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

AMSAT Board of Directors Election Reminder
by Alan P. Biddle 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

By now, all members in good standing of AMSAT-NA should have received their ballots, including the position biographies by the candidates. Additional information for those interested can be found in the minutes of the 2011 Board Meeting which appear in the current issue of the AMSAT Journal. We have a full slate of candidates this year. Remember, this is one of your best opportunities to make your views on the path of our organization known. More details, courtesy of the AMSAT News Service, can be found below. 73s, Alan WA4SCA AMSAT Corporate Secretary -------------------------------------------- AMSAT Board of Directors 2012 Ballots in the Mail Ballots for the 2012 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors election have been mailed to all members. Also included is biographical information about each of the candidates. Select no more than three of the six listed candidates (in alphabetical order): + Tom Clark, K3IO + Steve Coy, K8UD + Mark Hammond, N8MH + Lou McFadin, W5DID + Gould Smith, WA4SXM + Patrick E. Stoddard, WD9EWK The 3 candidates receiving the most votes will become directors serving 2 year terms. The 2 receiving the next highest number of votes will be seated as alternates for 1 year terms. You must mail your ballot back to be received at the AMSAT-NA Office no later than the close of business on September 15, 2012: AMSAT 850 Sligo Avenue, #600 Silver Spring, MD 20910

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Antenna Polarization Technical Question
by andrew abken 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

Hi Tom, I thought fo-29 was transmitting circular. Would not surprise me if I was wrong:) Andy, kn6za

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Re: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 7, Issue 247
by Thomas Frey 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

amsat-bb-request(a)amsat.org schrieb: > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2012 10:23:21 +0000 (UTC) > From: Jean-Pierre Godet<godetj(a)wanadoo.fr> > To:ans-editor@amsat.org > Cc:amsat-bb@amsat.org > Subject: [amsat-bb] Yubileiny-2 RS-40 > Message-ID:<Pine.LNX.4.60.1208050840120.432(a)comcon2.org> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > > Dear friends, > > Thanks to Jean-Louis Rault F6AGR who quickly informed me, I heard my > first signal from Yubileiny-2 RS-40 on monday July 30th afternoon. The > signal of the 435.365 MHz beacon was fairly strong regarding my poor > receiving devices and aerials. > After that, the beacon was heard on 435.265, but more often on 435.365 > MHz, sometime none of these two frequencies. I am using the 2012-041D > NORAD elements. I am not sure it is the good one, but for the moment A, B, > and C, the three others payloads launched with the same Rockot vehicle are > not too far away. > > Trying to get information about the Yubileiny-2 satellite, I sent > inquiries about the telemetry and the possibility that may be one of the > beacons will move to CW as it was done with the previous Yubileiny-1 RS-30 > and Mozhayets-4 RS-22, but I received no reply till now : three mails in > russian, to the Siberian State Aerospace University (RS-40 instruments and > research mission, Rrasnoyarsk), to ISS Reshetnev (company manufacturing > the RS-40 satellite, Krasnoyarsk), and to A. P. Papkov (Laboratory of > Astronotical technology, Kaluga, who published the telemetry decoding of > RS-22 and RS-30). > We are waiting with hope but, may be I am wrong, looks like the > university and the ISS company are not very interested by a collaboration > with the radioamateur community, only by their frequencies around 435 MHz. > > 73 ! > > Jean-Pierre/F5YG > Hello Jean-Pierre You are right, they have absolute no interest for us radio amateurs. And this could be a problem, if this Russian satellites flies over Europe and transmits their DOKA-B signals in FM (!) in the 435 MHz frequency range. Look for first hand infos in this PDF-document: http://home.datacomm.ch/th.frey/Yubileiny-2.pdf MiR(Yubileiny-2) is active in DOKA-B only in range of a control station in Russia, e.g. Moscow. -- Mit freundlichen Grüssen, Regards, 73 Thomas Frey, HB9SKA ______________________________________________________________________ Thomas Frey, Holzgasse 2, CH-5242 Birr, Tel. + Fax: 056 444 93 41 http://home.datacomm.ch/th.frey/

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Yubileiny-2 RS-40
by Jean-Pierre Godet 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

Dear friends, Thanks to Jean-Louis Rault F6AGR who quickly informed me, I heard my first signal from Yubileiny-2 RS-40 on monday July 30th afternoon. The signal of the 435.365 MHz beacon was fairly strong regarding my poor receiving devices and aerials. After that, the beacon was heard on 435.265, but more often on 435.365 MHz, sometime none of these two frequencies. I am using the 2012-041D NORAD elements. I am not sure it is the good one, but for the moment A, B, and C, the three others payloads launched with the same Rockot vehicle are not too far away. Trying to get information about the Yubileiny-2 satellite, I sent inquiries about the telemetry and the possibility that may be one of the beacons will move to CW as it was done with the previous Yubileiny-1 RS-30 and Mozhayets-4 RS-22, but I received no reply till now : three mails in russian, to the Siberian State Aerospace University (RS-40 instruments and research mission, Rrasnoyarsk), to ISS Reshetnev (company manufacturing the RS-40 satellite, Krasnoyarsk), and to A. P. Papkov (Laboratory of Astronotical technology, Kaluga, who published the telemetry decoding of RS-22 and RS-30). We are waiting with hope but, may be I am wrong, looks like the university and the ISS company are not very interested by a collaboration with the radioamateur community, only by their frequencies around 435 MHz. 73 ! Jean-Pierre/F5YG -- Powered by Linux (Slackware 10.0 - kernel 2.4.26)

