Has anyone located a driver for the LVB Tracker internal USB to serial
port adapter on Windows 7 x64?
If not, has anyone reverted to the serial port connection on LVB Tracker
and used an external USB to serial port adapter successfully with
SatPC32 on Windows 7 x64?
I have an Edgeport multiple USB to serial port that has drivers for
Windows 7 x64 that I will use if I have to. I would prefer using the LVB
Tracker with its USB to serial adapter if someone has another solution.
73,
Bill
NJ1H
Hi All,
Here is a quick AO-16 update. On Sunday I turned AO-16 long enough to
get some telemetry packets. The satellite would remain on for less
than one minute after being commanded on. A quick test of the "bent
pipe" voice mode repeater was successful. . The "hardware watchdog
timer problem" is still evident; as expected, spacecraft temperatures
are insufficient to keep the transmitter ON (needs to be above 15 deg
C).
Orbit projections suggest that satellite illumination conditions will
not result in increased temperatures for nearly 10 years. Command
stations do periodically turn AO-16 "ON" to check on its condition and
see if the hardware timer problem has "automagically" fixed itself
(which in not anticipated, but who knows...).
AO-16 telemetry
3 Oct 2010 1838 utc
PACSAT MBL Telemetry Decoder Ver. 1.3 (c) Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN
===============================================================================
(average values)
+10V Battery Bus : 0.00 V
Battery Charge Reg : 0.55 mA
Base Temp : 9.07 °C
PSK RF Out : 1.90 W
+5V RX Bus : 4.87 V
+8.5V RX Bus : 8.49 V
+10V RX Bus : 11.24 V
Here is another teaser :) Several months ago I commanded the AO-16
S-band transmitter ON; it too remains functional (albeit weak), and
was received by me, Drew KO4MA, and Alan WA4SCA.
73,
--
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 26th Annual ARRL
and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 28-30,
2007 in Hartford, Connecticut. These papers will also be published in
the Conference Proceedings (you do NOT need to attend the conference to
have your paper included in the Proceedings). The submission deadline is
July 31, 2007. Please send papers to:
Maty Weinberg
ARRL
225 Main St
Newington, CT 06111
or you can make your submission via e-mail to: maty(a)arrl.org
Papers will be published exactly as submitted and authors will retain
all rights.
73 . . . Steve, WB8IMY
ARRL
Steve,
I have both a commercial and a homebrew Eggbeater and am disappointed with both, especially in light of its rather high price. Connected to my IC-7000 via an ARR mast-mounted preamp, performance is far less than with an HT and an Arrow. Guess an omni can't cut it, at least not from my QTH.
Maybe if I could get it up higher, clear of all roofs, it would do better. I can make contacts at relatively high sat elevations, but can do just as well with a $10 dual band ground plane. My friend has an Eggbeater and the same preamp at a clearer QTH, and he hears substantially better, down to 10 degrees elevation in some directions.
Good luck and 73,
Bill NZ5N
> > Hi Steve,
> >
> > It is surprising to read that you are not hearing
> anything. I have
> > repeatedly used a 2m and 70cm Eggbeater for the sats
> and have had no
> > problem hearing things. No pre-amp.
> >
> > I was using a short cable (e.g. less than 10 meters).
> The rigs I
> > used were a FT-736r (deaf) and a FT-847 (so-so).
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Dave
Hello Everybody,
I totally agree with you James... the process is a continuous evolution.
I did my prediction on October 6th for the "Chicken Little Competition" and
my date was January 23rd 2012.
It surprisingly agrees with your prediction done almost one month later,
this make me think that my assumptions were right, up to now at least.
73s
Fabio
IW8QKU/5
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the update on your AMSAT Journal article.
There are several people on the bb who are following this topic and are
busy
plotting data.
Any futher thoughts you have, as we move towards January would, I am sure
be of
interest.
73 John G7HIA
________________________________
From: DeYoung James <deyoung_james(a)yahoo.com>
To: amsat-bb <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org>
Sent: Tuesday, 15 November, 2011 17:29:31
Subject: [amsat-bb] ARISSat-1 (37772) decay
Greetings,
First, thank you Mineo for reading the AMSAT Journal and making several of
my
papers available
on your web site.
My AMSAT Journal
paper published in the March/April 2011 issue is actually still fairly valid
for the scenarios shown in the paper. The solar flux has turned out to be
somewhat higher than was used/predicted in the paper. This has caused the
atmospheric densities to be higher which results in higher decay rates.
When I
wrote the paper I had this nagging feeling that stopping the
release height
scenarios at 370-km was not going to be high enough. We are very fortunate
that
the ISS was boosted to such a height before release of ARISSat-1 and not
after
release!
There is a
valuable lesson, I think, to be made with respect to predicting satellite
decay
dates far into the future. The future state of the atmosphere, i.e. the
atmospheric density that the satellite will pass through is poorly
predictable
in the long-term, say starting greater than a week or two into the future.
