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

SpaceX Launch Date Slips Again
by B J 09 Nov '10

09 Nov '10

http://www.spacenews.com/venture_space/101108-spacex-cots-demo-delayed.html 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @DO33FL

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FCC Vanity Call Sign Rules Change today
by Bruce 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

as noted on a local reflector... http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db1108/FCC-10-189A1.p… 73...bruce

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Saturday in (and around) Kingman, Arizona...
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Hi! I'm back home after a quick 30-hour trip to Kingman in northwestern Arizona. I attended one of the two days of the Kingman Hamfest with an AMSAT table, and had some time to operate from a couple of grids around that city. It was a great time! The Mohave Amateur Radio Club, the local club that sponsored the hamfest, was a great host and everyone at the hamfest appreciated having an AMSAT presence - even if I was not able to be there on Friday for the first day of their hamfest. The hamfest was in one of the parking lots at Kingman's Centennial Park, along the I-40 freeway and about a mile west of old route 66 (also known as Andy Devine Avenue as the old highway runs through Kingman). This was not the largest parking lot at the park, but it worked well for the hamfest. Being next to the freeway brought in some visitors who had no idea there was a hamfest in Kingman. I was at the hamfest a few minutes after 5am (1200 UTC), and was ready for the first pass I used for a demonstration - an AO-7 pass at 1425 UTC. I logged 5 QSOs on that pass, and had demonstrations on 7 other passes (two each on VO-52, HO-68, and AO-27 - plus an ISS pass) until the hamfest wrapped up at 2200 UTC. The ISS pass around 2043 UTC started out with packet on 145.825 MHz. I kept switching between that frequency and 145.800 MHz, hoping to hear a voice on 145.800 MHz as had been the case on passes over the past few days. Sure enough, Doug Wheelock was on the microphone a couple of minutes into the pass. I started calling for NA1SS, initially saying just my callsign. Then I added that I was in Arizona, and then went with saying I was in Kingman, Arizona. At 2046 UTC, Doug Wheelock acknowledged my call in Kingman, Arizona. Crowds enjoy satellite demonstrations at hamfests, but an unscheduled contact with the ISS during a demonstration was a real treat! What better way to show off this aspect of our hobby, talking with an astronaut in orbit... it doesn't get any better than that. I'm definitely sending off for an NA1SS QSL card. :-) After the ISS went away, I looked at the IC-2820H I used for the QSO and the FM satellite demonstrations. It was set on low power. I used only 5W to work the ISS from the hamfest, and did not realize it at the time. That made a huge impression on the crowd I had for the ISS pass and QSO. Thanks to everyone at the Mohave Amateur Radio Club, and in particular its president Bill Smith KD7MIA, for allowing AMSAT a space at their hamfest. Also, thanks to the AO-51 command stations and Mark N8MH for their quick work in getting AO-51 back in operation. Mark made a point of e-mailing me directly with the news AO-51 was working again, after his post here on the -BB. I didn't use AO-51 at the hamfest, but it came in handy for my post-hamfest activity in and around Kingman. And, of course, thanks to all (including Doug Wheelock at NA1SS) who called and made a total of 44 QSOs with WD9EWK during the demonstrations. Once the hamfest wrapped up, I had about 35 minutes until an eastern AO-51 pass. It was a low pass, with maximum elevation of 17 degrees for Kingman, and I decided to drive about 18 miles/29km south of Kingman to a spot on the DM24wx/DM25wa grid boundary (search for 35 N 114 8.243 W on Google Maps or other mapping site to see the spot). After exiting the freeway, the last 2.6 miles (4.2km) were on a dirt track on the west side of I-40 to reach the grid boundary. This area had mountains to the west and east, but not high enough to make satellite operation difficult. In the span of 10 minutes, WD9EWK logged QSOs with 21 stations across the USA and in Mexico. Since I was not planning on returning home until later in the evening, I was going to work all of the AO-51 and SO-50 passes in this area. I had an eastern SO-50 pass and a western AO-51 pass in the span of just over 30 minutes starting just before 0000 UTC. With that, I drove back to Kingman to find the DM25/DM35 grid boundary that cuts through the east side of that city. I parked at DM25xg/DM35ag a few miles/km north of the hamfest site, north of I-40 and west of old route 66 (search for 35 15.246 N 114 W in Google Maps to see where this is). Some who were watching my APRS track probably were wondering why I was driving back to Kingman after just one pass at DM24/DM25, and eventually they could see what I was up to. I worked these two passes from this spot, making QSOs with 13 stations on SO-50 followed by 10 more QSOs on AO-51. I had about an hour after the western AO-51 pass before the last SO-50 pass I planned to work. Using the remaining sunlight, I drove back to the DM24/DM25 boundary south of Kingman to work the 0133 UTC SO-50 pass as the last bit of daylight went away. I only logged 5 QSOs on this pass, with 4 stations in the western USA and one Mexican station. After quickly storing my antenna in my truck, I drove back to Kingman for dinner, fuel, and a chance to clean my truck's windshield (many bugs met their demise on the windshield during the drive up to Kingman and the drives to and from the DM24/DM25 grid boundary) before the drive home. With the way the post-hamfest AO-51 and SO-50 passes lined up, it made more sense for me to do the extra driving between the two locations I worked from. Even though it was an extra round trip to the DM24/DM25 boundary, I was able to work one eastern and one western pass from each of those grid-boundary locations. APRS coverage in and around Kingman was good, and I was able to confirm after the fact that I was showing up on sites like aprs.fi at each grid-boundary location. As John K8YSE used very well on his recent road trip around Lake Superior, and I have seen on my travels in the past 3 months, having APRS is a great tool when on the road to allow others to see where I am and gauge where I may stop to work satellite passes. When I returned home late Saturday evening, I saw that I had driven 484.4 miles/779.4km on this trip. In addition to writing this e-mail, I am putting my log entries into my spreadsheet, and copying audio recordings from the passes and the photos to my computer. I may have been tired when I got home last night and quickly fell asleep, but this was a fun trip. The Kingman hams, not just the hamfest organizers, were all appreciative of seeing AMSAT at their hamfest and the satellite demonstrations. I hope I can make it back to Kingman for their 2011 hamfest. As with my other trips, there is no need to first send me a QSL card and/or SASE to get a WD9EWK QSL card from a QSO during or after the hamfest. Just an e-mail is sufficient, with QSO details. I will print some cards this week for the 3 locations I operated from yesterday, and get them in the mail shortly. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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SO-67 Special North american activation 13, November, 1542Z
by Tom Schuessler 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Hello all, Thanks to ZR1CBC, Johann Lochner of the SO-67 team for honoring a request I made to have SO-67 support a special demonstration of Amateur Radio at an International day festival being held at the North Hills Preparatory School here in Irving, TX this coming Saturday, 13 November. Ham radio as an international activity will be featured as well as booths/crafts/food from around the world. The fact that SO-67, SUMBANDILASAT is a South African bird will add to the appeal of the demo. I would like to invite other sat ops in North America to join us on SO-67 this Saturday. http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ 73 Tom Schuessler 2713 Lake Gardens Drive Irving, Texas 75060 972-986-7456 214-403-1464 (Cell) n5hyp(a)arrl.net _____________________________________________________ Message: 9 Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2010 08:18:53 +0100 From: "Ib Christoffersen" <oz1my(a)privat.dk> Subject: [amsat-bb] SO-67 planned active over Europe this week To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Message-ID: <0A.CB.07581.D54A7DC4(a)fep41.mail.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi all, SO-67 is planned to be active over Europe this week. See: http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ Please report activity on the report page: http://oscar.dcarr.org/ I still do not have my station active due to renovation of the house. 73 OZ1MY Ib