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Antenna Polarization Technical Question
by Thomas Doyle 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

I had a actual qso on FO-29 the other day and during the contact circular polarization switching was discussed. The station I was talking with described a very large change in received signal strength when switching between LHCP and RHCP. I have heard other people mention this and I recall some change when using AO-10 with my switchable KLM's back in the good old days. I have been trying to figure out why there would be such a big change. Here is a collection of theories/questions. I would appreciate comments on any or all of them. This is a bit complex so a direct reply is probably best. - In a perfect world if the satellite antenna is linearly polarized LH-RH switching would not make any difference. - In a real world it is unlikely that the ground station receive antenna is truly circular. It is somewhat elliptical. Question: if the receive antenna has an elliptical pattern does the angle of the major axis change when switching LH - RH. This is a complex question related to the nature of what caused the elliptical distortion in the pattern. Perhaps someone has measured this. If the angle of the major axis receive antenna pattern changes when switching between LH and RH and the satellite antenna is linearly polarized this could account for some change in received signal strength. Other than that I am at a loss to explain why switching LH-RH on a receive antenna would cause a large change in the strength of a signal received from a linear antenna. tnx & 73 W9KE Tom Doyle

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VE3NKL/p
by K4FEG 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Many thanks to Nikolai, VE3NKL, who operated portable from 6 different grids in Newfoundland, Canada during the past 2 weeks. *Thanks to his family that shared their vacation time with us "Grid Chasers" while Nikolai took time out to work the satellite passes.* Great signal and you handled it well Nikolai. Thank you for the contacts and new grid squares. Thanks for GN09, GN19, GN26, GN28, GN37 & GN38 (May have been one more!). When do you go on vacation again?? HI HI! 73 de K4FEG EM55

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Re: Antenna Polarization Technical Question
by Stephen Melachrinos 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

> Not sure why anyone would want to maintain the orientation of the > satellite in such a way that would cause the direction of circular < polarization to change during the path. There are two perspectives in answering this. 1. You used the word "maintain," which implies the ability of the spacecraft to control its attitude. That's commonly done for commercial and military satellites, but rarely (if ever) done for amateur satellites. It's just too complicated and too expensive for amateurs to allocate the resources to make it happen. 2. You also asked why anyone would WANT to maintain the orientation like that. In a more general sense, recognize that not every satellite is a communications satellite, supporting communications with terrestrial stations. Scientific missions often have to point a body-mounted sensor somewhere, and the comm payload has to "adjust." For example, Hubble's main body IS the telescope, so it MUST point at the astronomical targets. For that mission, NASA paid for an articulated communications payload, but spacecraft don't always do that. 73, Steve W3HF

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Hawaii Footprints
by Robert Smith 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Aloha I hope to be on the FO-29 pass at 2243Z and AO27 at 2308Z grandchildren precluding. As aforementioned my home QTH allows only the western region and Alaska on these passes. Hopefully mobile soon!!! 73 de robert, NH7WN

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US Virgin Islands Satellite Operator
by Wyatt Dirks 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Fellow Satellite Operators, On the 2nd I was glad to make contact with KP2CT on FO-29 for his first satellite contact and my first contact from the US Virgin Islands. We have been talking for about a month now and on our second attempt we made it. For equipment he has a Icom 706 and an arrow antenna. He is manually tuning for Doppler and still getting the hang of it. I know some other stations reported hearing him on the 1st of August on our first attempt for contact. He is going to only be on the SSB satellites for now and probably only FO-29 due to the ease of working semi duplex on mode J vs mode B. Though we might try on VO52 at some point. He is still picking up on things that make it easier and need to trouble shoot a few problems we found during our first QSO! He will try to be QRV on fo29 during the next few week ends and possibly during the week depending on his free time due to his unpredictable work schedule. He also asked that people not try to contact him for skeds. If he knows he can make a Certain pass or passes I will try to make an effort to post to the BB. Good Dx! 73 Wyatt AC0RA

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LA4FPA
by Wyatt Dirks 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Good morning LA4FPA, Ering has asked me to post that he will be qrv on fo-29 and ao-27 this weekend from Vigra Island which is in JP32 and IOTA EU-056. Good DX! 73 Wyatt AC0RA

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