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

Test
by WCP 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

Test

1 0

Office Closed
by Martha 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

The AMSAT Office will be closed from Wednesday, October 6 - Monday, October 11th. We will reopen on Tuesday, October 12th. -- 73- Martha

1 0

Iceland on AO-51
by Luc Leblanc 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

Ari TF3ARI from Reykjavik Iceland was active this morning on AO51 i just getting him at a very low elevation for him at 1102Z this morning. Temp in Reykjavik 8C here 6C "-" Luc Leblanc VE2DWE Skype VE2DWE www.qsl.net/ve2dwe DSTAR urcall VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE

1 0

OSCAR-11 Report
by Clive Wallis 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

OSCAR-11 REPORT 30 September 2010 This report covers the period from 30 March to 30 September 2010. During this time the satellite was silent until it was heard by JA0CAW on 29 August. Since then, it was heard until 08 September and from 18 to 29 September. Excellent signals have been reported from stations located around the world, and good copy obtained from decoded telemetry frames. There has been a significant change since the previous period of activity which ended in March 2010. The on-board clock is now very stable. It's gained only three seconds in 30 days. This is comparable with its accuracy when the satellite was fully operational. During its first 21 years it gained approximately one minute per year. However, there is still an accumulated loss of 309 days, which has occurred during eclipses of the last few years.! The other change is that it's now transmitting during eclipses, although signals are weaker at those times. This indicates that there is still some capacity remaining in the battery. These two changes suggest that some part of the system may have recently failed 'open circuit' thus reducing the overall power drain of the system, and allowing more power to be available during eclipses. There was an unexplained current drain observed when analogue telemetry was last transmitted. This fault might have cleared. Interestingly, the status telemetry shows that the Digital Store & Readout experiment has switched off, since the satellite was previously heard in February. The satellite appears to be operating for ten days on, followed by ten days off, so it should start transmitting again around 09 October. The Beacon frequencies are - VHF 145.826 MHz. AFSK FM ASCII Telemetry UHF 435.025 MHz. OFF S-band 2401.5 MHz. OFF Reception reports have been received from Bernard FY1LE, Roland DG1EBR, Mike DK3WN, Tetsu JA0CAW, Adam SQ8MFC, MM0DNX, Tony VK3KKP/G8HIM, Martin DC1MAR, John M0BIC, Etienne F1GRR and Carlos KD6GRF. Many thanks to everyone. Many reports have also been added to the live satellite status page, on the website set up by David KD5QGR and Bob WB4APR. This is a very convenient and easy to use facility, which shows the current status of all the amateur satellites. Strongly recommended for future reports! The URL is http://oscar.dcarr.org/index.php For the benefit of new listeners, here is a short history of OSCAR-11. It was lauched in 1984, providing telemetry and other digital services for amateur radio and educational users. During its many years of operation it survived long periods of eclipses and continuous full sunlight. In 2002 the satellite reverted to its default mode of operation, controlled by the watchdog timer. In 2005 all the analogue telemetry channels failed. Solar eclipses also started to cause the watchdog timer cycle to reset, which switched off the satellite for approximately 15 days. In 2008 solar eclipses became a permanent feature of every orbit, causing the satellite to switch off for about 15 days, probably after only one orbit of transmission. Thus the satellite was not expected to be heard again for any continuous period until 2019, when there will be some eclipse free periods. However, the satellite started transmissions unexpectedly in November 2008. These continued until March, when it was followed by silence until until the recent period of activity. OSCAR-11 transmits on 145.826 MHz., set receiver to NBFM. The satellite has a characteristic sound, rather like raspy slow morse code, sending "di di dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" sent over a period of five seconds. If you are receiving a very weak signal, switch the receiver to CW or SSB. You should hear several sidebands around the carrier frequency and should be able to hear the characteristic 'morse code like' sound on at least one sideband. Please note that you need a clean noise-free signal to decode the signals, and your receiver must be set to NBFM mode, for a decoder to work. If you need to know what OSCAR-11 sounds like, there is an audio clip on my website www.g3cwv.co.uk/ which may be useful for identification and as a test signal for decoding. The current status of the satellite, is that all the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. The real time clock is showing a large accumulated error, but is now incrementing accurately to within a few seconds per month. The day of the month has a bit stuck at 'one' so the day of the month may show an error of +40 days for some dates. The time display has switched into 12 hour mode. Unfortunately, there is no AM/PM indicator, since the time display format was designed for 24 hour mode. The spacecraft computer and active attitude control system have switched OFF, ie. the satellite' attitude is controlled only by the passive gravity boom gradient, and the satellite is free to spin at any speed. The watchdog timer now operates on a 20 day cycle. The ON/OFF times have tended to be very consistent. The average of many observations have shown this to be 20.7 days, ie. 10.3 day s ON followed by 10.4 days OFF. Listeners to OSCAR-11 may be interested in visiting my website. If you need to know what OSCAR-11 should sound like, there is a short audio clip for you to hear. The last telemetry received from the satellite is available for download. The website contains an archive of news & telemetry data which is updated from time to time. It also contains details about using a soundcard or hardware demodulators for data capture. There is software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry. The URL is www.g3cwv.co.uk . If you place this bulletin on a terrestrial packet network, please use the bulletin identifier $BID:U2RPT149.CWV, to prevent duplication. 73 Clive G3CWV xxxxx(a)amsat.org (please replace xxxxx by g3cwv)

