January 2010 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

ANS-010 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne Maenpaa 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-010 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: * BoD Adopts Accepted Use Policy For AMSAT Mail Lists * AO-51 Spacecraft Reorientation Planned in January * AMSAT at the Cowtown Hamfest - 15 & 16 January 2010 * AMSAT Awards * New Student Satellites Announced by India and University of Colorado * How's Satellite DX? * Final Call: Remember to Nominate SKN Best Fist SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.01 AMSAT Adopts Accepted Use Policy For AMSAT Mail Lists AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.01 The AMSAT Board of Directors unanimously adopted an Accepted Use Policy for the AMSAT Public Mailing Lists on January 5, 2010. This policy takes effect immediately and applies to all those using the AMSAT mailing lists. Following the October 2009 AMSAT Board meeting Gould Smith, WA4SXM AMSAT VP of User Services appointed a committee to develop a use policy for the mailing lists. The members of the committee did an outstanding job of putting together a document that is acceptable to all the com- mitte members and was passed without change by the BoD. Thank you to the committee members: Stephen Belter, N9IP; Alan Biddle, WA4SCA; Mark Hammond, N8MH; Samudra Haque, N3RDX; and Paul Williamson, KB5MU. The policy has been added to the AMSAT Web site and will be included as part of the process when applying to join any of the AMSAT mailing lists. The link to the PDF file can be found at: http://www.amsat.org Acceptable Use Policy for the AMSAT Public Mailing Lists Approved by the AMSAT BoD 5 January 2010 The AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) public mailing list carries general AMSAT information and discussion. The purpose of this mailing list is to provide a forum for general discussion of any satellite-related topic. The Space Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) public mailing list con- tains information and discussion pertaining to amateur radio opera- tion on manned space missions, including the Space Shuttle, Mir (formerly), and the International Space Station. The name is left over from the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) aboard Space Shuttle flights. It is now mainly concerned with ARISS operations aboard the International Space Station. There are also regional AMSAT public mailing lists (e.g., AMSAT-DC, AMSAT-Florida, and AMSAT-NE) and numerous private mailing lists (e.g., Board of Directors, Officers, AO-51 operations, etc.). Anyone can read the messages posted on any of the public mailing lists, and many people from around the world do so. Our audience includes AMSAT members, board members, and officers. At any given time, the readers may also include amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners, minors, poten- tial financial donors, potential launch providers, officials from other amateur radio and satellite organizations, officials from international space agencies, and equipment suppliers and manufacturers. Since the archives of the public mailing lists are available on the AMSAT website, the contents of individual messages are easily found using common search engines. Because of this wide readership, AMSAT insists that messages posted on its public mailing lists conform to this Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Acceptable Content We embrace diversity of opinions and values. In order to preserve a constructive environment, we do insist that messages contain appro- priate content and are respectful of the members and readers of the list. All posts should include the author's first name and call sign, or full name if not currently licensed. In general, messages for the AMSAT mailing lists should be related to amateur radio satellites. Examples of on-topic posts include: + Announcements of general interest, including but not limited to AMSAT news, meetings, satellite availability, and DXpeditions. + Technical discussions, including the physics of space flight, modula- tion techniques, satellite design, RF path loss calculations, noise figure, etc. + Inquiries and suggestions about choosing equipment, learning operat- ing techniques, and troubleshooting problems. + Discussion of AMSAT plans and policies in ways that foster better understanding of the opportunities, trade-offs, and limitations that AMSAT faces, and constructive suggestions for improvement. + Posting of amateur radio satellite-related equipment and software available for sale. Unacceptable Content Strong disagreements on issues are inevitable, but the AMSAT mailing lists are not the place for exchanges which become spiteful, unproduc- tive exchanges. If you must have a heated exchange, it should be conducted privately and not in public on a mailing list. We define unacceptable content as anything that is: + Illegal + Insulting, abusive, harassing, or threatening + Knowingly false or misrepresentative Enforcement of this AUP Access to the AMSAT mailing lists is a privilege and not a right. While these rules cover most common situations, they cannot anticipate everything. Consequently AMSAT reserves the right to take any actions it deems appropriate to ensure these forums are not disrupted or abused. Violators of this policy may be subjected to manual moderation or have their ability to post messages suspended. Violators may or may not be warned prior to enforcement. If you feel that you've been unfairly blocked from the list, you may appeal your situation in writing to: The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation Attention: AMSAT-BB 850 Sligo Avenue, Suite 600 Silver Spring, MD 20910 Your letter of appeal will be forwarded to the VP of User Services and the Director of Electronic Communications for consideration. [ANS thanks the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.02 AO-51 Spacecraft Reorientation Planned in January AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.02 AMSAT-NA VP Operations, Drew KO4MA says AO-51 is back in to it's normal configuration between January 4 - January 31: FM Repeater, V/U Uplink: 145.920 MHz FM Downlink: 435.300 MHz FM (570 mw) 9k6 BBS and Telemetry Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM Downlink: 435.150 MHz FM (450 mw) Sometime in early January the AO-51 Operations Team plans to use the reversible magnet to reorient the spacecraft to the normal polarity favoring the northern hemisphere. Toward the end of January 2010 the schedule may allow for L/U voice configuration on the 435.150 downlink between telemetry collections. The AO-51 schedule will be updated when this mode becomes available: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php