Predictions of satellite decay dates months in the future should be
evaluated with the understanding that your date of prediction errors may be
large. The errors
are due to the future uncertainties of the orbital path which
grow quickly with time in a prediction. The atmospheric density is not the
only
source of error. Your orbit model, the integrator, and the accounting of
the
gravitational and
drag forces among others will affect your results.
Predictions of
satellite decay dates are not do-and-forget. The general process is to make
a
prediction, get new measured observations of the height in the future, and
at
some point re-do your prediction when the errors become significant to you.
With that all
said here is my current prediction using the same tools used in the AMSAT J.
paper and produced as of 2011 November 13th. The decay of ARISSat-1 (37772)
will happen nominally on 2012 January 30th with a 10% rule-of-thumb error
allowance of 18 days around this date. The
errors may be larger than the rule-of-thumb indicates!
Jim, N8OQ
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It is with a heavy heart I report that AO-51 has ceased transmission and is not responding to commands. The last telemetry data indicated that the third of six batteries was approaching failure to short, and observations indicate the voltage from three cells is insufficient to power the UHF transmitters. The IHU may continue to be operative. Initial tests with the S band transmitter were also not positive, although more attempts are in order. We have tried leaving the satellite in an expected state where if voltages climb high enough, the 435.150 transmitter may possibly be heard.
The command team will regularly attempt communications with the satellite over the coming months (and years). There is always the possibility that a cell will open and we could once again talk to our friend while illuminated. Thanks to all who helped fund, design, build, launch, command, and operate AO-51. It's 7 year mission has been extraordinary. Please support AMSAT's Fox-1 project, and other AMSAT projects worldwide with your time and money.
For the AO-51 Command Team,
73, Drew KO4MA
AMSAT-NA VP Operations
As many of you know, my satellite radio is a TS2000X.
If you have visited my satellite webpage, you have seen
many recordings of AO-27 and SO50 from AOS to LOS. Most
of these recordings were made when I was not sitting in
front of the radio.
At first I used a uhf mobile to hear AO-27 and SO-50. The
problem was that those radios were not computer controlled
so you had to tune for the doppler. That worked fine when
I was in the shack, but it didn't work when I was away. The
obvious solution was another radio that didn't have the birdie
problem, or a simple UHF to 10M downconverter which wouldn't
have the birdie problem. Back in the day, UHF and VHF down-
converters were very popular because we didn't have a lot of
DC to Light radios out there. Now these converters are sitting
in junk boxes and are long forgotten by their owners.
One of the more popular manufacturers of these inexpensive
downconverters was Hamtronics. They made all kinds of stuff
for repeaters etc. At first their products were not that great,
but they evolved into some better designs including their
UHF to 10m downconverters. Unfortunately most downconverter
manufacturers stopped making them when the devices they were using
became obsolete and unavailable. The use of current production
devices required a redesign of their PC boards and since the demand
was no longer there, these products were abandoned.
I was fortunate to find a Hamtronics converter on a qrz.com posting
from several years back. It never sold back then and the owner still
had it. I purchased it and ran some tests on it against the receiver
in the TS2000. It turned out that the downconverter had a slightly
better sensitivity than the TS2000!
The big concern when using a converter or preamp is the fear of
transmitting into it and smoking the front end. But the TS2000
has an auxiliary antenna jack which is receive only and perfect for
a downconverter output on HF. As Drew mentioned, SatPC32 can
compensate for a downconverter and tune the TS2000 for doppler
in the 10m band. This allowed me to track AO-27 AO-51 and SO-50
unattended and make all those recordings without any human
intervention.
A coaxial transfer relay was inserted into the uhf antenna line so
that when the converter was in use, the UHF antenna was switched
to the downconverter input (which outputs to the aux antenna jack
on the TS2000) and the UHF antenna jack on the TS2000 is switched
to a dummy load. So if you transmit on UHF, power goes into the
dummy load and all equipment is safe. When I want to transmit on
UHF (VO-52 and AO-7 mode B), the coax relay switches the UHF antenna
back to the UHF antenna port on the TS2000. The downconverter is out
of the antenna circuit at this point. I did not use the downconverter
when operating on FO-29 so the aux antenna jack had to be switched to
normal in the tS2000, menu #18 (FO-29 is a linear bird that outputs on
UHF, currently not working).
Every owner of a TS2000 that operates satellites needs a UHF to 10M
downconverter. Hamtronics is making a VHF to 10M downconverter now.
If everyone emailed them to encourage them to make a UHF model, they
might just do it. The only other solution is to make one yourself,
or find a used downconverter or transverter that is gathering dust on
someone's shelf. I now have an IC910H and am doing comparisons against
the TS2000. My first impression it that I prefer the TS2000 but that
might be because I'm so familiar with it. I use another TS2000 in the
mobile sat truck but don't have a downconverter for it. I simply use
a uhf mobile for receive on AO-27 and SO-50 since I'm in front of the
radio and don't run it unattended. I have a coax switch to switch
the UHF antenna from the TS2000 to the UHF mobile.
