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

CM2ESP/Portable
by Raidel Abreu Espinet 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

Hello all, In AO-27's today pass I was working portable at my workplace's front yard (also in EL83) with my homebrew arrow antena, I was at street level so when the satellite went below 10 degrees I loss the signal due the buildings. I missed the last 3 minutes, at the end I could hear barely KB1RVT calling me but signal was too low, sorry... I tried to answer but I heard nothing. Hope contact with you in some other time, I will probably work again this satellite this thursday and saturday. I could not record the audio here and in John's recording website I found only the last 4 minutes. I have right now QSO information from ND9M, N8RO and CO6CBF, at memory is hard to remember all stations I worked, so please if we did a full two-ways QSO just send me an e-mail. Also if any one has a full pass audio recording I will appreciate if is posible to send it to me via e-mail (less than 1MB) Regards and thank you very much for todays great QSOs. 73, Raydel, CM2ESP, EL83sc Este mensaje ha sido enviado mediante el servicio de correo electronico que ofrece la Federacion de Radioaficionados de Cuba a sus miembros para respaldar el cumplimiento de los objetivos de la organizacion y su politica informativa. La persona que envia este correo asume el compromiso de usar el servicio a tales fines y cumplir con las regulaciones establecidas.

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Re: Satellite Recordings 2 Year Anniversary
by Tom Schuessler 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

Many thanks to John for the encouragement he has been to so many of us to whom he has been the first or at least one of the first contacts. John always uses his big guns to help us little pistols get in the game and that is the way it should be done. Before I got my recorder, John's recordings were invaluable to me in helping me to understand why or why not a particular pass worked for me. They were a great learning tool. If John decides to hang up the pass recordings archive job, I would hope that somebody else might pick up the ball and run. This is a hobby you know and doing a task on a daily basis can get old after a while. I would not blame him if he wanted to hang it up. Thanks John for all you have done throughout the years to the Ham Satellite community. Hope you get to collect a few hundred more grids someday soon. Tom Schuessler, N5HYP

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OT -- Satellite Internet
by Jim Sanford 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

All: Living out here in the boondocks (so I can plant a tower and grow a credible aluminum microwave array) my internet options are dialup, verizon, and satellite. Verizon was unreliable (couldn't stay connected; had to reset the device several times an hour), so gave up. Looked at satellite, considered Wild Blue. Then heard bad things about them. Then they no longer served my area. Went with Hughes, which was OK for a year or so, then fell on their sword. Paying for 1mb downloads, getting 200K to 700K. Most emails have to be "sent" several times before getting through without some kind of error -- which does not happen when I take the same laptop on the road and connect through a hotel network. I've been working with Hughes "customer service" since October --unsatisfactory: -- they have not been able to improve things for more than a couple of hours -- they cannot deviate from the script, and want to blame my router -- even when it is out of circuit -- they have difficulty with the language -- they are unwilling or unable to connect me to a higher level of tech support So, Hughes is about to become history. I've recently learned about a new satellite service called "exede", which I've traced to Wild Blue under a new name. They claim up to 12Mb download rates, but have a total capacity cap -- which appears to be well beyond my average daily use. (I only busted Hughes' daily limit once in 3 years, when I installed WindersXP on a new machine and had to get all the service packs and security "fixes".) I'm wondering if anyone has any experience, good or bad, with exede/WildBlue. Please respond direct, off list, to wb4gcs(a)amsat.org To list members and operators: thanks for indulging brief, off-topic but related, info. Very 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org

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UT1FG/MM Status
by John Papay 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

Many have been wondering what happened to Yuri, UT1FG/MM, who has been so active on the birds. He is navigating the St. Lawrence Seaway and has been too busy to operate on the satellites. There are many inspection requirements for a ship coming into the Great Lakes and his duties are such that he does not have much free time. He will be in Montreal shortly. All of his equipment is working fine. Yuri will be operating as time permits. 73, John K8YSE

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AMSAT @ Tucson AZ hamfest on Saturday (24 March)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

Hi! On Saturday, 24 March 2012, I will be at the Radio Society of Tucson's annual hamfest. This, like most hamfests here in Arizona, is a half- day event. It starts at 0600 (1300 UTC), and runs until noon. The hamfest is at a new location, at the Golden Corral restaurant at 4380 E. 22nd Street in Tucson. This is on the southeast corner of 22nd Street and Columbus Blvd. More information about the hamfest is available at http://www.rstclub.org/ AMSAT will have a table at this hamfest. There will be demonstrations using AO-7 early in the morning, VO-52 around mid-morning, and SO-50 later in the morning. For AO-7 and VO-52, I like to start out about 10 kHz above the center of the passband +/- other activity or QRM/QRN, but may move around if nobody is answering my CQ calls. Please call WD9EWK if you hear me on any of those passes. If you work WD9EWK during any of the hamfest demonstration passes, I will be happy to send you a QSL card. No need to first send me a card; just e-mail me with the QSO details. QSOs will also be uploaded to Logbook of the World. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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Satellite Recordings 2 Year Anniversary
by John Papay 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

