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

Off to DM51/DM52
by Patrick STODDARD 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

Hello from Tucson! Thanks for the QSOs during my demonstrations at the hamfest. I just got my lunch, and will head to the DM51/DM52 line for some passes. Hopefully starting on AO27 @ 2129 UTC, and others if the weather stays good. I do not plan on venturing on the 145.880/435.150 side of AO51 later. APRS should track me out there, watch at http://aprs.fi/wd9ewk-7 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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FM05
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

I will be portable in FM05 on AO27 around the 18:00 utc pass.10/16/10 I will be in FM13/14 Sunday 17 Oct on AO27 for 2 passes I m not sure of the exact time but I will contact WA4NVM to post for me . WA4HFN Damon

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Icom IC-1200 forsale
by John Price 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

I am offering my IC-1200 mobile rig forsale. It is in very fine condition. I has never been mounted in a vehicle. I have all the orginal items that came with it and the box. I also have a English translation of the manual which is printed in hard copy. Anyone interested in this 1200 mhz Icom mobile rig or for answers to questions please contact me off list. I will be asking $295.00 including shipping to lower 48 states. Shipping to Alaska and Hawaii would be extra. -- N4QWF Amateur Radio Operator AO-7,AO-27,FO-29,SO-50,AO-51,VO-52,ISS Email N4QWF(a)AMSAT.ORG Formerly KC4AHW VK3FEZ Amsat Member #27845 DXCC #33,478 VUCC SAT #135 WAS SAT #296 51 on AO-51 #13 LON -79.256 LAT 37.459 Grid FM07il >From the Foothills of the Blueridge *Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - "WOW, What a ride!"

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Re: Contact on AO-51
by Chris Bloy 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

Perfect! That's it! Very busy pass on AO51 here in Europe so good to work him!! Sent from my iPhone On 16 Oct 2010, at 16:47, "Glenn AA5PK" <aa5pk(a)suddenlink.net> wrote: > Probably UT1FG/MM. Yuri is pretty active on the satellites. > 73 > Glenn AA5PK > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Bloy" <chris(a)photofuture.co.uk> > To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2010 10:34 AM > Subject: [amsat-bb] Contact on AO-51 > > >> BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }Hi >> All, >> I wonder if someone can confirm the details of the /MM station I >> worked on AO-51 today at about 16:15? >> Details were :- >> UK1FG/MM with a grid locator of KA07UT however thats just south of >> Cape town, I am sure I have seen a message on this list with the >> correct grid.,. >> Thanks and look forward to a reply >> Chris - M0DQO >> on behalf of GB0BWS - Jota Station for the weekend.. >> _______________________________________________ >> 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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Contact on AO-51
by Chris Bloy 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }Hi All, I wonder if someone can confirm the details of the /MM station I worked on AO-51 today at about 16:15? Details were :- UK1FG/MM with a grid locator of KA07UT however thats just south of Cape town, I am sure I have seen a message on this list with the correct grid.,. Thanks and look forward to a reply Chris - M0DQO on behalf of GB0BWS - Jota Station for the weekend..

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Re: FO-29??
by Mineo Wakita 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

JARL says: It seems that the power budget of FO-29 is low. We turned off the analog transmitter(JTA) to confirm it on 8:19 UTC, 14 Oct 2010. We are going to perform the next use as follows. 16 Oct, 20:00 UTC ON, and 18 Oct, 19:55 UTC OFF It does not limit the use of the analog system transponder, but please do uplink with the reasonable power. We may cancel the use depending on the status of the examination use. Please use as low power as necessary on the uplink to complete your communications. JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita

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Sumbandila (SO-67) in safe mode
by Johann Lochner 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

Hi folks, Sumbandila (SO-67) entered a safe mode between our morning passes in South Africa and will only continue executing its schedule once an alarm is cleared. This implies that the V/U repeater will be off today until 18:00 UTC and probably for longer. 73 de ZR1CBC, Johann.

