November 2013 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: ICOM IC-PCR-1000
by Joe Leikhim 26 Nov '13

26 Nov '13

Brock; I bought one of these receivers a year ago to use for LMR signal strength measurements. It is a very versatile receiver multimode receiver, It is NOT SDR however, so extracting some digital modes may require a "discriminator tap" which is well documented on various sites. As was pointed out, the lack of a serial port on the host computer will require a USB to serial "dongle-thingy". The biggest complaint by users is support of USB. That being said, I got mine working, so if you have any trouble I will give it a shot. Hope my memory serves. I did however download a whole lot of software and info. I would recommend avoiding the "BONITO" software that was often bundled with it. Mine just plain did not like their product and acted in very funny ways. I got worse than no support, very cryptic people to ask for help. Try the ICOM software to get it going and then branch out. Beware of any utilities to back up, retune or modify the firmware. -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446 WWW.LEIKHIM.COM

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FUNCube Telemetry Received in Havana with RTL-SDR
by Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Hi all, I was able to receive up to 10KB (size of the resulting .funcubebin file) of Telemetry from FUNCube-1 (AO-73) here at my home in Havana, Cuba, (EL83sc) during the 03:41-03:52 UT pass of Nov. 26th. I used a MAR-8 MMIC pre-amp with ZERO filtering, a QFH antenna and a cheap RTL-SDR dongle. Software was SDRSharp with Plugin for Doppler Control and Orbitron as Sat Tracking Software. Even with the poorly filtered and not too much sensitive RTL-SDR dongle the signals amplified with the also poorly filtered MAR-8 pre-amp was VERY STRONG even in complete Eclipse. I used Virtual Audio Cable software to feed the demodulated audio into the FUNCube Dashboard software and it was very smooth. I am very happy because after many days being busy I was finally able to get some free time to try listening to FUNCube. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE FUNCUBE AND AMSAT-UK TEAM!!! Today at the GROS (the Cuban Satellite Group) we created and registered an account in the FUNCube Warehouse data server to upload all the received Telemetry. The most common Internet access in Cuba are at workplaces which usually has a proxy server for Internet navigation and the FUNCube Dashboard has no proxy compatibility, that's why many of our hams cannot upload directly the received telemetry frames. To overcome this issue and to contribute with the telemetry forwarding the GROS_Cuba user was created and we will be sending the telemetry through a direct Internet line at IGA (Cuba's Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy, see: www.iga.cu). This morning a total of 124 frames received from Hector CO6CBF and Pavel CO7WT were uploaded. Tomorrow I will upload more telemetry received, including the frames received by me and also Pavel's and Hector's data in case they have some more frames from today. 73, Raydel Abreu Espinet, CM2ESP EL83sc, Havana, Cuba.

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Falcon 9 Ready For Launch Later Today
by B J 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

http://innerspace.net/2013/11/25/spacex-falcon-9-v1-1-stands-ready-to-enter… http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/11/spacex-falcon-9-v1-1-milestone-ses-8… http://www.americaspace.com/?p=45686 This rocket's carrying a payload to GEO. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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AO-73 sometimes hard to access
by James Luhn 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

I have had the same experience as Perry with AO-73 with regards to signal problems. I have an IC-910 transceiver and a M2 2mcp14 (2 meters) and M2 436CP30 antenna with a Yaesu G-5500. I have the IC-910 set to about 25 watts on UHF. I have made one contact on AO-73. It has taken me forever to get the doppler correct as I usually cannot hear my signal. Last night my returning signal was extremely strong for about 1 minute. In comparison, the received signal from FO-29 is extremely strong so I am assuming that my UHF antenna is working fine. Like Perry, I have never experienced this before. At times AO-73 takes some very deep fades (telemetry). With such a small little cube, I would not think the satellite is blocking the antenna (although 4 inches is starting to get close to 435 wavelength. The frequency offset confused me at first. I just kept cranking up the frequency and there I was but very, very weak. I'm not gripping as I am having a blast. Those of you with experience are probably getting a laugh at what I report. I am a newbie to this satellite stuff and learning as I go and extremely excited to make even one contact. Maybe the geese overhead are causing me some problems. :-) 73, -james W5AOO ...a ham for 50+ years and enjoying every minute of it!

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Further To Today's SpaceX Launch Scrub
by B J 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

http://moonandback.com/2013/11/25/spacex-launch-is-scrubbed-next-window-thi… http://www.americaspace.com/?p=45691 http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/11/spacex-falcon-9-v1-1-milestone-ses-8… http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/11/25/falcon-9-turns-turkey-pad-thanksgivi… 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Nova for AO-73
by Jerry Ehlers 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Can anyone help get me get AO-73 on my Nova??? I have put the Keps in but it says its the wrong catalog number. contact me off line Jerry w0sat w0sat2(a)gmail.com

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Live Coverage Of SpaceX Launch
by B J 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/007/status.html 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Re: Nova for windows Funcube-1 keps manually update.
by Cor . 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Hi Jerry, I have uploaded manually the Funcube-1/AO73 keps in my Nova satellite tracker software without any problem. Copy and paste this 2 line keps into a text file: Funcube-1 1 39417U 13066B 13328.52822701 .00004709 00000-0 65186-3 0 152 2 39417 97.7995 41.0710 0063010 185.6906 174.3718 14.77115537 473 I gave the file name the name funcube1.txt Go to Nova for windows menu to ---> Kep Elements---> Disk file update---->Manual update from file-----> Click on the "Update" button. Now you see a window appear and browse to the funcube1.txt file. If you can not find click in the same window all files. If you have uploaded the keps from the file than go to the Nova menu to ---> Views configure current view ---> Click on Artificial satellites ---> browse through the satellite - list till you see Funcube-1 and drag it to the right window. Click on the OK button and now you should see Funcube-1 on the world map. I have written this message verry basic so I hope others with less experience understand it too. Good luck with Funcube-1. 73's Cor PD0RKC --------------------------------------------------------------------- Can anyone help get me get AO-73 on my Nova??? I have put the Keps in but it says its the wrong catalog number. contact me off line Jerry w0sat w0sat2(a)gmail.com

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Funcube Donlge SDR
by Kevin Deane 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

I thought there would be more users out there with all these new Baby Monitor Sats. I was hoping to use this for working AO-7, VO-52, FO-29. Anyone with some experience and a little detail would be much appreciated. Kevin KF7MYK

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ICOM IC-PCR-1000
by w6gmt＠bak.rr.com 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Part of a SK estate I got a Icom pcr 1000 look like a early SDR rig. is it possible for the school up here to use it for the FunCube SATs. If what software ? Going to try to get it running tonight. 73 Brock -- W6GMT BROCK THOMSEN MARCELL MN 56657 EN37EN

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