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

FUNcube Frequencies and Website
by Trevor . 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination panel have announced coordinated frequencies for the linear transponder and beacon of the AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite. They can be seen on the AMSAT-UK website at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/ The FUNcube website is at http://www.FUNcube.org.uk/ IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/ 73 Trevor M5AKA Daily Amateur Radio News (Email/RSS): http://www.southgatearc.org/ Email Your News To: editor at southgatearc.org Or Upload Using Form At: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/your_news_1.htm ----

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Re: How to add Moon Keps to SatPC32
by mlengruesser＠aol.com 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Hi Laurent, Attention: The Moon TLE (2line) it's not usefull for the "SGP4/8 two lines format ephemerid model " (InstantTrack, SatPC32 etc. ) the format is only a compress readable parameters The moon: Giving Keplerian elements for the moon is much more difficult. The main problem is that the moon's orbital plane has a fixed inclination with reference to the ecliptic plane. The moon's orbital plane wobbles around there and turns once every 18.6 years. Seen from the earth, that gives an changing inclination of about 18 to 28 degrees. The inclination of true earth satellites, on the other hand, remains fixed and the tracking program assumes that the inclination is not changing. The only way to overcome that problem is to give sets of "Keplerian elements" every 50 to 100 days. In that period the change of the inclination is not too big and the error stays small. A second problem with "Keplerian elements" for the moon is that the moon's orbit is severely perturbed in a way a ordinary satellite tracking program cannot handle. Those perturbations come from the sun, the earth (not being a exact sphere) and from major planets. To compute those perturbations exactly, we would need several hundred corrective terms. For the accuracy needed here (1-3 degrees for the usual amateur satellite antenna), it has been sufficient to correct only for the varying eccentricity. 73, de Michael

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Cal Poly Pomona
by Clint Bradford 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

I gave an abbreviated presentation to the newly-resurrected Cal Poly Pomona ham club this afternoon. "Abbreviated" because we just had an hour, and a great pass of SO-50 right over us (85 degrees!). Glen Shiery, AF6V, is doing great work exposing the kids to different facets of amateur radio. They have a dedicated room for their shack, and it will probably be up and running again by the Summer. It felt great speaking to a "younger" crowd. We need more youth in this magnificent hobby! Clint Bradford, K6LCS http://www.work-sat.com

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XE2/WD9EWK on Sunday (21 Feb) afternoon, trip wrap-up
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

Hi! Sunday afternoon was not planned to have much radio activity. There was going to be a get-together at a ham's house in Mexicali, before I left that area for the 3.5-hour drive home later in the day. I saw a pair of passes - AO-27 first, then SO-50 - to the east that I wanted to try to wrap up my radio operating for this trip. I took my FM satellite setup - IC-2820H, Elk Antennas 2m/70cm log periodic - across the border one more time. The get-together was at the house of David XE2DAK, southeast of downtown Mexicali in grid DM22go just over 3 miles/5km south of the USA/Mexico border. This neighborhood is tightly packed with houses, but with a decent view of the eastern sky. I had the pass predictions for the two passes, and was ready for the AO-27 pass at 2025 UTC. It seemed fitting that my first QSO was with another Mexican station, Manuel XE2BHL west of me in Tijuana. After that, 7 more QSOs were made in what sometimes becomes the busiest 7 minutes on the radio (it *definitely* was on Thursday afternoon's 2025 UTC pass!). About 40 minutes or so later, SO-50 came up from the south. With XE2DAK's house blocking the south, I had to wait a couple of minutes for the satellite to clear the house. Once that happened, 7 QSOs were made with stations across much of the USA. Two of the QSOs were interesting... I worked Larry KI6YAA, who was only a few blocks north of the USA/Mexico border. Larry gave me a QSL card for that contact after I crossed back into the USA - so I now have grid DM22 confirmed on my way toward an XE2 satellite VUCC. The other QSO was with a station in my home city Phoenix - K7NYS. After SO-50 went away, it was time for some great Mexican "carne asada" and enjoy the afternoon with friends before crossing the border and driving home. I was able to see the XE2DAK shack and the gear David has been using to work the FM satellites. For a small station, it was impressive. You can follow links with photos of XE2DAK's station from his QRZ.com entry. For this weekend, I made 93 QSOs from Mexico between Thursday afternoon's activity south of Mexicali and Sunday's QSOs from Mexicali. I made 42 QSOs at the Yuma hamfest, and Kevin KJ6DDS made 7 QSOs on a couple of passes Saturday afternoon. When I returned home last night, I saw that my truck had traveled 868.3 miles/1397km for this trip. Thanks to everyone who helped make the hamfest demonstrations a runaway success. Stations that were giving a brief description of their location, even if it was just the state, helped make a positive impression on the audiences. Thursday showed that there was a lot of interest in grid DM21, and that it might be worth a return trip there before my current XE ham permit expires. Or maybe some of the locals will make the trek south and put it on the air. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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Re: AO-51 20Feb2010 2259z Recording
by K8KFJ＠aol.com 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