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FUNcube Dongle
by Howard Long 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

Folks I've been enormously gratified by the large volume of interest I've had in the FUNcube Dongle over the past few weeks, and as the pace of enquiries has stepped up I've decided to come clean about the development progress. In case -bb subscribers are unaware, the FUNcube Dongle was originally designed to be an accessible way to be able to receive amateur satellites, most noteably AMSAT-UK's forthcoming FUNcube cubesat (http://www.funcube.org.uk). What does accessible mean? Essentially we mean both low cost and easy to setup. The original target market is, and remains, what I call the unconverted, those, particularly in education, who need a means of being able to practically introduce and demonstrate real space technology in a hands-on way. When the work on FUNcube was distributed, I was given the task of coming up with the ground segment, and the result is the FUNcube Dongle. As it's tuned out, the FUNcube Dongle has the added bonus that it's a VHF/UHF and low microwave equivalent to the well-known Softrock in an integrated plug and play package. We intend to have two models, an entry-level frequency-restricted version targeted at the educational market, and a full blown Pro version that seems to piqued the interest of many radio amateurs, radio astronomers and short wave listeners. In précis, it includes an integrated front end filter, LNA, quatrature LO, zero-IF quadrature downconverter, dual 16 bit ADC and USB soundcard. In it's simplest of forms, it's SMA in, USB out. It's also compatible with pretty much any software that works for the Softrock, for example LinRad, Spectravue, M0KGK and Rocky. The passband is 96kHz, tuneable from 64MHz to 1,700MHz. The tuning is via a USB HID interface meaning that as well as your favourite soundcard SDR program, you'll need a little app supplied with the FUNcube Dongle to control the centre frequency or you'll end up only listening to my favourite FM broadcast station ;-) It's also compatible with XP, Vista , Windows 7 in 32 bit and Vista and Windows 7 in 64 bit. Initial testing on the Mac and Ubuntu 32 and 64 bit shows compatibility too, however I haven't written the frequency control application for those platforms yet. So, no USB drivers are required! To keep people informed going forward, I have set up a blog here: http://www.funcubedongle.com/. A few of us on the -BB may be aware of an rather prolific internal blog I've been writing for the FUNcube technical team that covers 100 posts or so over the past three months. The choice cuts of the internal blog will also appear in the http://www.funcubedongle.com/ blog. Also there's a video here of the first pre-production unit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqzTBPLqal0 Projected availability of the first production batch of the Pro version is December 2010. Pricing is subject to assembly costs, but to give you indicative pricing we are working on an initial price of the Pro version to be circa USD150/GBP100. 73, Howard G6LVB

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Clint's World - And an Apology to ND9M
by Clint Bradford 16 Oct '10

16 Oct '10

So I am up here in San Ramon, California, after driving 400 pleasant miles to demo AO-51 and SO-50 and give my "Work the Birds" presentation tomorrow morning. As I arrive, posted all over the place are 2x3-foot signs of my little Word doc showing the three passes' times I intend to work. Wow - PACIFICON put my little easel and 11x14-inch blurb to shame ... their posters are ALL OVER the place! So we meet outside and discuss AMSAT and the FM birds, and then work the 4:56PM PDT pass of AO-51. With 2W TX output, we start working stations. Las Vegas. Portland, Oregon. Our own CM97 grid square. A couple other units. Then in comes a BOOMING-ing clear Jim, ND9M from Montana. I pride myself in being able to "read" my audiences. I truly have \never given the exact same presentation twice - and I've given 34 presentations the past 12 months - plus additional "just demos." So this group of 30+ hams are out in the parking lot with me, and I can tell that (a) few knew that this could be accomplished with just what I was holding in one hand, and (b) fewer realized the potential range of the pass. I mean, the footprints shown in almost all the software programs I have used are darned near ALWAYS quite conservative with what they indicate. I had told the group beforehand that we might work as far East as Arizona ... So when Vegas came in, they were impressed When Portland, Oregon was worked, they were MORE impressed. And when Montana's Jim came booming in I stated on the air, eyeing the crowd: "Wow, this cannot possibly work THAT far! You sound GREAT!" Welcome to Clint's world. Wasn't a frenzy. Wasn't manipulation of my crowd. (Well, yes it was, in a manner of speaking.) Just a pleasing "first-time" experience for most in attendance. Jim emailed me privately immediately after the pass, wondering (VERY politely) what the he** I was doing, stating on the air that what we accomplished in our communications was anything particularly extraordinary. And Jim is entirely correct: Much further distance comms are accomplished all the time with similar passes. ANYWAY, I apologize to Jim via a quickly-written-while-in-the-hotel's-restaurant email. I am writing this because Jim deserves a better explanation. If he were here and saw what was occurring with this group, I sincerely believe he'd be smiling and be appreciative of the attentive audience and how I "worked the crowd" as we hit not-so-close stations with minimal equipment. I can certainly see how someone might misinterpret my intentions. I *thought* there was enough "fake surprise" in my voice to make it clear that even after working so many passes, this can be an extremely exciting aspect of our hobby. Thank you, Jim, for your polite letter. Thanks to the rest of you for your support these past five or six years. Clint Bradford, K6LCS 909-241-7666 - cell

