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

Open source space rocket project Copenhagen Suborbitals
by Trevor . 26 Dec '12

26 Dec '12

Report and video at http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/spaced-out-open-source-outer-space-video 73 Trevor M5AKA

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Trip to Texas
by Tom Gentry 25 Dec '12

25 Dec '12

Better bring your snow shoes :) Tom K5VOU ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2012 10:05:34 -0600 From: wyattdirks <wyattdirks(a)msn.com> To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] AC0RA/M 12/26/12 Message-ID: <BLU401-EAS394194775B79A54E569A3A2CD3A0(a)phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Tomorrow I will be heading south from my home to Texas. I will be going through EN31/30/20 and EM29-22. I will try and work every satellite pass along the way as conditions permit. I will even try ao7 mode A if you want to give a listen.? I will also be heading back through on the way home early next week as well.? Merry Christmas to all 73 Wyatt AC0RA

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Re: Happy Holidays
by Jim Adams 25 Dec '12

25 Dec '12

MERRY CHRISTMAS. Jim Adams - K0BAM Delta, Colorado DM68

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AC0RA/M 12/26/12
by wyattdirks 25 Dec '12

25 Dec '12

Tomorrow I will be heading south from my home to Texas. I will be going through EN31/30/20 and EM29-22. I will try and work every satellite pass along the way as conditions permit. I will even try ao7 mode A if you want to give a listen. I will also be heading back through on the way home early next week as well. Merry Christmas to all 73 Wyatt AC0RA

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Happy Holidays
by Bruce 24 Dec '12

24 Dec '12

As I think back on 2012, I find it hard to believe that the end of the world has passed and the end of the year is so near (urgh, another end of something). Especially when it is going to reach 74 degrees in Houston today (75 degrees on Christmas Day) and we still have our air conditioner running. We have to put our tree in the freezer just to get some frost on it. What's up with that? Is Santa going to be wearing his beach ware this year? Will the sled have pontoons? AMSAT Awards are doing well although they were a bit shy this year compared to other years. Hopefully in 2013, they will pick up as new satellites are launched and new hams find their way to satellite operations. We closed down the old AMSAT online store and dusted off all the products we had and opened a new AMSAT online store right down the street from the old one at the corner of Electron and Byte. Now newer and improved to serve you better. 73 and Happy Holidays...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0200z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat

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New CubeSat launch vehicle for 2013
by Trevor . 24 Dec '12

24 Dec '12

Given the current shortage of launch opportunities it's good to see a new launch vehicle being developed. The first flight of Super Strypi is planned for late in 2013 with a swarm of 10 CubeSats. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=12014 73 Trevor M5AKA

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KickSat-1 freqs + KySat2 + Winter OSCAR News
by Trevor . 24 Dec '12

24 Dec '12

Frequencies for KickSat-1 the 200 Sprites (ELaNa-5 / CRS-3 July 2013 into a 325 x 315km 51.5 degree orbit) http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=12008 KySat-2 (is this also the ELaNa-5 flight ?) http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11901 Winter Issue of OSCAR News magazine http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11994 A Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for the New Year - I'm looking forward to the prospect 4 of new linear transponder satellites in 2013. 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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Live reception of 2320 MHz Sirius sat beacons from Spain
by f6htj＠aol.com 23 Dec '12

23 Dec '12

Hello all; here is an EA5 webSDR with 2320 MHz and 10 GHz reception: http://maxiplaya.dyndns.org:8901/ Here, direct 2320 MHz reception is ok with AIDC3733 2400/144 converter (ex AO40), reception on 64 MHz (instead of 144) 73 de Michel F6HTJ

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ANS-358 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 23 Dec '12

