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

28 Sep '09

Does the use of a CAT cable and Ham Radio Deluxe allow me to tune the vfo with Better resolution than the current 10Hz? That's what I currently get with the Dial set to FINE . Ordered the cable and programming software, but was curious. I like doing the FMT's and would like to have more resolution .. Randy - N2CUA

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(no subject)
by Ronald A. Stunden 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

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Icom 910H for sale
by Gordon Bousman 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

I have relisted my 910H for sale on Ebay ; it has the 1.2 gHz module installed along with two (2) DSP modules and includes two (2) pre-amps for mast mounting. The Ebay listing number is 130333300500. 73's Gordon, NW7D

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Re: Satellite Orbit Prediction in Python
by Rich Dailey (Gmail) 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

Great stuff, Mark. I'm an old, dusty assembler, and later a C programmer. Used to program for fun, then for profit, then after a few years of life I looked around and the art had snuck ahead of me. I used to hack up the PREDICT code for my own devious purposes, and just to have fun with the source. Your blog post reminded me of how fun it is to cobble together one's own code to solve a particular problem. Keep it up! Rich, N8UX Mark wrote: >You can find some of the simple example code at my blog: > >http://brainwagon.org/2009/09/27/how-to-use-python-to-predict-satellite-loc… > >I'll probably be porting all of my existing scripts to use this soon. > In the mean time, if you have a similar task, you might look to it to >solve your custom satellite prediction problems. > >73 Mark K6HX >_______________________________________________

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FO-29
by WILLIAMS MICHAEL 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

When posting to AMSAT-BB, the high lighting and underlining must have been stripped. Here is what I high lighted and underlined. 1. FO-29 is in the "high shade rate period" now. 2. "high shade rate" and by the rise of the internal resistance of the deterioration of the battery and by the influence of the temperature of the battery. 3.it is designed to turn on a transmitter automatically. However malfunction occurred for this function in 2007. 4. The transponder has been worked without control command from control station from summer of 2008. 5. ***From this , We decided that we make the operation schedule plan, and manage the limit of the operative number of times in one day like last time to keep the electricity income and expenditure untill improve the "shade rate" which is in January, 2010. 6. The transmitter becomes OFF by UVC automatically in the eclipse. All the best, Mike (K9QHO)

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kpc9612
by Mr Jeffrey L Ross 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

hi all, the kpc9612 will not do 300 baud on one port and 1200 on the other. what were they thinking when they made this. geee. all along thought it did. kc8gkf

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OT: Displays Lamps for TS-790E
by Vincenzo Mone 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