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FO-29
by Bob Herrell 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

What's wrong with FO-29? Not a peep during this pass. No beacon either. 73, Bob Herrell AJ5C

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Re: ND9M Road Trip Update #10A
by Andrew Glasbrenner 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

Sorry Jim, when I suggested FO-29 I hadn't looked at the live status page or seen Patrick's e-mail about it. Thanks for the effort, and I'm sure we'll pick up many more new ones another day. 73, Drew KO4MA -----Original Message----- >From: claryco(a)aol.com >Sent: Oct 15, 2010 6:29 PM >To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >Subject: [amsat-bb] ND9M Road Trip Update #10A > > >I'll be on both FO29 at 15/2310Z and AO51 at 15/2358Z from the DN75 / DN76 line. > >73, > >Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC > >_______________________________________________ >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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FO-29??
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

Hi! I was looking on http://oscar.dcarr.org/ and noticed that FO-29 has not been reported as active since early (UTC) Thursday. Did something happen to it? If FO-29 is not available tomorrow, that will only have an effect on one pass at the hamfest I'll attend in Tucson AZ. I was hoping to work one pass around 1300 UTC at the hamfest site, to see if a different antenna could overcome the military QRM I encountered trying to work FO-29 at that location a couple of years ago. Later in the day, AO-7 should be back in mode B - and its passes were coming by very close to the predicted times for FO-29. I still don't know exactly where I'll drive tomorrow after that hamfest, and may leave it to the APRS track to show where I'm at in southeastern Arizona (heading to DM51/DM52 if I'm south of I-10, DM52/DM53 if I am north of I-10, or the at Arizona/New Mexico state line in DM52 if I am parked along I-10) at http://aprs.fi/wd9ewk-7 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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FO-29
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

Hi! Thanks to Mika OH8MBN, he pointed me to JA0CAW's web page: http://ja0caw-je0mzi.mo-blog.jp/ Running that through the Google translator, and just looking at the section of the page regarding FO-29 that was not in Japanese, it looks like FO-29 may be on from 2000 UTC on Saturday (16 October) through 1955 UTC Monday (18 October). Here's hoping I read it right... 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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ND9M Road Trip Update #10A
by claryco＠aol.com 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

I'll be on both FO29 at 15/2310Z and AO51 at 15/2358Z from the DN75 / DN76 line. 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC

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ND9M Road Trip Update #10
by claryco＠aol.com 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

I'll be making a side trip to the DN75 / DN76 line for the late afternoon AO51 pass that rises locally at 15/2358Z. Other passes today and tomorrow morning will be from DN76 only. Cori won't be with me, so hopefully I won't get lost! 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC Miles City MT / Custer Co. / DN76

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Garmin GPS For Sale
by Zachary Beougher 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

Hi all, I wanted to let everyone know that my Garmin etrex Venture HC GPS is for sale. I just upgraded to another unit with a larger memory capacity, and I have no need for this one anymore. This unit is only about 4 months old (bought new), in pristine condition (no scratches, dings, etc.) and in perfect working order. You can read details and see pictures here - http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=267919 Due to how new it is, I would like to sell it for $120 (or best offer) shipped to the lower 48, $130 shipped outside of the lower 48. 73! Zack KD8KSN

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ND9M Road Trip Update #9
by claryco＠aol.com 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