Please address all AO-51 inquiries to the Operations Committee via ao51-modes(a)amsat.org. [ANS thanks the AO-51 Operations Team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.03 AMSAT at the Cowtown Hamfest - 15 & 16 January 2010 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.03 Keith, W5IU reports that AMSAT will have a strong presence at the Cowtown Hamfest in Fort Worth, TX, on 15 and 16 January 2010. AMSAT will maintain a booth both days of the event. Also Douglas Quagliana, KA2UPW/5, will have two hours of forum time on Saturday afternoon to present an "Introduction to Amateur Radio Satellites" and monitoring the health of satellites by capturing and decoding telemetry. Douglas is very knowledgeable in both of these areas and is an excellent speaker. Live demonstrations of communications through the current satellites, including the new ones, will take place on both days. This Hamfest is sponsored by the Lockheed Martin Amateur Radio Club. Additional details are available at: http://www.cowtownhamfest.com/ [ANS thanks Keith, W5IU for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.04 AMSAT Awards AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.04 AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce KK5DO says congratulations are in order for these satellite operators earning awards this month: The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO: Luis Benvenutty, WP4NYY Anotnio Barbieri, I0JOW The following have earned the South Africa Communications Achievement Award: Neven Nrdljas, 9A5YY #US140 Kent Frazier, K5KNT #US141 The following have earned the W4AMI Achievement Award (for 1000 contacts): David Webb, KB1PVH #59 To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org. [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.05 New Student Satellites Announced by India and University of Colorado AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.05 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.05 A new Amateur Radio Satellite from India, named StudSat (STUDent SATellite) is slated for a March 2010 launch and will carry a camera capable of 90 metre resolution which will be used to perform the function of a remote sensing satellite and take images of earth's surface. The satellite resembles a small cube of size (10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm), weighing about 850 gm and has a volume of 1.1 litres. The satellite is intended to be launched in 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit on an Indian launcher. StudSat plans to use a 10mW CW beacon on UHF and also a half duplex 9k6 or 4k8bps FSK TC/TLM link with 1 watt output also on UHF. This satellite has been coordinated by the IARU but the only frequency information available at this time states that 437 MHz will be used. Further information on StudSat can be found at http://www.teamstudsat.com/ The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $840,000 from the National Science Foundation for students to build a tiny spacecraft to observe energetic particles in space that should give scientists a better understanding of solar flares and their interaction with Earth's atmosphere. Scheduled for launch in 2012, the three-year grant to CU-Boulder's Labor- atory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the aerospace engineering sciences department involves the development of a 5-pound, loaf of bread- sized spacecraft carrying a miniature instrument package to observe ener- getic particles tied to "space weather" in the near-Earth environment. This satellite has been coordinated by the IARU but no specific frequency information is available at this time. [ANS thanks SouthGate Amateur Radio News for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.06 How's Satellite DX? AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.06 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.06 On January 8, 2010 Piraja, PS8RF worked Andre, ZS2BK via AO-7 (Mode B) in a footprint limit 34 second time window. The distance between the stations was 7694 Km. See the sound/video in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFmHERisWQ On AO-51 Piraja reports additional satellite DX with several contacts with Hugo, EA8HB on Las Palmas Island with strong signals. On January 6 Piraja heard the N1EL calling him, which is 5579 Km from him. On January 4 Bob, W7LRD copied 2E1EUB and MM5AJW on an AO-7 pass. Bob said it was the first time I heard anything other that Mika, OH8MBN. He invites European stations help him to stretch the AO-7 footprint. Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL reported FO-29 should come out of the eclipse soon. JARL continues to test the satellite and an operating schedule may be announced soon. Dave, KB1PVH noted this week that Perry, WB8OTH has now reached 6000 QSOs on the satellites. Nice job! SA-AMSAT says SumbandilaSat has reduced its power level to 2.5 watts to conserve power for other operations related to the primary mission. Initial reports from stations in Australia indicate that the reduction was hardly noticeable and that the signals remain stronger than most other amateur radio satellites. The SO-67 schedule is published on-line at http://www.amsatsa.org.za. The DX Newsletter DXNL 1657 - Jan 6, 2010 reported that XR9JA will be the callsign of Luis, XQ5CIE, Carlos, CE6UFF, Didier, F6DXE, and Dago- berto, CE5COX, from Jan 10-24 for their DXpedition to the Chilean naval base "Arturo Prat" on Greenwich Island belonging to the South Shetland Islands (AN-010). Operation will take place in CW, SSB, PSK31 on 160m-6m and via satellite on AO-51. Their QSL manager is CE5JA (direct or via bureau) and more information is available online at: http://www.ce5ja.cl [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-010.07 Final Call: Remember to Nominate SKN Best Fist AMSAT News Service Bulletin 010.07 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. January 10, 2010 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-010.07 Many thanks to all who participated in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2010. If you have not already done so, please take a moment to nominate someone you worked for Best Fist. Your nom- inee need not have the best fist of those you heard, but only of those you worked. Please send your nomination to Ray at w2rs(a)amsat.org. A list of those nominated will be published in an ANS bulletin in early February, and in The AMSAT Journal. [ANS thanks Ray, W2RS 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. And, for those of you going to Cowtown, please keep in mind that when NASA puts a bunch of Holsteins into low earth orbit it will be the herd shot around the world. 73, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM K9JKM at amsat dot org

