January 2012 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Two satellites passing in the night.... or day.
by Tom Schuessler 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hey there all, I was doing some prep work for the next Boy Scout Radio Merit badge class we will hold at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, TX on Feb. 11 and was mapping out the AO-27 and SO-50 passes for that day. I was surprised to note that they are almost on top of each other or at least down here not too many degrees apart. I know this has happened before but since the uplink and downlink frequencies for these two satellites are quite close, I would expect quite a bit of interference at times to each of them during my pass. SO-50 has a weaker downlink power so most likely I suspect capture effect would for the most part wipe it out or at least make the signal quite noisy. Also the issue of antennas like the Arrow that have a decently wide beamwidth on the two meter uplink side will cause issues with the same uplink possibly hitting both satellites at the same time. Folks with higher gain fixed stations may be able to differentiate each satellite for uplink and downlink but us little portable guys may not. Any experiences that those of you veterans can pass along on dealing with this type of situation will be appreciated. 73 Tom Schuessler N5HYP On Feb 11th, K2BSA/5

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RS-39 / Chibis-M #2
by Jakub Hruska 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hello all, Little bit better pass this time. CW telemetry on 435.315MHz: RS3? UB??16 IBS122 UIUN22 ISUN0 ITXA0 ITXB0 TTXA136 TTXB134 TNAP133 TAB137 MSEP0 MCON5 SMA100 SMB99 MRXA2 MRX?F RS39 UBI1W4 IBS80 ASUEEW ISUD0 ITXA0 ITXB0 TTXA135 TTXB136 TNAP13X ?XB237 MSEP0 MCON5 SMAJ?3 SMB94 MRXA2 MRXB2 RS39 UBS132 IBS59 USUN?8 RS39 UM??W2 IBS59 USUN21 On 435.215MHz, some data (PM carrier with sidebands, my guess is 1200Bd manchester coded). Jakub

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RS-39 / Chibis-M
by Jakub Hruska 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hello all, Chibis was heard during short pass (6deg max EL) over central Europe. Both frequencies (435.315 and 435.215 MHz) seems to be active, with lower one modulated with some data/voice and upper one first just CW beacon, then switched to modulated as well. FFT spectrum screenshot: http://www.r00t.cz/tmp/rs39.png Signals were really weak, but next pass should be better. Times of signal AOS/LOS fit the PROGRESS-M 13M keps. Jakub

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e-mail address for CHIBIS-M (RS-39) reports
by Mike Rupprecht 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

They issued the special e-mail address for the CHIBIS-M project to collect all messages from amateurs: amateur-rs39(a)chibis.cosmos.ru 73, Mike DK3WN

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Video of AMSAT 2011 Symposium Keynote Posted to YouTube...
by Dave hartzell 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

See http://youtu.be/EWSCCZY1FgQ for Lance Ginner's talk on the early days of Project OSCAR and AMSAT. Great discussion on OSCAR 1, 2 and 3! 73, Dave AF6KD now in DN70ia

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Back on the Air
by Craig Gagner 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Well I am finally back on the air after my mishap lowering a mast 2 weeks ago. My hand has healed enough, and the weather was nice enough for me to get on the tower and install the new M2 436CP30 beam. It's a 30 element cross polarized beam and works awesome. Its coupled to my Kenwood TS-2000 via a ARR Preamp and a High Sierra Microwave down converter to get past that nasty TS-2000 birdie issue on 436.800. I just worked an SO-50 pass here on the east coast at 1816 EST. I did a livestream broadcast of the pass and saved a video of the pass in my video library on the stream page. http://www.livestream.com/w1msgsat . I will be broadcasting some passes from time to time on the livestream site, so check it every now and then. I will also save the video's of the pass's I work. The really cool thing is you can actually hear me on the pass as I am using my signalink receive audio for the audio stream on the site. The new antenna is better than expected, SO-50 is not the easiest satellite to work, and you can tell that by the signals. Not to mention the disruption from the solar conditions. Hope to catch ya on the birds !!! Craig W1MSG

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RS-39 Telemetry Decoder
by Trevor . 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Mike Rupprecht DK3WN has made available software to decode the RS-39 telemetry - http://www.dk3wn.info/files/rs39.zip http://www.uk.amsat.org/4029 73 Trevor M5AKA

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HI4/AJ5C revised update for Jan 24th
by Bob Herrell 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

After checking everything there was a good contact with W4UPD at 1842z. 73, Bob HI4/AJ5C

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HI4/AJ5C update for Jan 24th
by Bob Herrell 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

Good contacts AO-27 1839z pass de HI4/AJ5C: N8RO, N5ZNL, AA4QE, WB2OQQ, N3YKF, and K8TL. PLEASE, if you have already worked me at least once, please standby and give others a chance. There is NO award for making the most contacts. Still listening for the following that have requested a contact: AA5PK, NX9G, AA5JG, N5NBJ, KI4OTG, WA4OVO and K3CLM. 73, Bob - HI4/AJ5C

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Article - "OSCAR-1 Launched 50 Years Ago"
by Trevor . 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

>From ARRL site: A new, highly informative article on how the world's first Amateur Radio satellite, OSCAR-1, came to be designed, built and launched has been posted to the ARRL's Space Communication web page (see the "Articles" section). Written by Andreas Bilsing, DL2LUX, "OSCAR-1 Launched 50 Years Ago" was first published in the German magazine Funkamateur. It is reprinted with their permission. OSCAR-1 was launched just over 50 years ago, on December 12, 1961. Link the the article in English http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Bilsing.pdf 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.uk.amsat.org/ ----

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