Not surprisingly, a lot of ops jumped on DN68, DN76, DN77, and DN78 that we operated from today. During the 14/1905Z AO27 pass alone, 18 ops got into the log. Not only is that a for a seven-minute pass, but the bird didn't rise at my QTH for nearly two minutes after it switched to voice, so those 18 contacts were crammed into five minutes! Cori and I are going to spend an extra day in DN76 taking care of travel-related chores that we've been ignoring. I'll be on from this grid during various passes tomorrow and may sneak away to make a quick run down the road to put out DN75 again for a single pass; not sure yet. We'll head back out on the road on Saturday and cross into North Dakota. There are 16 grids in the state (aside from some slivers), and we'll get to them all. DN86 will be the first grid. 73, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC Miles City, MT / Custer Co. / DN76

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Out of Office
by Martha 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

I will be out of the office tomorrow. Back on Monday. -- 73- Martha

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SO67 parrot ?
by PA3GUO 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Was a good pass of SO67. Those who listened in via our webradio could confirm. Heared various stations, including non-HAM. Quite a few QSO's got made between eg ON5NY, EA1BYC, SP8CGR, 2M1EUB/P ... Myself I had turbo-short QSO's with ON5NY and 2E1EUB/P. Funny: I noticed my own voice being repeated a few seconds later, guess that was the parrot. I did use the PL tone all the time. Henk, PA3GUO

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SO67 FM live now
by PA3GUO 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Streaming the 22:10utc Oct 14 pass over Europe of SO67 http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?page_id=17689 look in the chat box for details -- Henk, PA3GUO

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Re: Experimental Web Radio from New Zealand and Europe
by Nader Omer 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Great work . Kudos to everyone who share in Satellite webradio net. ZL2BX, PA3GUO and DK3WN. FB OMs. 73 de Nader st2nh

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Missed AO-51 contact
by Jeremy Kiehner 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Today 10/13/10 while mobile on my way home from work I saw AO-51 making a high pass. Curiously I loaded up the memories in my Alinco DJ-G5 (mobile rig went kaput) and heard the bird and a QSO. Waiting for a break, I sent my call and location of York, Pennsylvania. An operator came back with my call and location each time I attempted to transmit. Unfortunately I was unable to hear the bird well on my mag mount dual band 1/4wave. This occurred around 0615 eastern. I apologize to, and thank the operator who was trying to contact me in return. It was my FIRST attempt at contact via a satellite (had been listening for a few weeks now while at home on my 3element 2 meter beam and the same Alinco HT. Successful to a point, made contact, I was heard i just could not hear the bird well. All in all, I'm now hooked. If I can hit this bird (and SO-51 earlier in the night tho it was dead and timer needed reset but I heard myself on it!) via mobile dual band mag mount on high passes, I can not wait to try on the 2 meter beam. 73, Jeremy KB3DLP

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SatPC32 & Windows 7
by Bob Herrell 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Hi all, Anyone running and IC-910H with SatPC32 and Windows 7 64-bit? Everything seems to work except for the CAT function. I have the proper port selected for the radio, but cannot get CAT to do any controlling. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks & 73 Bob Herrell AJ5C

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ND9M Road Trip Update #8
by claryco＠aol.com 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Here's our tentative sked for grids tomorrow (14 Oct): DN68 - SO50 - 1513Z (Earlier AO51 and SO50 passes are possible, but it's COLD outside here at those times!) DN68 / DN78 - AO27 - 1906Z DN68 / DN78 - AO27 - 2045Z DN68 / DN78 - AO51 - 2123Z DN77 - AO51 - 2259Z (possibly on the line with DN76) DN76 / DN77 - AO51 - 0039Z (15 Oct) We may stick around the local area an extra day on Friday before heading into North Dakota; we won't know for sure until tomorrow night. 73 for now, Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC Glasgow MT / Valley Co. / DN68

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Thanks for the Symposium
by Doug Kuitula 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Hi all, I just wanted to add my thanks to the folks who put on this years AMSAT Symposium in Chicago. I had a wonderful time and absolutely enjoyed all of the speakers. Unfortunately, I had to leave to leave on Saturday, and was not able to be there Sunday for the tour of the Fermi Lab. I'm not sure where next years Symposium will be. But if it is anywhere near you, try to attend. Once again, Thanks! 73 de Doug KA8QCU

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