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HO-68 Telemetry
by John Zaruba Jr 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

HO-68 Beacon Telemetry PASS 0158 UTC 10JAN2010 LOCATION: FM29LO Southern New Jersey, USA CH1: AAA PA2 (Beacon Only) CH2: TTT Beacon Only CH3: AVV 122 DEG C CH4: AVT 130 mW CH5: ETT 5.00 V CH6: TTT 000 mA CH7: TTT 000 V CH8: TTT 000 mW CH9: TTT 000 mA CH10: TTT 000 mA CH11: TTT 000 V CH12: TTT 000 mA CH13: TTT 000 V 73, John K2ZA

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OT Tubes
by Steve 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

I noticed thread about building a tube amp, which reminded me I had a some lying around. I have dug them out and am offering them free to anyone who can make use of them. So I have 5 OA2 150 tubes (tube equivalent of a zener diode) and 5 2c39 tubes plus 1 cv6224 (conduction cooled 2c39 I think) they are all used or out of spec, but I believe they all work. They are free to a good home just pay the p&p and maybe make a donation to Amsat-UK for the funcube project. http://www.funcube.org.uk/ I used to work in a factory that made 2c39's and 4cx250's amongst other tubes, mostly Klystrons and TWT's and could often get hold of out of spec tubes etc. I wonder why I was a very popular Ham back in the 80's lol. Steve G6UIM

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SatPC32 Releasing Ports
by Joel Black 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

