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

WD9EWK @ DM31 on Saturday (18 December)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Hi! Since it has been over 15 months since my first trip to operate from grid DM31 in southern Arizona, it's time to do it again. This time, it won't be in the summertime, and the weather should be decent for the day. I will drive to the same area where I worked from in 2009, in the small border town of Lukeville in Pima County, Arizona, probably at grid DM31ov. My tentative plans are for WD9EWK to work as many satellite passes as possible, starting with the HO-68 pass at 1751 UTC until local sunset around 0100 UTC. If I can get down there earlier, there could be additional morning passes. I should be able to work at least one FO-29 pass in the late afternoon, for those interested in satellite SSB activity. Lukeville is surrounded by the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument at the USA/Mexico border. I will most likely park at "Gringo Pass", a collection of shops with a fuel station and restaurant a few yards/meters north of the border crossing. There are too many hills around the highway north of Lukeville (AZ-85) at the DM31/DM32 grid boundary, so I won't worry about operating from up there. If anyone wants a satellite QSO from DM32, please e-mail me and we can make other plans for that to happen. The northeast corner of DM32 is less than an hour south of Phoenix, and I go down to the DM32/DM42 grid boundary occasionally to activate DM32 via satellite. As with my other trips where I work the satellites, there is no need to first send me a QSL card or SASE to get a WD9EWK DM31 QSL card. Just e-mail me with the QSO details. If you're in the log, I will send out a card. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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Re: Happy birthday to HO68
by Roland Zurmely 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

QSOs with PY1AT, PY5LF and UT1FG/MM in FF36 ! On FM repeater orbit #4807. 73 de Roland.

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Happy birthday to HO68
by Michael Chen 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

1 year anniversary. Happy Birthday, XW1! Michael Chen, BD5RV/4 AMSAT-China: http://www.camsat.cn ----------------------------------- Twitter: http://twitter.com/bd5rv Email: michael.bd5rv(a)gmail.com MSN: bd5rv(a)jsdxc.org Skype: michael-bd5rv

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No, Clint's Not Drinking ...
by Clint Bradford 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Q. Can the ISS astronauts see tonight's Geminid meteor shower? NASA: Yes - but they are orbiting at 250 miles above the Earth, and the meteors are at about 47 miles. So the astronauts on the ISS would have to look DOWN towards the Earth to see the meteor shower instead of up. I'm going to bed now ... (grin) Clint, K6LCS

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UHF Output Power On FT-847
by B J 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

I recently bought a second-hand FT-847 and something doesn't seem to be working properly. The power meter always reads 50 W whenever I key the mike. I thought that the output could be adjusted because 50 W into a satellite is excessive. Does anybody have any ideas on how I could reduce the UHF output power to 5 W? Thanks. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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AMSAT Awards
by Bruce 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Here are the awards that I have processed over the last month. This will be the last posting for 2010. The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO. Alan Murray, Jr., N1ZWL Richard Lewis, KG6ZVC The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award. Boris Lanca, 9A2GA #525 Paul Gagnon, N6MA #526 Rick Tejera, K7TEJ #527 Jim Bennett, KE4KOL #528 Tom Deeble, KA6SIP #529 Glenn Barr, WB0KFC #530 The following have earned the AMSAT Sexagesimal Award Paul Gagnon, N6MA #158 The following have earned the South Africa Satellite Communications Achievement award Nick Kucij, KB1RVT #US157 Boris Lanca, 9A2GA #US158 Rick Tejera, K7TEJ #US159 Jim Bennett, KE4KOL #US160 Tom Deeble, KA6SIP #US161 Glenn Barr, WB0KFC #US162 To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes

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Re: Clint
by Michael 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

I wondered that on previous showers and NASA is quite relaxed about the situation. That being said I wonder what the ISS is made from to with stand a storm? Mike N8GBU

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MacLife - Flip 'Prompter
by Clint Bradford 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

MacLife Magazine brief article on my Flip 'Prompter project. It is an inexpensive, do-it-yurself "teleprompter" for those of us making videos with small camcorders. http://tinyurl.com/maclife-fp Clint, K6LCS http://www.work-sat.com

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AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in January, Orlando, FL
by Samudra Haque 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

Hi, I have the privilege of presenting a technical paper at AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in January 2011, which is being held in Orlando, FL. If any of you are also going to this conference, I hope to see you there! Please drop me a line, if you want to meet, and I will try to locate your whereabouts between January 4 and 7 inclusive. My paper title: A Broadband Multi-hop Network for Earth-Mars Communication using Multi-purpose Interplanetary Relay Satellites and Linear-Circular Commutating Chain Topology Session: "Space Exploration Vehicle and Mission Design and Mission Logistics" session on the 5th of January, 2011 73 de N3RDX Samudra Haque George Washington University

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Re: Yaesu FTM-10
by Clint Bradford 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Look at "Odd Splits" on page 42-ish of your owners manual ... YES, you can program RX on 440 and TX on 2M in one memory channel. Clint, K6LCS

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