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

decoding Niwaka
by Lizeth Norman 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

Hi all! In the process of rehabbing a dish and building a feedhorn for the space segment at 5.8 GHz. Choosing a radio and a conversion scheme that is both economical in the short term and with the ability to reuse the radio at a later date has been an interesting journey. The radio that I've found is the ADF 7020 development board. There are several flavors of daughter cards for different licensed or ISM bands. The particular flavor I'm considering using is the licensed band (ham!) uhf radios (432). Rather than reprint the data sheet, feel free to make google your friend! Short synopsis is that it natively supports what looks like more than a few common modes of demodulation for the type of data as well as data rates compatible with satellite data downlinks. Additionally, there is the capability to slew the frequency via electronic frequency control OR via data in. Smells like an application of an arduino playing DTE for an RS 232 connection. The arduino can be driven by data from the dde interface from either Orbitron or Satpc32! Frequency conversion scheme will use a mixer and yig with a synthesizer. This sounds like a difficult approach. Most of the heavy lifting has been done by John Miles ke5fx. Driving the yig is quite straight forward using either a parallel port or Arduino or such. Mixer is a Hittite microwave dev board bought for 16 bux shipped on epay. This is flat out the tiniest thing I've ever worked on. Pictures to come!! Watch my flickr page. The mixer should support both the data radio and a funcube dongle via a mini circuits power divider. The key is most of this gear is capable of being repurpoused to Alexander, Graham and Bell when they're deployed. Sorry as I've left out more than I've included, I'm afraid. 73 de Norm n3ykf

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Time is running out...
by Andrew.MacAllister＠emerson.com 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

Yes, time is running out for N0D (Now Zero Days) via satellite. Allen (N5AFV) and I will continue to operate on as many satellite passes as we can before The End Of The World or our Special Event License expires... Don't miss it. Get off the computer or your phone, and get on the satellites! 73 de Andy N0D (W5ACM) http://www.nowzerodays.com<http://www.nowzerodays.com/> The Maya Calandar says that The world will end on Friday Dec 21st. Its the winter solstice. Are you ready?? http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/countdowns.shtml http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2012.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar

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Hudson valley Satcom Group Net tonight 8PMEastern on Echolink N2EYH-L ALSO146.970pl100
by cotejaune2＠aol.com 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

It is time again for the HVSGN tonight at 8PM eastern on Echolink N2EYH-L and the MtBeacon Repeater@ 146.970 PL 100.Please join us for the net.73 GARY WA2AQH/ TOM KC2DTQ

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Huzzah- the Journal is back
by JHBRTOO＠aol.com 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Best thing to arrive in the mailbox for a long time-- thanks to all that made it possible Happy Holidays to all!!

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ITAR news
by Andrew Glasbrenner 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/12/18/a-long-awaited-big-win-for-export-c… 73, Drew KO4MA

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Equipment to receive 5.8GHz
by Howie DeFelice 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Check out RF Micro Devices DKFC5072A development board. This is a mixer and synthesizer that is programmable via a USB cable. It's rated up to 6 GHz and could form the basis of a universal transverter, just add appropriate filters and amps. I have used the older version up to 2.5 GHz and they work pretty good. The development board is $210.00. - Howie AB2S

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4A0MAYA on SO-50
by on4cjq＠telenet.be 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Hello to all, Special event station 4A0MAYA will be active on SO-50 20-21 december, grid EL50. http://www.4a0maya.info/ 73's, Jerry, ON4CJQ

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Re: Equipment to receive 5.8GHz
by Mike Seguin 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Hi James, I used my Down East Microwave 5.760 transverter. This is the system I use terrestrially. It uses a 2M (144 MHz) IF. The antenna is a 2 ft dish with Directive Systems feed. What I did was simply hook my Funcube Dongle to the IF port of the transverter and set it for 224 MHz (5.84 - 5.76 = .08 MHz -- so 144 + 80 = 224) I did test the system at 5.84 GHz with a signal source and saw the output was down about 15 dB from 5.76 GHz, but I figured "close enough" for a try. It worked! I just received my FITSAT-1 NIWAKA SWL card for 5.84 GHz in the mail. I have not tried to decode data. That is a whole other game. They are transmitting at 115k2 baud. I have added a preamp to my system and tests show it makes up for most of the losses I incur going up in frequency. So I'm hoping to try receiving again. The attempt will have to be set up with the FITSAT command team as the 5.84 G downlink is only turned on when the satellite is in a particular orientation based on the position of the receiving ground station. It is on for just 2 minutes. Also, be aware that the doppler can be pretty severe - it was over 100 kHz during the pass I heard. Mike, N1JEZ AMSAT 29649 --- 73, Mike, N1JEZ "A closed mouth gathers no feet" On Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:23:32 -0600, James Luhn wrote: > I am looking for some information on how to receive 5.8GHz. What > devices are used to receive this frequency? I have the capability to > receive up to 2.4GHz but I am not sure what is available to receive > data on 5.8GHz. > > As always, thanks a million for everyone's support. > > 73, > -james > W5AOO

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Generation Orbit Video
by Trevor . 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

An animated video showing the GO's dream of launching small payloads (max 30kg) into a max 450 km orbit by using what looks like a small aircraft launched missile. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQE-33oAILQ 73 Trevor M5AKA

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Streaming Video Today of Arine 5 Launch
by JoAnne Maenpaa 19 Dec '12

19 Dec '12

Spaceflightnow.com says they will have live streaming coverage of the Ariane 5 launch of Skynet 5D and Mexsat Bicentenario communications satellites. The web page reports the weather outlook seems promising for an on-time launch at 2149 GMT (4:49 p.m. EST). The launch window extends for 79 minutes to 2308 GMT (6:08 p.m. EST). Right now its text updates; the web page says they will begin streaming video closer to launch time: http://spaceflightnow.com/ariane/va211/status.html -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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