Hi Folks, sorry for the OT message. I am looking for the displays Blubs lamps and the sitting rubbers For my Kenwood TS-790E RTX. Anybody can point me where to find them? Thanks in advance. 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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Re: All Satellites (Alan P. Biddle)
by Bruce Robertson 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 7:14 AM, Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp(a)gjcp.net> wrote: > On Fri, 2009-09-25 at 22:19 -0400, Robert Bruninga wrote: >> >> At a SmallSat conference... this summer, >> >> I was amused at the casual assumption by >> >> a researcher that 50, cubesats could be >> >> launched as part of an upper atmosphere >> >> project using ham frequencies for the >> >> downlinks. >> >> And wouldn’t it be a hoot if everyone of them could put their >> RX/TX into a bent-pipe packet mode, and then we would have >> amateur radio global hand-held text messaging satellite >> system... >> >> >> (They would have a lifetime of only 3-4 months.) >> >> But it would be FUN for a while! >> >> Using some of the 2-way very small micro APRS packet systems, a >> 2 to 5 Watt transponder will easily fit on a singl circuit card >> in a small cubesat. See www.aprs.org/cubesat-comms.html >> >> Bob, WB4APR > > If you could have maybe five or six cubesats with an FM transponder > orbiting in such a way that there was a good 15-minute pass every hour, > then I suspect that would work wonders for getting people interested in > satellites again. The technical requirements for getting into them > would be low enough for "entry-level" amateurs all over the world to > have a crack at them - dual-band HT and a homebrew Arrow clone, and > you're good to go. Cheap, simple satellites, and cheap, simple ground > stations. How many could you fly for the cost of one HEO sat and > launch? > > Gordon MM0YEQ > In a recent conversation on this list, I did the math and conservatively estimated that 125 1U cubesats could be launched for the current quoted price of a HEO launch alone. The more I think about this digital cubesat constellation proposal, the more I see its merits. Beyond the plain fact that it is financially doable, as an emergency services platform it would be genuinely useful, since even a low LEO will provide communication outside the disaster zone in most cases, and compared to a HEO setup, it would have the advantage of being usable for nearly every ham anywhere. The problem, as I think Bob has noted before, is momentum: a constellation of these is very useful; one of them is much less so. The group that puts up the first of them, then, is not doing much of interest and hopes that others will follow to increase the 'network effect'. For this reason, we cannot expect (most) university cubesat missions to look merely like this, unless their institution has a special interest in emergency communications, as Bob's uniquely is. Perhaps we could turn the tables and offer university groups a small amount of space in the cube for an experiment in exchange for defraying the launch cost. Those universities that are especially interested in the natural science side might jump at this, and doubly so if they knew that they'd have an international APRS network collecting their data. We could play the role of IntelSat for a change :-) KD6OZH's mentioning of a 1200 bps voice codec is very interesting, too. I see that DSTAR's AMBE is down to 2000 with error correction, and Speex operates down to 2000, too, though I think without error correction. (I find the latter much more engaging as a ham, since it is open source.) It would be a hoot to do a voice conference over the Internet using a sample of low bitrate codecs and just get a sense of what might be possible. One downside of voice is that it would occupy the transponder far more than messaging, and Bob's favorable power calculations would need to be estimated downwards. I guess another aspect of the cubesat approach is that the cost of failure is much lower. If a low bitrate audio codec doesn't really work well, it would be a less expensive enterprise and easier to chalk up to experience. 73, Bruce VE9QRP

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Re: Symposium Restaurant Locations
by Pughkeithd＠cs.com 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

In a message dated 9/28/2009 7:47:44 AM Central Daylight Time, ka3hdo(a)comcast.net writes: > Subj: [amsat-bb] Symposium Restaurant Locations > Date:9/28/2009 7:47:44 AM Central Daylight Time > From:[email protected] > To:[email protected] > Received from Internet: > > > > All, > > I had to go on some unexpected travel out of BWI the past couple of weeks. > So I did some reconnaissance and developed a couple of maps that depict > restaurants near the hotel and airport. You can retrieve these at the > AMSAT > Symposium Web Site. Go to the food and drink icon and click on the pdf or > ppt file. > > I also included in this package directions to the G&M Restaurant which is > close to the hotel. This restaurant just received the WTOP "Best Crab > Cake" > award through a survey from the radio station's Baltimore/Washington > listeners. This restaurant has good food at reasonable prices. > > We will be including paper copies of these maps in the symposium > registration packet. But wanted to give you a heads up, so you can plan > out > your meals. > > And if you haven't registered for the symposium yet, please do so. We are > less than 2 weeks away!! > > 73, Frank, KA3HDO > _______________________________________________ > 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 > Thank's for reminding me about G&M's. This is the place that we frequently sent out to for Subs at all hours when working late at Westinghouse - BWI in the 70s and 80s. We nicknamed it "Grease and Mayonaise" but it was excellent. The last time I ate there it had expanded into a very good full service restaurant, but still retined the Sub Shop as well. I hope the Sunset Restaurant in Glen Burnie made the list. http://www.sunsetrestaurant.com/ 73 - Keith, W5IU

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Sumbandila blog
by Pieter Kotze 28 Sep '09

28 Sep '09

For those who would like to keep up with what is happening see the following: http://sumbandilamission.blogspot.com/ Regards ZS1PK/M0PAK -- This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions, e-mail legal notice, and implemented Open Document Format (ODF) standard. The full disclaimer details can be found at http://www.csir.co.za/disclaimer.html. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. MailScanner thanks Transtec Computers for their support.

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