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G3RUH Modems?
by Tony 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

All, It's my understanding that the term "G3RUH compatible" does not actually mean a TNC uses G3RUH circuitry. Can anyone shed some light on whether or no the SCS Tracker actually uses the G3RUH system? http://www.scs-ptc.com/shop/products/modems/tracker-dsp-tnc Thanks, Tony -K2MO

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antenna rotator test
by N. Mahdinejad 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Dear all. Thanks for Bob W7LRD and Greg D for answering to my last question. Is there any standard document or other for test antenna rotator? Some functional and environmental tests. If anyone is familiar with these tests, please send me a link to read or download some useful documents. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Best regards. Nayer Mahdinejad.

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Re: VUCC - and other - Satellite Awards
by Rodney Waln 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

good list of awards, my i add that QRP Amateur Radio Club International has satellite awards also and they are very good bunch of qrp people, as i have found out there is no shortage of wall paper i have 11 satellite awards (certificates) some listed some not, and some from other countries, as my original mentor said "fire up the radios and work'em" kc0zhf

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Re: AO-51 on eclipse passes?
by Andrew Glasbrenner 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Eclipses do not start for the satellite until January. Even if you are in the dark, the satellite is illuminated if anywhere in it's footprint is illuminated, so feel free to use AO-51 no matter the time right now. When we go back into eclipses in January, we'll likely configure the satellite to be off when in the dark. Thanks for asking though! 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations -----Original Message----- >From: Doug Kuitula <ka8qcu(a)pasty.net> >Sent: Nov 8, 2010 6:24 PM >To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org >Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 on eclipse passes? > >Hi all, >I'm wondering if it is recommended to work AO-51 during the eclipse passes(early morning) over North America. From what I've heard on this BBS it will be entering a long period of eclipses, and the batteries are getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't want to mess things up. So I thought I'd ask ahead of time. > Thanks to all that are monitoring and controlling ECHO. >73 de Doug KA8QCU >_______________________________________________ >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-51 on eclipse passes?
by Doug Kuitula 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Hi all, I'm wondering if it is recommended to work AO-51 during the eclipse passes(early morning) over North America. From what I've heard on this BBS it will be entering a long period of eclipses, and the batteries are getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't want to mess things up. So I thought I'd ask ahead of time. Thanks to all that are monitoring and controlling ECHO. 73 de Doug KA8QCU

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VUCC - and other - Satellite Awards
by Clint Bradford 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

With the proliferation of VUCC awards being earned recently, I thought a brief recap of what awards are available for satellite work would be appropriate. AMSAT has offered several awards over the years. And you do not need 100 contacts to get award-ed for your accomplishments: a single documented satellite contact qualifies you for the AMSAT Satellite Communicator's Club award! Current and past AMSAT awards include ... -Satellite Communicator's Club -Satellite Communications Achievement -South African AMSAT Award -OSCAR Sexagesimal Award -OSCAR Century Award -WA4AMI 1000 Award -WA4AMI 5000 Award -51 on 51 Achievment Award Details on the AMSAT awards available at ... http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/awards/ In addition, the ARRL recognizes satellite efforts, too, with their WAC, DXCC, WAS, and VUCC awards. -Worked All Continents Award (WAC) - Make one satellite contact with any station on each of the six continents. -DXCC Award with Satellite Endorsement - Make one satellite contact with any station in 100 different DXCC countries. -Worked All States Award - Make one satellite contact with any station in each of the 50 states. VHF/UHF Century Club Award - Make one satellite contact with any station in 100 different grid squares. Endorsements for each additional 25 grid squares. ARRL Awards information - http://www.arrl.org/awards/ Clint Bradford, K6LCS http://www.work-sat.com

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