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

ARISSat and Elk or Arrow
by Clayton Coleman W5PFG 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

I've been wondering if anyone besides me has tried to hear themselves using an Arrow or Elk antenna via ARISSat's linear transponder. If you have tried it and successfully heard yourself, please let me know. I'm curious as to what was your formula for success. The rig I've been using is an FT-847 and for an antenna either my Elk or Arrow mounted to a camera tripod. I've made about six attempts now on passes that I thought were very favorable to success. I've had zero trouble receiving telemetry or SSTV during these passes so I'm sure the bird was actually overhead during my attempts. I'm not ready to give up but time is running out. 73 Clayton W5PFG

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Re: R: Re: HB9DRV
by Simon HB9DRV 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

There's Gpredict http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/download.php As with all code - the best code is written by the user, especially with something like satellite tracking where the theory and UI challenge is quite demanding. There are many who can talk long and loud, but how many have actually written working tracking software? (I'm not getting at Dominic here.) Simon Brown, HB9DRV http://sdr-radio.com -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dominic Hawken Neither of those mentioned so far are Open Source, but I'd love to know too - Mike, which ones are you using?

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GPS position
by Kevin Deane 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

I know this sounds lame but anyone know where I can enter lat and lon and get my location. All my gps does really is give lat&lon which is fine, but all the things I have found you click on the map and it gives everything with grid but I want to do the reverse, so when I am driving around I can punch in my gps cooridnates and get my location /grid on the map. Thanks for any help. :) Kevin KF7MYK

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Tsh!
by Kevin Deane 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

Just enter the cooridinates on Google maps LAMO! Kevin KF7MYK

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HB9DRV
by Dave Marthouse 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

Does anyone on this list have a working E-Mail address for HB9DRV the developer of Ham Radio Deluxe? I would like to get in touch with him as I have a few questions regarding the satellite tracking portion of the software. Thanks in advance. Dave Marthouse N2AAM dmarthouse(a)gmail.com

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Partial remains of UARS fall in Canada
by Rick - WA4NVM 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

As you may now know, UARS left a burning ionized trail right over WA and into Canada, where some of it crashed into a car. Here's a video about the incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgTyiaDmytw

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Radio Shack Rotator Help
by Keith O'Brien 28 Sep '11

28 Sep '11

I was given a Radio Shack antenna rotator, model number 15-1245A, that I figured was good enough to turn my small Cushcraft Dual Band 3 element yagi I sometimes use for some satellite work. But the rotator is need of some clearing and lubrication. Has anyone taken one of these apart and can share some insight as to what I might expect to find once I remove the motor and gear assembly from it's housing. I assume the 4 large bolts inside the bottom cover where you would attach the wires are holding the motor assembly in place. Are there any ball bearings that I might expect to come rolling out if I disassemble it? I looked for a You Tube video for some help but came up empty. Figured the next best place to ask would be with other satellite operators. Keith N4ZQ

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Re: HB9DRV
by Greg Beat 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

Excerpt from Press Release of September 19, 2011 Tampa FL, St. Paul MN, Pittsburgh PA - September 19, 2011 - Mike Carper (WA9PIE), Randy Gawtry (K0CBH) and Rick Ruhl (W4PC) have acquired the source and rights to the Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) suite of software. All three principals have more than 25 years of experience with radio data communications. Rick Ruhl (W4PC) is the president of W4PC Software, Inc. whose products include the PakRatt, PKTerm and Radio Operations Center software suites. Randy Gawtry (K0CBH) is the president of Timewave Technology Inc. whose products include the PK and DSP families of data controllers and other commercial data products. Mike Carper (WA9PIE) is an experienced Fortune 500 technology executive, educator, and featured speaker in the areas of wireless technologies and IT Service Management. "After many years writing the HRD software it's necessary to take a break and hand the whole project over to another team," said Simon Brown (HB9DRV). "The support effort required has become more than I can realistically manage - with many thousands of users, new radios and other hardware appearing all the time and unexpected changes to the infrastructure used by HRD such as QRZ.com I no longer have any time at all for other projects. As some of you will know I have formed a company SDR-RADIO.com GmbH and am now working in the Software Defined Radio arena with RFspace. This is the technology of the future; a future which I want a part of. In 2012 I plan to return to England and get back on the air, something I haven't done much during the last 25 years." The new owners of HRD are in the process of building a development environment for HRD and plans to begin by addressing some of the bugs in the existing "To Do List" for an upcoming 5.1 release. The 5.1 release will be made available at no charge to registered users when completed. ==== Message: 1 Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:42:14 -0400 From: "Dave Marthouse" <dmarthouse(a)gmail.com> To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: [amsat-bb] HB9DRV Does anyone on this list have a working E-Mail address for HB9DRV the developer of Ham Radio Deluxe? I would like to get in touch with him as I have a few questions regarding the satellite tracking portion of the software. Thanks in advance. Dave Marthouse N2AAM dmarthouse(a)gmail.com