Now that AO-51 is silent, all of the FM operation is on SO-50 and AO-27.
If you have a TS2000, you'll want to investigate the use of a downconverter.
73,
John K8YSE
Hi Satelliters,
Using Keps from Space-Track for ARISSat-1 (37772) I have been plotting various parameters including Mean Motion.
Rrecent results were unexpected.
From day 328to 334 the daily change in Mean Motion has been exactly the same.
The orbital decay is going at a very steady rate. This is completely different from earlier observations where there is quite a bit of daily variation.
My interpretation is that the atmospheric density along the orbital track has been remarkably unchanged over 6 days or so.
This is something I have not seen before.
73 John G7HIA
At 02:28 AM 12/1/2011, Rick Tejera wrote:
>Gordon,
>
>There are at least two groups that know of that launch High altitude
>balloons with amateur payloads. I just joined one: Arizona Near Space
>Research. http://www.ansr.org/
High altitude balloons are fun. There's a group here that launches
them as well from Adelaide. Had fun when they installed a crossband
repeater on one of their balloons. Also had a go at decoding
telemetry, but being on the edge of the footprint and with small
antennas, I haven't had much luck with telemetry. :(
73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL
http://vkradio.com
OK.. a LARGE "punkin' chunker" or two really tall and flexible trees for a
slingshot...
More seriously, it seems that for anything of reasonable size to be launched,
particularly into an orbit that we rapidly enter not only the perview of
costly specialization but also of military / government permissions, etc.,
probably much more delicate than ITAR considerations.
Please enlighten me if indeed there might be a way to get something up (and to
stay up) more economically.
Would there be any feasiblity to an initial "launch" by using high-altitude
weather ballons and THEN firing a small booster with appropriate guidance and
CCC (command, control, and communications) to steer it into an orbital
insertion? If the bird and booster weights were small enough, could a wx
balloon lift them adequately?
Just wondering...
Lowell
K9LDW
EM12sr
------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:38:33 PM CST
From: Bob- W7LRD <w7lrd(a)comcast.net>
To: George Henry <ka3hsw(a)att.net>Cc: AMSAT <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite Satire
>
>
> Cool George! it's not the building and concepts that's difficult. It's
getting the damn things up there. We should have a division of AMSAT that
does rockets, and launch our own. Like my Dad told me, "the difficult we do
immediately, the impossible takes a little longer".
>
> 73 Bob W7LRD
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George Henry" <ka3hsw(a)att.net>
> To: "AMSAT" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 10:06:39 AM
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Satellite Satire
>
> Better yet, take the 10.8 MHz IF output from one of their old Bearcat
scanners,
>
> programmed for a 2-meter uplink, add an appropriate local oscillator and
high
> pass filter, feed the resulting signal to the final stage from one of
their old
>
> sideband CB's, and you've got a mode A *LINEAR* satellite!!
>
> We could call it OSCAR 10-4!
>
>
> George, KA3HSW
>
>
>
>
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > > From: K4FEG <K4FEG(a)K4FEG.COM>
> > > To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org
> > > Sent: Tue, November 29, 2011 8:49:31 AM
> > > Subject: [amsat-bb] Satellite Satire
> > >
> > > OK I have a suggestion: a new inexpensive satellite, It will be
designated:
> >
> > >*ReNe-Sat-3, *that will be an abbreviation for: *Red Neck Satellite #3
(
> >Dale
> >
> > >Ernharts Sr. NASCAR #).
> > >
> > > *We will take 2 Woxun HT's, 2 Larsen Mag-mounts, 2**1/4 wave
antennas, a
> >solar
> >
> > >panel with charger from Northern Hydraulics and last but not least
about 100
> >
> > >feet of NASCAR 200mph duct tape.
> > >
> > > We take the 2 radios set them up for our frequencies, duct tape them
> >together
> >
> > >mount the antennas on the solar panel hook the solar panel up to the
HT
> > >batteries and last but not least we send two of the south's finest:
> >*Astronaut
> >
> > >"Bubba & Cooter"* up with the new bird to deploy it. We will tell
Bubba &
> > >Cooter that they can have free passes to all the NASCAR races for
2012 when
>
> > >they get this satellite working and in orbit.
> > >
> > > I promise they will have that thing (or should i say "thang") up
and
> >running
> >
> > >in HEO and be back before the first race in February 2012.
> > >
> > > For those that are not sure, YES I AM MAKING A JOKE!
> > >
> > > /*It is difficult work to keep these satellites working and the
control
> > >operators deserve a round of applause from us for all that they have
done to
> >
> > >extend the life of AO51 and all of the other birds.
> > >
> > > THANK YOU ONE AND ALL! A JOB WELL DONE!
> > > */
> > > Frank
> > > K4FEG
> >
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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