23 Dec '12

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-358 ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor(a)amsat.org In this edition: * AMSAT Receives $25,000 Matching Funds Challenge * AMSAT SKN ON OSCAR 2013 In Memory of W1BIH/PJ9JT * AMSAT-UK Introduce Electronic (PDF) Membership * Track Santa with NORAD and AGI on December 24 * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-358.01 ANS-358 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 358.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. December 23, 2012 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-358.01 AMSAT Receives $25,000 Matching Funds Challenge AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW says that we have received a matching funds challenge! An anonymous donor will match up to $25,000.00 for Fox. Now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to double your donation. Barry wrote, "We end 2012 with significant progress made on the development of Fox-1. A formal proposal to launch Fox-1B was sub- mitted to the NASA ELaNA (Education Launch of Nanosatellites) program on November 19, 2012. NASA is expected to announce in late January or early February 2013 those projects that have been selected. This is our second ELaNA submission, and we believe the merits of this proposal are even stronger than our original Fox-1 proposal." Fox-1B will incorporate the flight spare of Fox-1 and is a joint project with the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) at Vanderbilt University. The official project name is "RadFXSat" and the ISDE payload is designed to advance the art of understand- ing the effects of space radiation on electronic components. We have requested a launch in the second half of 2014 and a 650 km sun-synchronous orbit that is the same as we requested for Fox-1. As AMSAT VP-Engineering Tony Monteiro, AA2TX points out, "Fox-1B is AMSAT's first satellite with science as its PRIMARY mission. This is very exciting as it potentially opens up new opportunities for free launches. Of course, the satellite also carries a ham radio FM transponder and we expect to be able to operate the transponder and science payload simultaneously." There is significant work to be done in systems engineering, software development, satellite construction and testing to prepare Fox-1B for launch. During the 30th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium, Tony and the Fox En- gineering team gave a number of presentations on the development of Fox-1 with extensive documentation of Fox-1 placed in the Proceed- ings in order to make this material 'public domain' and thus be able to present it openly. We still expect a launch opportunity in the second half of 2013. To continue these projects, we need the extra resources offered by the matching gift. We hope we can count on your commitment and generosity at this time of giving. There are several ways you can double your donation to keep Amateur Radio in Space: Members have received a form in the mail to fill out and return. Please do so today! Go the AMSAT Store and make a donation Donate via a PayPal donation sent to martha(a)amsat.org or click on our PayPal widget at http://www.amsat.org. Your generous contribution to AMSAT to support AMSAT and Project Fox now will help ensure that our common dream of keeping amateur radio in space will, indeed, become a reality. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Office for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT SKN ON OSCAR 2013 In Memory of W1BIH/PJ9JT You are cordially invited to participate in Straight Key Night on OSCAR 2013, conducted by AMSAT for all radio amateurs throughout the world. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of John Thompson, W1BIH/PJ9JT, who passed away in 2012, aged 96. Although known primarily as an HF DXer and contester, John was also active on OSCAR, mostly on CW. As always, SKN on OSCAR is simple and informal. Just operate CW through one or more satellites on 1 January 2013 (0000 to 2400 UTC), using a straight hand key. There is no need to send in a log, but all participants are encouraged to nominate someone they worked for Best Fist. Your nominee need not have the best fist of anyone you heard, only of those you worked. Send your nomination to w2rs at amsat.org. A list of those nominated will appear in ANS and the AMSAT Journal. [ANS thanks Ray Soifer, W2RS, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-UK Introduce Electronic (PDF) Membership AMSAT-UK is pleased to announce that they can now offer Electronic E-membership at a reduced rate. AMSAT-UK initially produced a short bulletin called OSCAR News to give members advice on amateur satellite communications. Since those early days OSCAR News has grown in size and the print quality has improved beyond recognition. Today, OSCAR News is produced as a high-quality quarterly colour A4 magazine consisting of up to 40 pages of news, information and comment about amateur radio space communications. The new E-membership will provide OSCAR News as a downloadable PDF file and members will have the freedom to read it on their Tablets or Smartphones anytime, anyplace, anywhere. An additional advantage is that the PDF should be available for download about 1-2 weeks before the paper copy is posted. E-membership should be especially beneficial to Overseas members who have suffered from high postal charges and long delivery times. The AMSAT-UK membership year runs from January 1 to December 31. Why not take the opportunity to renew your 2013 membership as an E-member. Renew your AMSAT-UK membership as an E-member here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_8/Existing-Members-Renewal.html Join as a new E-member here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_9/Join-Amsat-UK.html E-members can download their copies of OSCAR News from http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Track Santa with NORAD and AGI on December 24 'Tis the season for Santa tracking at www.noradsanta.org. The highly popular NORAD Tracks Santa website will once again follow Santa's annual journey around the world, updating every three to four minutes and showing new movies captured by NORAD's special Santa Cams about once an hour. A long-time supporter of the program, AGI provided NORAD the 2D and 3D Santa trackers this year. The fun starts at 2.a.m. EST (0700 UTC) on December 24, when website visitors can watch Santa make preparations for his flight. Then at 6 a.m. EST, actual tracking begins. So, fire up the computer, grab your family and friends this December 24 and spend the day tracking Santa at the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site. Happy Santa tracking! [ANS thanks AGI for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Congratulations to Ken Holland, KC9TTR for attaining his ARRL VUCC Satellite Award #236. Ken thanks all the operators who helped him achieve this, especially portable operators in grids away from home. + On December 9 the Breeze-M upper stage of Russia's Proton heavy lift rocket failed, placing Yamal 402 telecommunications satellite into a too-low orbit. News from Russia indicates the satellite was rescued by raising its orbit over four firings of its own engine fuel reserves. + The ISS orbit was increased by almost 2.5 kilometers in a test of the station's new emergency debris avoidance system. The new sys- tem, known as the Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM), addresses the situation where dangerous debris is detected with little advance warning, down to as little as three hours from the approach. The emergency avoidance maneuver was performed by the engines aboard the Russian Progress freighter docked at the sta- tion. The engines can be fired as little as 140 minutes before a dangerous debris approach. + Watch a youtube video as Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield trains in the Soyuz Simulator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qL1dfdE_RFI There are good interior views of the Soyuz. + NASA released a 64-frame movie of asteroid Toutatis generated from data by Goldstone's Solar System Radar on Dec. 12 and 13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d7SroliSXuY [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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AMSAT Journal
by Bob- W7LRD 22 Dec '12