I have an issue that appears to be with SatPC32 although I could be wrong. When I use SatPC32, all works fine with my USB-to-serial adapter controlling the radio. If I shut down SatPC32 and start HamRadioDeluxe, generally speaking, I cannot control HRD. It's as if the USB-to-serial adapter is still wanting to talk to SatPC32. Starting up SatPC32 in the same session works fine. I have found that a restart of the PC is not usually enough to release the USB adapter - a full shutdown is required. Occasionally, unplugging and replugging the USB adapter will work, but not often. USB adapter: U232-P9 PC: Dell E520 OS: Vista 32-bit RAM: 3GB SatPC32: v12.8a HRD: v5.0 build 2434 Beta When I was getting the version numbers, I started SatPC first and then HRD. Right now, it's working as it should. Even changing satellites, thus making the radio switch modes, doesn't cause HRD to fail on start-up. So, I cannot make it *not* work right now. Thanks, Joel, W4JBB

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probably simple
by Bob- W7LRD 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Happy New Year all This is probably simple, however, I need a quick and simple way of determining my uplink frequency given a specific downlink frequency. Usually I will just send a few dits to find myself. When trying to work a sked footprint edge to edge I need to be at the right frequency at the right time, without hunting around for myself. I am refering to AO-7 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle, Wa.

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HAM RADIO UNIVERSITY
by Peter 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

HI: I not available to work the SO-50, 1/10, 15:09 UTC pass for my HRU demo, I'm needed as part of a panel discussion. I plan to work the 18:50UTC pass of AO-27, thank you. Trivia: What is the oldest Amateur Satellite in orbit?? I'm preparing for my talk and I'm learning.. 73, Pete, WB2OQQ

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Blackberry Tracking software
by Angelo Glorioso 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Is there any Blackberry Satellite tracking software? 73 de Angelo --------------------------------------------------------- If you don't ask, you will never know!! _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390706/direct/01/

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WG: 7 Messages to H ope-1 BBS in one pass, with attached files photos (1ST TIME)
by Mike Rupprecht 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Hi Nader, good job! I was able to upload only one message today. It's very hard to do that in Europe... See the latest HO-68 directory here: http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=10753 73, Mike DK3WN -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] Im Auftrag von Nader Omer Gesendet: Freitag, 8. Januar 2010 23:38 An: amsat bb bb Betreff: [amsat-bb] 7 Messages to H ope-1 BBS in one pass, with attached files photos (1ST TIME) I succceded to upload 7 messages to BBS on board hope-1 oscar satellite in one pass! Orbit # 323 time 18:42- 19:02 date 8-01-2010 locator KK65GP Messages to dk3wn 2 messages one with attached photo hb9ska message to all message to ba1du message to w0sl message to je9pel see the photos for more http://picasaweb.google.com/Nader.st2nh/7MessagesToHope1BbsInOnePassWithAtta ched\ PhotoFile1stTime# 73 de Nader , st2nh www.st2nh.com _______________________________________________ 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

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AO-7 QSO 7694 Km
by ps8rf Piraja 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Hello all, I posted a short video with the contact maintained today with Andre, ZS2BK via AO-7 in mode B ( Orbit 60848 - 19:47 UTC - 01/08/10 ). We keep the QSO with a small window that the AO-7 has provided us. The window was only about 34 sec, this time interval we could not match any commit error. The distance between the two stations is 4085 miles or 7669 Km. Andre wrote via email: " "My Doppler calc was also gratefully spot on. For example I calculated that I should call so that my downlink is on 145.944.2 mhz I worked out that our Doppler difference would be 3.8 khz and amazing that was spot-on. There is really no time to tune !" Andre is right the time was too little for adjustments. Taking also into account that I manually worked the rotor and control of my rig. See the sound/video in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFmHERisWQ I hope you enjoy it 73, Pirajá, PS8RF _________________________________________________________________ O Novo Windows 7 funciona do jeito que você quer. Clique aqui para conhecer! http://www.microsoft.com/brasil/windows7/default.html?WT.mc_id=1539

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Galileo Contract Awarded
by Trevor . 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Russian-built Soyuz rockets will send up the satellites in batches of two from October 2012. By early 2014 it is anticipated there will be 16 satellites in orbit, see http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/sstl_wins_galileo_bid.htm 73 Trevor M5AKA Daily Amateur Radio News (Email/RSS): http://www.southgatearc.org/ Email Your News Items to: editor at southgatearc.org Or use the Form at: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news_1.htm ----

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