4 3

RS-15 Beeping
by Armando Mercado 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hi all, Today is the 53rd anniversary of Sputnik 1. By coincidence, instead of its usual continuous carrier, RS-15 is beeping. 73, Armando, N8IGJ

1 0

ND9M Road Trip #4
by claryco＠aol.com 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Sorry for the late notice, but I'll be heading for the DN46 / DN47 grid line for today's AO51 pass that rises locally at 04/2258Z, allowing for road conditions of course. Cori and I will leave Butte tomorrow and head for the northerly US grids in DN2x and DN3x. 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC Butte MT / Silver Bow Co. / DN35

1 0

Fwd: AMSAT at the NASM (Hispanic Heritage Month) - October 16, 2010, last call for volunteers
by Samudra Haque 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Hello all, please note the upcoming special event on the 16th of October, 2010. I would like to remind AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-DC members I am still taking volunteers for this event. Please contact me directly for details, and any co-ordination for travel to NASM, or if you have any items to contribute for the day, I can arrange for a pickup. Samudra Haque, N3RDX & S21X Alexandria, VA 22310 (202) 812-3325 samudra.haque(a)gmail.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Samudra Haque <samudra.haque(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 3:55 PM Subject: AMSAT at the NASM (Hispanic Heritage Month) - October 16, 2010, First call for volunteers To: Amsat-bb <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Hello AMSAT-NA and others, if you are interested in volunteering for AMSAT outreach activities, please consider the following event that is being organized by the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The last event at the NASM was Space Day, which included a live ARISS contact and AMSAT display stands with a variety of equipment and presentations. Event: Hispanic Heritage Month Family day—Argentina in Air and Space Location: National Air and Space Museum Date: Saturday, October 16, 2010 Time: 10 AM – 3 PM I am volunteering to organize AMSAT's participation for the event. Please contact me through e-mail if you are interested and able to participate in any form. I will need to know: * Can you volunteer any exhibition/display resources (pictures, posters, etc.) ? * Can you volunteer your time on October 16, 2010 for any portion? * Can you provide any presentation materials relevant to Argentina in Air and Space? * Will you require transportation? etc. etc. Additional info from NASM: NASM is looking for AMSAT members who would be interested in talking to the visitors about satellites. Because the focus of the day is Argentina, we are particularly interested in people with expertise in Argentinean satellites. Bonus points for members how can discuss Pehuensat-1 because Pablo de Leon, who was the payload manager, will be a featured speaker at the event. Expectations: AMSAT members would set-up tables with equipment, posters, and other items of interest to visitors. These tables would be staffed throughout the day by AMSAT members. You are welcome to volunteer for a couple of hours or the whole day. Free parking will be provided all, and lunch will be provided for people who volunteer the whole day. This event will celebrate both the centennial and bicentennial of Argentina. For the centennial celebration we will focus on Jorge Newberry and lighter than air. For the bicentennial (which is this year) the focus will be on Argentina’s accomplishments in space. The linchpin of this portion of the program will be Pablo de Leon. He has been involved with a number of projects for the NASA and CONAE. Based on his accomplishments a special feature will focus on space suit design, development and production—ILC Dover has agreed to bring some of the people who make the actual suits. I have already outlined some of his involvement in satellites. In addition to that, CONAE is sending a large model of the SAC-D satellite and I am hopeful to have some the Aquarius team involved as well.

1 0

College Satellite this Thursday evening
by Dr. Jay Garlitz 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

It's time for another College Satellite night! We hope to see you on the birds Thursday evening October 7th from 22:00 UTC to 0500 UTC. College Satellite nights are a monthly event held the first Thursday of the month. Mark your calendar and spread the word to college hams/club stations that you know! College club stations plan on being on birds AO51, SO50, AO7, VO52, HO-68 and more. Please give these stations a call and work them.they will identify their college club identity along with their call sign. 73, Dr. Jay Garlitz, AA4FL Gator ARC Faculty Advisor at UF, W4DFU trustee www.gatorradio.org <http://www.gatorradio.org/>

1 0

Thanks !
by PA3GUO 04 Oct '10

04 Oct '10

Thanks a lot to all the HAMs that helped me with my 'useless' experiment. Your reports (and especially your many kind words) were really appreciated ! -- Henk, PA3GUO

1 0

Re: Useless experiment running today...
by ryan woods 03 Oct '10

03 Oct '10

VERY!!!!! good audio here in NA of ho68 becon (as I write this).......glad to see it working for you 73 de kd8atf

1 0