the world. (btw I am not one of the active members, only just a back-up station) In this video it is demonstrated how satellite data (telemetry) is downloaded using 1k2 AFSK modulation. Maybe this video can make others also enthousiastic to start looking into Compass-1 or other Cubesat programs running today. If so; take a look here for some commands: http://www.raumfahrt.fh-aachen.de/news.htm To me it shows Amateur Radio is very exiting, and satellite operations are way cool ! Yes, these Cubesats are no replacement for HEO's, but they do challenge me (just getting your station non-stop, fully automated running sounds easier as it is)... and HAM radio is all about challenges and experiments, that's what makes it fun and keeps it interesting for me ! To play the movie full-screen, click on the right bottom button in the player. Also there is a HD button, ensure it is showing "HD is on". Henk, PA3GUO

1 0