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

SO-50's ELEVENTH Birthday!
by Clint Bradford 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

It is SO-50's ELEVENTH birthday! Read on for how YOU can celebrate! Now known as SO-50, Saudisat 1C is a Saudi Arabian picosatellite that was launched by a Dnepr rocket from Baikonur at 17:00 UT on December 20, 2002. SO-50 features a "Mode J" FM amateur repeater operating on a 2M uplink and a 440 downlink. "Most hams already own the necessary equipment to work SO-50," reports Clint Bradford, K6LCS, who maintains a Web site devoted to working amateur satellites with minimal equipment (http://www.work-sat.com). "It is preferable to work SO-50 in true, full-duplex mode - so you can hear the downlink as you transmit. This means - for most - using a second radio or the Kenwood TH-D72A and its true full-duplex capability. The new Puxing PX-UV973 is currently being tested in this mode, too, to see how it works on the satellites." SO-50's repeater is available to amateurs worldwide, and it uses a 67.0 Hertz PL tone on the uplink. SO-50 also has a 10 minute timer that must be armed before use. If you know the satellite is there - but there is nothing heard - you may need to shoot it a PL tone of 74.4 to turn it ON! The repeater consists of a miniature VHF receiver with sensitivity of -124dBm, with an IF bandwidth of 15 KHz. The receive antenna is a 1/4 wave vertical mounted in the top corner of the spacecraft. Its UHF transmitter is a mere 250 mW, and downlink antenna is a 1/4 wave mounted in the bottom corner of the spacecraft and canted at 45 degrees inward. "Hams just with Technician licenses can work the satellite," Clint continues. "We are talking about weak signals from 500 miles away - so improving both your TX and RX antennas is critical for success on this satellite." Plans for making tape measure beams and other inexpensive, high-gain antennas is also on his Web site. "Do not forget to accommodate for the Doppler phenomenon on the 440 receive side." Complete details - including frequency chart and sources for knowing when the satellite will be over your area, are also on Clint's Web site. /end/

2 1

Re: Object IDs
by Rick Tejera 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

