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

Russian KOSMOS award?
by k6yk 09 Jul '11

09 Jul '11

Guys, I'm looking at my KOCMOC, it says No. 8-1 CT. 12 December 99. I can't remember what the levels of achievement were. I was at "Step 1". And it was one of the hand-delivered ones! For those who don't know, there are several awards available for OSCAR as well as HF. Worked All California Counties (WACC). I have this one, No. 23 and No. 1 on OSCAR. Worked all Continents (IARU award) endorsed for OSCAR CQ DX field award (CQ magazine). I have this one No. 59 for OSCAR. County Award from SWOT (Sidewinders on two) in Texas. Requires only 100 counties. I have No. 4, 8-27-99. Does anybody have the "Satellite DX Achievement Award" from ARRL? I have this, no number on it, received in 1975 for "proficiency using the OSCAR 6 communications satellite". 73, John, K6YK On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:07:06 -0400 Bob DeVarney W1ICW <we1u(a)myfairpoint.net> writes: > I am wondering how many Russian KOSMOS awards have been/were issued? > > Anybody have any info on them? > > I was cleaning the shack up and after dusting off the walls, I > noticed > mine from 1998 with number 51-RS on it. > > I know N1JEZ has one with a similar number on his. Anybody have any > > idea if they still issue the award? > > Are they still issuing the JARL FUJI Award or the SA-AMSAT award and > > more? I might have some real dinosaurs here on my walls... > > 73 de W1ICW > > Alias Cro-Magnon man > ____________________________________________________________ 57 Year Old Mom Looks 27! Mom Reveals $5 Wrinkle Trick That Has Angered Doctors! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4e17b57c45cce96c09st05vuc

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STS-135 Retransmission Discovery
by Clayton Coleman 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

I was working on my chainsaw this morning when I decided to turn on my 2m rig and put it in VFO scan mode. I went back to the workbench and the radio stopped scanning -- on a shuttle retransmission channel. Someone within range of my home QTH was retransmitting the final moments as the ground crew was closing up the shuttle and getting ready to pressurize the cabin. The signal I had was fairly weak but perfectly readable, so I left the radio sitting there for the next few minutes as I wrapped up my work. After I finished up my business outdoors and the temperature had hit 100 degrees, I went back in the house to see if I could find out online who was the source of that shuttle retransmission on 147.56. The only reasonable explanation is it was coming from a station in Beaumont, 140 miles south of me. They used to retransmit the shuttle missions years ago and I would occasionally hear them. It was really cool to hear this station on the air again. I listened to them years ago via another similar band opening. If someone on this list is part of that group in Beaumont who setup the station, thank you. It was a pleasant blast from the past. 73 Clayton W5PFG

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Re: Russian KOSMOS award?
by K5OE 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

I knew I must be younger than you, Bruce... maybe Mike too :-) KOCMOC 54 VUCC 88 But how many had their Cosmos Award hand-delivered in Moscow? 73, Jerry

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Atlantis Now In Orbit
by B J 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

There was a glitch just as control was about to be handed over to the on-board computers but, others than that, it was a good launch. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Re: Atlantis Now In Orbit
by Lowell White 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Did anyone else notice that about MET 41-43 minutes the camera shot from the detached fuel tank showed one satellite arcing over and back down (behind the tank as the camera was rear-facing) and later another CLOSE satellite miss... one whose dish antenna could be seen clearly jus tbefore the video cut away? There may have been some other noticable space debris but a) the tank was moving pretty rapidly and b) there was enough noise on the video signal that at times it as hard to discern between dropped video bits and visual debris. 73, Lowell K9LDW

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Stationary antennas
by Richard Lawn 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Some of you may recall my earlier posts inquiring about recommendations for stationary antennas. Here is my update and progress report so far. 1 have constructed k5oe eggbeaters for both bands and so far only tested the 2 mtr uplink 2 also completed construction of a 70 cm turnstile moxon and will try next month along with a quadridiler for 2m and 2m moxon if I get it finished 3 yesterday I tried a Antennas.us 70cm quadridiler and home brew 2m k5oe. Results: I was able to hear my cw down link fairly well on FO-29 down to about 8 deg or so using a mirage preamp at the station with short run of coax. I'm encouraged though as usual no one to talk to. I was really surprised that I heard w7jpi with a solid ssb cq on AO-7 which I didn't think was still operational. For receive on 10 I'm using an OCF windom with ts-2000 and it's internal hf preamp. Nothing was heard yesterday out of AO-51 at least when I tried. I'll report further next month after I have given a fair trial to all home brew antennas and the one inexpensive commercial product I mentioned. At least I'm more encouraged. Rick W2Jaz

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Scanning question
by Malcolm Preston 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

This question is really not an AMSAT one but relates to expertise someone in AMSAT may have. It involves a frequency tracking program such as SATPC does for sats but for an hf application. We are looking for a program that would: 1. Scan 2-4 frequencies, each on different hf bands on a timed basis - say every 3 minutes. 2. Stop scanning when a connection is requested by a digital mode (pactor or winmor). Resume scanning when a connection is broken. Note that no rig that we know of provides this scanning capability on a multiband basis. The application is the WINLINK hub KP2D on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The previous set-up involved 3 modems on 3 different bands with separate antennas. It was trashed by lightning. We would like to get it working but with a single rig and modem to avoid the high cost of separate modems for each band and using a multi band antenna. Does anyone out there know of software that has been developed that would do this or could be modified to do it? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Mal Preston, NP2L St. John, USVI

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