December 2011 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

HudsonValleySatcomGroupNet Tonight8PMEastern On Echolink N2EYH-L
by cotejaune2＠aol.com 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Hello all. I am sure you are all running around doing that last minute shopping for Christmas as I am. Take a few minutes and join us for our Christmas edition of the HVSGN tonight Dec.22,2011 at 8 PM Eastern time on Echolink N2EYH-L and the Mt.Beacon repeater 147.970 pl 100. Please join us and share any satellite info with the net. Hope to hear you there. All the cool people will be there.73 Gary wa2aqh/Tom kc2dtq

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ARISSat-1 European Activity and Status update.
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Hi all, I again monitored and worked into ARISSat-1 during the earlier pass and the final one as it entered eclipse over here in Europe. The early pass was a low angle from my QTH and screened by buildings so I was not able to access the satellite. However the FM downlink was quite reasonable and I did hear someone active on CW . The final pass as it moved into eclipse was really remarkable and my downlink and the FM transmissions were booming in . The loudest that I have ever heard from the satellite, in addition I quickly monitored the CW portion and someone was booming in, I could not stay at that end of the band as I was trying to make schedule on SSB. Heard someone calling but not able to confirm whom it was as they were not easy to copy. I wonder in view of the recent predicted re-entry if the loss of height is perhaps why it is now so strong, or was it perhaps the angle and coverage of the satellites antenna? Will try again tomorrow evening and thanks to those that were hoping to make a contact. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat-UK Amsat NA

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Soyuz TMA 03M Launch to ISS
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Hi all, Not seen anything posted but apologies if I have missed the information. The launch of Soyuz TMA 03M to the ISS was I am pleased to advise was successfully carried out from Baikonur Cosmodrone, Kazakhstan -. December 21st at 1316 GMT. The crew members are expected to stay at the International space Station for about 6 months according to plans. Quite a number of very interesting activities including education as a key theme. Trust all goes well for the docking in a few days time - quite a Christmas present for the existing crew members. Further information can be viewed at the NASA Mission Status Centre. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat - UK Amsat NA

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Hand-Drawn "Radar" Plots
by David Palmer KB5WIA 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Hi Everyone, I've finally had time to write up a short article about a technique I use when operating the satellites portable -- hand-drawn "radar" plots. Normally I use a netbook computer running HRD software to show the position of the satellite in the sky in real-time, but there have been occasions when I haven't been able to have the netbook with me. These hand-drawn plots are just the ticket -- it converts a line in the table of numbers from sat prediction software (ie. a print-out of a week's worth of passes from SatPC32, or a print-out from the http://amsat.org satellite tracking module) to a crude radar plot good enough to track the sat pass. Before leaving on a sat-portable road trip, I'll always bring a long printout of passes just in case the computer goes dead, so I'm not stuck without any ability to track. (Yes, I know there are smartphone apps that will do the same thing, but I don't have a smartphone!) (And yes, many of you probably already do the same, but up until now I haven't seen any references for how to do this...) http://kb5wia.blogspot.com/2011/12/manual-radar-plots.html 73 and Happy Holidays! Dave KB5WIA

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ARISSAT-1 European Passes
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Hi all, I worked into ARISSat -1 this evening ( Wednesday 21st December, 1730 hrs) prior to it shutting down via the timer as it moved into the eclipse area. My downlink was quite healthy once again just using an "Elk" antenna and about 20 watts RF power. Sadly no takers/response to my CQ calls , I also can report that the FM transmissions were also healthy including SSTV. ( I was not set up to decode or record this) The opportunities over here in Europe will improve with regression over the next few days and I will once again call in to the satellite whilst it is still active and available prior to it perhaps loosing major height. Thanks to all of the team and key players in this project which has been of significant value to me personally for use as a demonstration and example of our hobby. Merry Christmas and Very Best wishes and Good Luck to all for the coming New Year. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat -UK Amsat NA