22 Dec '12

Great to find the Journal in my mailbox this AM!! Also the new column, "Oscar Zero News", that has been in my "bucket list" for some time. I will make an effort to contribute something. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle

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Office Closed
by Martha 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

The AMSAT Office will be closed from Dec 24th - Jan 2nd. Have a Happy, Healthy New Year! -- 73- Martha

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UKube-1 Signs up for Launch and Completes Thermal Vacuum Testing
by Trevor . 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

UKube-1 carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder, launch planned for March 2013. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11977 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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Fwd: live D-Star broadcast
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Tom" <wa5kub(a)gmail.com> To: "Tom" <wa5kub(a)gmail.com> Sent: Friday, December 21, 2012 11:31:40 AM Subject: live D-Star broadcast Live D-Star webcast on December 29 th . W5KUB.COM presents a special interactive live video broadcast, "D-STAR Live", on December 29, 2012 from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM Central time (1600 until 2100 UTC). The live Internet broadcast will feature many D-STAR topics discussed by Ray Novak, N9JA, of Icom, Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC, creator of the DVDongle, DVAP and D-Plus, John Davis, WB4QDX, frequent D-STAR speaker and trainer, and Ed Woodrick, WA4YIH, of DSTARinfo.com and the D-STAR Calculator. The broadcast will also host live chat for questions and comments and will feature a live D-STAR net on the air. Come early and set up your chat room login. It’s easy and simple and takes less than 1 minute. For more information or to join the broadcast go to http://w5kub.com . I would also like to ask for any pictures of your shack or ham operations and I will try to get those pictures up on the broadcast either at the beginning or closing or maybe during any breaks. If you would like to see your pictures on the broadcast, please send them to pictures(a)w5kub.com . We also invite you to join our broadcast facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/w5kub/ where you can stay updated on our broadcasts and also interact with other hams around the world. 73, Tom Medlin W5KUB -- Please check out our ham radio video broadcast page at http://w5kub.com and please join our W5KUB video broadcast group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/279273778772594/ Senior Member of the I.E.E.E

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AMSAT Receives $25,000 Matching Funds Challenge
by Stefan Wagener 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

Hi folks, just read about this on the AMSAT website. Had no idea. Did not receive anything in the mail either, I guess I need to make a point to go to the website more often or someone can post this here on the BB at the moment things like this come up. Anyway, great opportunity to help with FOX as a year-end gift. I used the little PayPal gizmo on the website. Merry Christmas, Stefan VE4NSA

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AMSAT-UK Introduce Electronic PDF Membership
by Trevor . 21 Dec '12

21 Dec '12

AMSAT-UK now offers Electronic (PDF) E-membership. This should be especially beneficial to Overseas members who have suffered from high postal charges and long delivery times. Further information at http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11912 Renew your AMSAT-UK membership as an E-member here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_8/Existing-Members-Renewal.html Join as a new E-member here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_9/Join-Amsat-UK.html E-members can download their copies of OSCAR News from http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on 73 Trevor M5AKA ----

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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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