I'd thought that AO-73 had been confirmed as object 66B. has this been refined? I guess I need to update my settings in SATpc Rick Tejera Saguaro Astronomy Club www.saguaroastro.org Thunderbird Amateur radio Club (K7TEJ) www.w7tbc.org -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nico Janssen Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 7:00 AM To: Mike Rupprecht; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Object IDs Hi Mike, Thanks for the confirmation of the 'tbc's. This picture shows the measured doppler curve of an overhead evening pass of OSCAR 73, plotted against the calculated curves for objects 39444 and 39445. These objects were about 11 s apart (i.e. about 82 km). https://thumb5.wuala.com/previewImage/SharedInfo/Space/AO73_20131216.jpg/?ke y=IZKufoz9U1Uo Note the temperature related frequency drift on the beacon transmitter, which causes frequency deviations when using automatic doppler correction. To be able to create useful doppler curves it would help if all Cubesats would transmit a *continuous* carrier signal on a *constant* frequency... ;-) Still a lot of IDs are unknown. Of all the objects from the Minotaur launch, only three are officially identified: 39380 2013-064A STPSat 3 39388 2013-064J SENSE SV1 39392 2013-064N SENSE SV2 It is suggested that Cape 2 is object 39382 (2013-064C) and that KySat 2 is object 39383 (2013-064D). These are to be confirmed. 73, Nico PA0DLO On 2013-12-17 22:13, Mike Rupprecht wrote: > Thanks Nico, PA0DLO for pointing me in the rigth direction. I agree > with you the TLE for the cubesats: > > 39436 2013-066W Eagle 2 ($50Sat) ok > 39438 2013-066Y Velox PII ok > 39439 2013-066Z First-MOVE ok > 39440 2013-066AA CubeBug 2 ok > 39444 2013-066AE AMSAT-OSCAR ok :-) > 39445 2013-066AF HiNCube ? > 39446 2013-066AG UWE 3 ok > > Just made a deep analysis with the FunCube TLE (Object AE vs. AF). The > pass was not very high but every seconds I switched between the TLE AE and AF. > You can see a slightly differnce (only a few Hz) at TCA what leads me > to say > - your're right. FUNCube-1 seems indeed to be Object AE. > > http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=39682 > > > 73 Mike > DK3WN > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- > Von: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] Im > Auftrag von Nico Janssen > Gesendet: Dienstag, 17. Dezember 2013 14:32 > An: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Betreff: [amsat-bb] Re: Object IDs > > All, > > Further doppler measurements show that TshepisoSat (aka ZACube 1) is > object > 39417 (2013-066B) and AMSAT-OSCAR 73 (aka FUNCube 1) is object > 39444 (2013-066AE). Therefore HiNCube must be object 39445 (2013-066AF). > > It is not easy to get a good doppler curve with many Cubesats because > of the limited transmissions and because of the frequency drift of > their beacon transmitters. > > These object IDs from the Dnepr launch seem to be correct, although > some still need to be confirmed (tbc): > > 39416 2013-066A Aprizesat 7 > 39417 2013-066B TshepisoSat > 39418 2013-066C Skysat 1 > 39419 2013-066D Dubaisat 2 > 39421 2013-066F Unisat 5 > 39422 2013-066G STSat 3 > 39423 2013-066H WNISat 1 > 39425 2013-066K Aprizesat 8 > 39427 2013-066M Triton 1 > 39428 2013-066N Delfi-n3Xt > 39429 2013-066P Dove 3 > 39430 2013-066Q GomX 1 > 39431 2013-066R BRITE-PL > 39432 2013-066S HumSat D (tbc) > 39436 2013-066W Eagle 2 ($50Sat) (tbc) > 39438 2013-066Y Velox PII (tbc) > 39439 2013-066Z First-MOVE (tbc) > 39440 2013-066AA CubeBug 2 (tbc) > 39444 2013-066AE AMSAT-OSCAR 73 > 39445 2013-066AF HiNCube > 39446 2013-066AG UWE 3 (tbc) > > 73, > Nico PA0DLO > > > On 2013-12-01 16:25, Nico Janssen wrote: >> All, >> >> An update on the satellite IDs. >> >> Still no IDs are available for the satellites launched from the ISS >> (except TechEdSat 3P) and the Minotaur. >> >> Several IDs have been published for the objects from the Dnepr launch >> but many need to be confirmed. Still not all TLEs are released. >> >> AMSAT-OSCAR 73, ZACube 1 and HiNCube were launched from the same ISIPOD. >> As they initially were close together, the JSpOC decided to release >> only one TLE set for this cluster under object number 39417 >> (2013-066B). Now the distances between these satellites are slowly >> increasing. So the question is which satellite is object 39417. >> Detailed doppler measurements show that ZACube 1 is now about 25 s >> early compared to the TLE for object 39417, while OSCAR 73 is about >> 11 s early. This seems to indicate that object 39417 is actually HiNCube. >> Hopefully TLEs for OSCAR 73 and ZACube 1 will be published soon. >> >> 73, >> Nico PA0DLO >> >> >> On 2013-11-23 11:32, Nico Janssen wrote: >>> All, >>> >>> An overview of the presently known IDs for the satellites that have >>> been launched recently. >>> >>> ISS JSSOD Cubesat launches >>> 2013-11-19 12:18 UTC >>> 39412 1998-067DA Pico Dragon ? >>> 39413 1998-067DB ArduSat 1 ? >>> 39414 1998-067DC ArduSat X ? >>> To be confirmed when the objects have more separation. >>> 2013-11-20 07:58 UTC >>> 39415 1998-067DD TechEdSat 3P >>> >>> Minotaur 1, Wallops Flight Facility >>> 2013-11-20 01:15 UTC >>> ORS3 & ELaNa 4: 29 satellites >>> So far only 4 TLEs published. No IDs yet but probably: >>> 39380 2013-064A STPSat 3 >>> >>> Dnepr, Yasny >>> 2013-11-21 07:10:11 UTC >>> 32 satellites >>> 19 TLEs published >>> 39417 2013-066B FUNcube 1 >>> 39427 2013-066M Triton 1 >>> 39428 2013-066N Delfi-n3Xt >>> >>> Note that all designations may change later on. >>> >>> 73, >>> Nico PA0DLO >>> > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

3 2

CAPE-2
by PY5LF 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

Hi Cape-2 heard today 12:30 UTC over Brazil . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGMqaa8BPo 73 PY5LF Luciano Fabricio Curitiba-PR-BR GG54jm http://www.qrz.com/db/PY5LF

1 0

help with cape ii
by Roland Zurmely 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

Today I gave several commands to set green mode, but he remained in pink ... He also responded to a Send Text to Spech command: http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/cape.htm#e 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ.