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Riverside CA Students to Takt to ISS
by Clint Bradford 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Students at the Flabob Airport Prepatory Academy in Jurupa Valley (Riverside County), CA, are preparing for an amateur radio call from the International Space Station in mid-April, 2012. Flabob has been chosen for this Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact during an open application process in the Fall of 2011. The 10-min live question-and-answer session will take place in the Flabob conference center, and is free to the public. I have published a Web site with more information - http://www.iss-flabob.com If you have a sec, please sign our Guest Book - it is at the bottom of the CONTACT page. THANKS for your support! Clint Bradford, K6LCS http://www.work-sat.com

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FO-29 Recovery Plan
by Mineo Wakita 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Ground Station said, Possibility of the recovery of the command device of FO-29 was made. It is temporary system constitution, but seems to be able to reopen the use of the satellite. We perform the function confirmation of the command device on 23 Dec 2011 and draw up the year-end and new-year operative plan if there is not a problem. And we recover the system of the command device. > 23 Dec 14:20-14:25 UTC, Command Test, JTA ON/OFF > 24 Dec 05:00 UTC, Test Operation over JA (Until it stop in UVC action) > 25 Dec 14:16 UTC, Test Operation over JA (Until it stop in UVC action) JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita

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73 Magazine: All issues now online
by JoAnne Maenpaa 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

Hello Everyone, I'm reposting this bit of news that I saw on QRZ.com ... --- 73 Magazine: All issues now online (posted by Leigh/WA5ZNU) My friends over at The Internet Archive and Textfiles have given us an early Christmas present: every issue of Wayne Green's 73 Magazine ever published, for free. 73 Magazine was published from 1960 to 2003, and was full of technical articles, news reports, ham ads, and the editorials of the irrepressible Wayne Green, W2NSD. Read 73 online, or download PDF files here: http://www.archive.org/details/73-magazine Magazine articles were scanned, quality corrected, and index by an army of individuals, and collected together for Internet Archive by Jason Scott of textfiles.org. See http://www.textfiles.com/hamradio/ for more ham radio related collections. (rest of this posting on the news at QRZ.com) --- After registering, I picked the PDF of March 1995 73 Magazine for a test. Page 24 has an article how to build HF antenna for satellites with 15M and 10M downlinks. Page 10 has photos of Phase 3D construction. I see on the download options that a kindle format is also available. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org Editor, AMSAT News Service

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W1AW/5
by Mark Spencer 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

Thanks to all the stations that helped W1AW/5 to make a few contacts on AO27 today during the Teachers Institute. Your help and participation made for a very excellent demonstration and it would not have been possible without your patience. If you need a QSL from W1AW/5 or from EM42 for the contact, just drop me an e-mail (adr below) and I'll fire one off to your when I get back to the home QTH. 73, Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings. Mark Mark Spencer, WA8SME Education and Technology Program Director ARRL, the national association for Amateur RadioTM 43 Pinelock Dr. Gales Ferry, CT 06335 860-381-5335 860-460-1139 (cell) mspencer(a)arrl.org

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Fw: SSTV via ARISSat-1 RADIOSKAF-V KEDR
by Farrell Winder 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

Heard K9OIM and N8MH on the 20:19 pass. Will be listening again on the 21:52 pass if ARISSat is not too close to the eclipse and turned off.. W8ZCF From: Farrell Winder Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:50 PM To: AMSAT Subject: SSTV via ARISSat-1 RADIOSKAF-V KEDR The FM section of ARISSat was sending very strong voice and SSTV signals on 2 passes over Eastern USA Dec 18. Hoping that some stations will try experimenting with voice and SSTV through the Transponder 435.750 LSB up listening 145.930 MHz USB +/- doppler down. I will be listening for contact on the Eastern USA pass today AOS 20:19 UTC . Do not believe there are many days left for ARISSat-1 to be in orbit, I show it is down to about 172 miles altitude according to Nova tracking with latest Keps.. Farrell Winder, W8ZCF

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