In a message dated 2/22/2010 10:50:15 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, john(a)papays.com writes: > There are over 30 different callsigns on this recording The callsign I didn't see listed John sounded like that of a young op attempting to make a sat contact. The callsign sounded something like KJ4NVA or KJ4MGA. I sure would have liked to have seen him or her make a sat contact. Hopefully he or she will be back for another try and not be QRMed. - - - Many thanks for posting the excellent audio recording John. Much appreciated. 73, Gary -K8KFJ- Sat VUCC #125

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HO-68 and FO-29 common uplink
by Andrew Glasbrenner 23 Feb '10

23 Feb '10

There was a fair amount of confusion as the two satellites passed each other over the US tonight. It might be good practice to mention which satellite you are listening to while calling CQ, etc. 73, Drew KO4MA

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AMSAT at Charlotte NC hamfest?
by Philip Jenkins 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Are there any plans for an AMSAT booth/table at the Charlotte hamfest, March 13-14? Philip N4HF

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Re: AO-51 20Feb2010 2259z Recording
by John Papay 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

As some of you discovered, the link to the recording was not working. Sorry for the inconvenience. It should work properly now. 73, John K8YSE At 10:20 AM 2/22/2010, Angelo Glorioso wrote: >Link is bad! > > >----- Original Message ----- From: "John Papay" <john(a)papays.com> >To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 8:50 AM >Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-51 20Feb2010 2259z Recording > > >>A recording of the AO-51 pass on 20Feb2010 at 2259z is on my >>webserver: >> >> http://www.papays.com/AO-51_20Feb2010_225938z.mp3 >> >>This was a very busy pass with ND9M/p in EL07/EL08 and WD9EWK/p in DM22 >>at the Yuma Hamfest. Many of you are not full duplex and don't know what you >>sound like on the bird so here's your chance to hear yourself. >> >>There are over 30 different callsigns on this recording including: >> >>N5AFV, KD4N0Q, WA4HFN, N8RO, WA5KBH, KP4WK, KF4OTG, N5UXT, KB0RZD, >>ND9M/P, K4YYL, K7NN, KB0RZE, KB8ZGL, N1XED, KJ4PSU, VA3BL, N8MH, >>?4NDA/HH, KD8CAO, N2BX, WD9EWK/P KZ4WAT, KB9AVO, KD0HKR, WB1AAT, >>N0JE, ?OF, ?QYH, VE7CNA, KE7DOV. K8YSE >> >>KE7DOV appeared at the end of the pass operating portable from CN76 a rare >>coastal grid. >> >>Although there was a lot of instances of several stations >>transmitting at the same time, overall the number of successful qso's >>was good. It is rare when more than 30 stations are heard on a >>single pass of AO-51. It was a 32 degree elevation, 13 minute >>horizon to horizon pass for me. >> >>AO-51 is a great bird. Those who had a hand in designing and >>building this satellite can be very proud of their accomplishment. >> >>73, >>John K8YSE EN91dh >> >>_______________________________________________ >>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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TekSharp dish ants?
by Scott Townley 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Back again after a short absence... Wanting to get an L/S system going again. Ideally using a mesh dish like the 1.2m or 1.8m that TekSharp shows on their webpage...but it would appear that they are no longer in existence. Any suggestions or leads? I'm thinking, I'd go dish for S because of RX noise, so might as well throw in L while I'm at it. Especially since there don't appear to be any L crossed yagis out there. Scott Townley NX7U Gilbert, AZ DM43di mailto:nx7u@cox.net http://members.cox.net/nx7u

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missed you
by Gkcarr 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

I missed you as I came down with an upper resiratyory infection. Real bad cough, fever, aches etc. And wore out. tnx fer thinking of me. 73 George WA5KBH

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