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

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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