Today marks the two year anniversary of my satellite recordings website. Since March 18th, 2010, there have been about 2800 recordings posted totalling about 1.9Gb. AO-51 is the most recorded satellite with 1358 files. It was a great bird and its demise was a great loss to the satellite community. But the sound from it is preserved. It's interesting to go back and listen to some of the older recordings to see what has changed and what has not changed. AO-27 is the second most popular with about 920 recordings. They are all edited to remove the part of the pass that is either silent or contains telemetry. HO-68 is another bird which we all miss. There are 86 pass recordings to remember it by. Likewise there are 69 recordings of SO-67, a bird you could hear easily with a rubber duck antenna. There are linear bird recordings as well but I don't post many since you have to tune around to pick up qso's and then stay with them for a bit. But they are there and some show how much like HF a linear bird can sound like when someone like UT1FG/MM shows up from a wet grid. Now that VO-52 is back on I'll try to post some recordings of that one as well. I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to post these recordings. Many that could benefit from them don't know they are there. 73, John K8YSE

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Satellite Recordings 2 Year Anniversary
by John Papay 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

Today marks the two year anniversary of my satellite recordings website. Since March 18th, 2010, there have been about 2800 recordings posted totalling about 1.9Gb. AO-51 is the most recorded satellite with 1358 files. It was a great bird and its demise was a great loss to the satellite community. But the sound from it is preserved. It's interesting to go back and listen to some of the older recordings to see what has changed and what has not changed. AO-27 is the second most popular with about 920 recordings. They are all edited to remove the part of the pass that is either silent or contains telemetry. HO-68 is another bird which we all miss. There are 86 pass recordings to remember it by. Likewise there are 69 recordings of SO-67, a bird you could hear easily with a rubber duck antenna. There are linear bird recordings as well but I don't post many since you have to tune around to pick up qso's and then stay with them for a bit. But they are there and some show how much like HF a linear bird can sound like when someone like UT1FG/MM shows up from a wet grid. Now that VO-52 is back on I'll try to post some recordings of that one as well. I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to post these recordings. Many that could b

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CM2ESP back on FM satellites.
by Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) 18 Mar '12

18 Mar '12

Hello all, Finally I finish my portable setup and I hope being back in the FM satellites. Now featuring the ugliest ever built arrow antenna hi hi hi hi, it is not pretty but it works, I hope to be active on weekends at my roof or front yard, and may be in some other place, who knows... I give up of using my fixed antenna due to poor gain and high coax losses. I am so happy of being back. Many thanks to K8YSE and AC0RA for today's reports on AO-27. John, your work with the recordings website is very helpfull, and I use it always. 73, Raydel CM2ESP EL83sc Este mensaje ha sido enviado mediante el servicio de correo electronico que ofrece la Federacion de Radioaficionados de Cuba a sus miembros para respaldar el cumplimiento de los objetivos de la organizacion y su politica informativa. La persona que envia este correo asume el compromiso de usar el servicio a tales fines y cumplir con las regulaciones establecidas.

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Re: Satellite Recordings 2 Year Anniversary
by Jim Adams 18 Mar '12

18 Mar '12

Thank you so much for your recordings. I for one have benefited from them, and have told many a new ham to go to your website and learn how to work an fm sat and LISTEN to different passes to understand how they are worked. I've played your recordings for other hams and at local club meetings and have the usual response of "I didn't know we could so that" from hams. Listening to the fm sat QSO's with my call sign in there and explaining to them I use a ONE WATT ht always leaves their mouths open. I've also used your recording when there was so much wind I couldn't hear anything on my recording. If AMSAT hasn't already given you an award, a plaque, an engraved gold tag on the next spacecraft, they should. Please keep up the good work. Jim Adams - K0BAM Delta, Colorado

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DM90 operation today
by Glenn AA5PK 18 Mar '12

18 Mar '12

If the weather cooperates, I'll be operating QRP portable from DM90 for the ~1852Z SO-50 pass and the ~1935Z AO-27 pass. We have severe weather (high winds, hail and possible tornados) predicted, but it's not supposed to arrive until late afternoon or evening. 73 Glenn AA5PK San Angelo, TX

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