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

Re: Q5 on AO-51
by Dale Hershberger 30 Sep '10

30 Sep '10

On 9/29/2010 4:53 PM, Bob- W7LRD wrote: > > Hi Dale-coppied you solid on AO-51 mode S downlink. Several of us > were calling you. How's your S gear working? Catch you later. > > 73 Bob W7LRD > Hi Bob... I must have problems. I could not hear my down link. I am sorry if I stepped on others while making my calls. I am using a K5GNA 3731AA down converter. It is the same one I used for AO40. I tuned the down link frequencies on 2m and I heard my signal however I think it was a harmonic since I could copy it after the satellite went out of footprint. My 2.4g signal scource is not working so could not check it out. Good to hear I was getting out. Need to make adjustments here. I will be going to the AMSAT Symposium next week. Thanks for letting me know about signal. 73, Dale/kl7xj

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New Launch Date For Next Falcon 9
by B J 30 Sep '10

30 Sep '10

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1447 The article has some great photos of the rocket. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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No Hayabusa Results Until Next Year
by B J 30 Sep '10

30 Sep '10

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1009/29hayabusa/ 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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My First Year on the Satellites
by Ronald Oldham 30 Sep '10

30 Sep '10

September 2010 marks the end of my first year on the satellites and I have had a great time meeting new hams and working the birds. I have a modest station consisting of two omni-directional egg beater type antennas mounted on the eave of my roof, mast mounted pre-amps and an IC-910H. During the year I have been able to make 2,036 contacts distributed as shown below: AO-51 709 ( 34.8% ) AO-27 237 ( 11.6% ) HO-68 273 ( 13.4% ) SO-50 203 ( 10.0% ) SO-67 8 ( 0.4% ) FO-29 248 ( 12.2% ) VO-52 222 ( 10.9% ) AO-7 133 ( 6.5% ) ISS 3 ( 0.1% ) I have managed to work 49 states with 48 confirmed (missing HI & WV), and I have about 250 confirmed grids. I want to thank all of the hams that helped me along the way. Their great suggestions and patience is very much appreciated. I’d like to extended special thanks to Allen – N5AFV for my first contact on satellite as KE5EQZ, and John – K8YSE, Jim – ND9M, Pat – WD9EWK, Kerry -WC7V and Larry – KI6YAA for the numerous contacts and the many new grids that I acquired during their Grid Expeditions. Ron Oldham - N8RO

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AO-51 mode changed to V/S-U! 2120utc 29Sept2010
by Mark L. Hammond 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

Hello All, The reloading of AO-51 is essentially complete; the bird is in good order. A side effect of the crash/reload is that the mode change to S-band has been delayed--until now. We are going to resume the scheduling of AO-51 with the following changes: the power budget should allow the simultaneous operation of both the S-band and U-band transmitters. The tradeoff is that the U-band will be low in power-around 250 mW or so. Also, please notice the use of the 145.880 MHz uplink! This is a great time to work on improving the sensitivity of your receiver setups! The 250 mW will challenge some of you for sure. PLEASE be sure to follow the "if you can't hear it, don't try to uplink" basic rule of satellite operation. If the satellite supports the dual downlink mode OK, we may extend the V/S-U mode a few days past the original mode schedule in order to give mode S operators a fair shake at some operations and testing--while at the same time allowing some low power mode V/U operations! September 29 (around 2120 utc) FM Repeater, V/S-U Uplink: 145.880 MHz FM (no PL tone) Downlinks: 2401.200 MHz FM *and* 435.300 MHz FM (at low power!) Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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2010 Symposium Schedule Now on AMSAT Web
by JoAnne Maenpaa 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

Hello Everyone, The 2010 Symposium Schedule is posted on the amsat.org web at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2010/SymposiumSchedule.php A few minor tweaks may be necessary over the next 7 days. The final version will be available on-site at the Symposium next week. Authors and presenters will be e-mailed any schedule change affecting the talks. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service Copy Editor, AMSAT Journal

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Full Doppler Tuning
by Ronald G. Parsons 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

My July/August 2010 issue of The AMSAT Journal arrived today and I was pleased to see the article by Alan Biddle on Doppler Tuning. This has long been a pet project of mine since Paul Williamson, KB5MU, published his article "The One True Rule for Doppler Tuning" in the OSCAR Satellite Report, January 1994 and my article "A Recommendation for Doppler Tuning" in the March/April 1996 issue of The AMSAT Journal. I was especially pleased by Alan's call for satellite tracking programs that control your transmitter and receiver to display the "frequencies at the satellite." This should be very easy for the developers of the software to do. For example, in SATPC32 (an ad for which appears on the last page of Alan's article), the "frequencies at the satellite" are almost displayed now. In the center of the window, just below the menu bar, are displayed the Receive and Transmit frequencies (at your location) and just below these are the Doppler correction values from the "frequencies at the satellite." Algebraically subtracting the lower (Doppler correction) value from the upper (your site frequency) values yields the "frequency at the satellite." It would seen to me that the program should display the "frequency at the satellite" as the frequency of your receiver and transmitter are most likely already displayed on your rig. How about it, you software developers? At least give your users the option of which value to display in your window. As an aside, speaking of Doppler shifts, I (along with K5EWS and others) are currently working on a method of tracking model rocket flights using an inexpensive UHF transmitter (925 MHz CW in my test case) in the rocket and, using several receiver sites, analyze the Doppler shift of the transmitted signal and use the mathematics of Trilateration to determine the location of the rocket in 3-space. Our first full scale test is this coming weekend. Ron Parsons W5RKN

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HudsonValleySatconGroupNet Thursday09/30@8PM on EcholinkN2EYH-L
by Cotejaune2＠aol.com 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

It is time again for the HVSG Net Thursday September 30,2010 at 8 PM on Echolink N2EYH-L or the MtBeacon 146.970 pl 100 repeater. This is net number 102 and the beginning of our fifth year. Please join us and share your satellite knowledge with the net. NB2F(DEE) an Amsat area coordinator is usually a regular on the net. Hope to hear you on the Net. 73 Gary/WA2AQH

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AO-51 Operational V/U 0300utc 30 Sept 2010
by Mark L. Hammond 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

Hello All, For now AO-51 is open for normal V/U mode voice operations on 145.920 MHz up, 435.300 MHz down. The 435.150 transmitter is for telemetry only (no uplink). There is still some more reloading to do, but the bird is operational and ready for use. Hopefully we can soon get things to the point where we can run some V/S mode--give us another day or two. We'll announce any mode changes on here. (Thanks to the other command stations (Kevin WA6FWF and Drew KO4MA) for a great team effort.) 73, Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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AO-51
by Merle Olmsted 29 Sep '10

29 Sep '10

Is AO-51 still having computer problems and is it operational or am I having receiver problems? I was unable to access it on the 2153 UTC pass directly overhead.

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