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AubieSat-1 Launch information for 25 October 2011
by wersinger＠physics.auburn.edu 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

Fellow satellite enthusiasts; We fervently request your assistance in receiving transmissions from an upcoming satellite, AubieSat-1, immediately after its launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, USA, 25 October 2011 at 9:52 UTC. AubieSat-1 (AS-1) is an undergraduate - built CubeSat satellite developed by Auburn University. AS-1 is designed to transmit with a power of about 800 milliwatts on a frequency of 437.475 MHz, plus or minus Doppler correction. The beacon signal, along with telemetry, will be sent using A1A continuous wave Morse code at 20 words per minute. Additional telemetry from the onboard science experiment will use CW transmissions up to 60 WPM. Based on the pre-launch orbital data provided by NASA, AS-1 will activate after deployment at 12:21 UTC, 25 October 2011. At that time, the sub-satellite point will be at 34.52 S latitude and 1.52 W longitude over the South Atlantic Ocean. Our predictions are that the first flights over the contiguous United States will begin as shown in the following table: Orbit AOS Apogee LOS General Locale 3 15:54 UTC >50 deg 16:01 UTC New York 4 17:28 UTC >26 deg 17:35 UTC Texas 5 19:07 UTC >48 deg 19:14 UTC California This information will be updated should there be launch scrubs or performance changes in the launch, and additional information will be available upon request for specific locations. Reception reports with data contents are welcomed to the following email addresses: wersijp at auburn dot edu and tam0013 at auburn dot edu An internet Echolink conference group is also planned to begin one-half hour prior to launch and continue until about 30 minutes after confirmation of the first receipt of signals from the satellite. Information on the conference groups title will be distributed nearer to the launch for interested stations. Please email wersijp at auburn dot edu if you require additional information and can assist in the reception and tracking of AS-1. Thank you. -- -------------------------------------------------- J-M Wersinger, PhD KI4YAU Professor Emeritus Director, AU Student Space Program 334-844-4223 Physics Department Auburn University, AL 36849 -------------------------------------------------- "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." Einstein

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IC-910H with SATPC32ISS
by Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

Dear All, Previously we have been using the ICOM IC-910H transceiver with SATPC32ISS for doppler control for our ARISS school contacts. Due to ISS has both its TX and RX frequencies in the 2M band, we had to use an extra wire between the IC-910H's ACC jack and the PC's COM port to inhibit frequency changes while the radio is transmitting. Based on the "What's New" document of SATPC32ISS (http://www.dk1tb.de/What's%20New.txt), it is noted that the extra wire between IC-910H's ACC jack and the PC's COM port is no longer needed from version 12.8a onwards. However, when we did a simulation of this, we notice that should the frequency changes (due to doppler shift) while the radio is in transmit mode, the TX and RX frequency swaps (TX frequency becomes RX while RX frequency becomes TX) - as what used to happen during previous version when the ACC wire is not installed. I wonder if there are some configurations that we need to check? Or is there something that we are doing wrong here? The IC-910H is connected via a G4ZLP ICOM CI-V cable to the PC's build in COM port. Any pointers or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. 73, Sion Chow Q. C., 9M2CQC, Also: WQ2C /HL1, 9V1QC, JG1XHM, ex: 9W2QC, AB3IO

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