1 0

*AMSAT* on Echolink
by Bruce 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

it appears that the conference *AMSAT* on Echolink is no longer working. you can still listen to the houston amsat net from our internet stream at http://www.amsatnet.com scroll down a bit on the main page. 73...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

2 1

CAPE-2 spoke to me with the voice of Darth Vader!
by Roland Zurmely 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

Please see here, CAPE-2 responding to a "Send Text to Speech" command: "Hello P Y 4 Z B Z" http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/cape.htm#d 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ.

3 2

satellite average elevation & new birds
by Ted 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

I'm kind of looking for an update from Bob, but can't find his email right now... But the question is, in view of what appears to be some renewed interest in working the new cube sats, et al, is asking Bob to comment on his earlier thoughts on using antennae at fixed elevations. For me, I'm using my Elk on a Rat Shack rotor at a fixed el per Bob's recommendations. (I'm still struggling with PCSAT32...!!!%^&*!!) but, this antenna set up is very cost effective and seems to perform pretty well. For example, Joel Black has asked for some advice in an earlier posting. My concern is that new operators or those returning run out and spend a bunch of $$$ on a new setup. No one knows how long the current crop will last or if a new crop is in the future, so probably some caution on the Visa is warranted. Just asking (and especially Bob) 73, Ted K7TRK -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)AMSAT.Org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Bruninga Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:23 AM To: amsat-bb(a)AMSAT.Org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: satellite average elevation > we used a horizontally polarized yagi fixed at 30 degrees above the > horizon. That worked very well.. Thanks for the confirmation. Yes, elevation rotation is simply not needed at all for LEO spacecraft and modest beams. A mild, fixed tilt modest beam is just perfect. But, the "30 degree" angle myth is very pervasive throughout amsat, whereas, the optimum angle is more like 15 degrees. A 30 degree up-tilt gives up too much gain (-3 dB!) on the horizon where signals are weakest and where satellites spend most of their time, and puts the gain in an area of the sky where the satellite is already 6 dB stronger and is rarely there (giving you max beam gain where you need it least). If you look at the sketches on the web page, the optimum angle is more like 15 degrees up-tilt. It preserves max gain on the horizon within 1 dB (where it is needed most) and focuses the breadth of its gain on the area of the sky where the satellites spend something like 95% of their time. For the missing 5%, the satellite is right on top of you and almost 10 dB stronger without any beam at all. Oh, and the 15 degree up-tilt beam is also perfect for Terrestrial operations as well. See the sketch on: http://aprs.org/rotator1.html In some future life, if we ever get back to HEO's and huge OSCAR arrays, then elevation rotors have a place. These high-gain beams have such narrow gain patterns, that higher precision tracking is a must. (Though it is complete overkill for LEO's). Using these OVERKILL arrays for LEO's adds significant complexity to LEO operation requiring higher precision tracking, elevation rotors, better timing, fresher element sets and automated operation. Using a TV rotator and 15 degree fixed tilt beam is much more forgiving... Bob, Wb4APR _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

3 2

Returning Satellite User
by Joel Black 17 Dec '13

17 Dec '13

For whatever reason, I have gotten interested in amateur satellites again after being away for almost 10 years. I've gone through the last two months in the archives and I have a couple of things: 1. I saw some questions about the the K3. I have the K3 and the KX3 and do not know of a satellite app that will "talk" to them. Both use "a Kenwood" command set, but I do not know which. Thus far, I have not been able to get either SatPC32 or MacDoppler to talk to my K3. 2. I have access to an FT-847 I sold my father several years ago. This is the radio I used on the satellites when I was active. I had initially thought about buying the 2m transverter for the K3, but after talking to many users of that transverter and explaining what I wanted to and that I had access to the FT-847, it was advised that I go with the FT-847. 3. I have a 2m / 70cm QHTenna turnstile pair. I *also* have an Arrow 144/432 antenna. I think either pair will work well from my plywood-decked, shingle roof. I would like to use the Arrow, but (a) I don't have a good way to point it, and (b) I cannot find the gain. If memory serves, it has a fairly good gain around 4dB for 2m and 6 dB for 70cm. I don't know that there's any gain to the turnstiles, but at least I won't need a rotor for those. Any other advice here? 4. I also have the AG-25 2m preamp. I know the FT-847 will power this preamp. It is not quite as good as the DEM preamps, but it's what I have. Any suggestions here? I am really not interested in the FM satellites. I am very interested in the linear transponders - especially CW. Any CW ops out there? I'm still slow (13 - 15WPM), but I'm working on my speed. From what I've read, the linear transponders are on AO-7, FO-29 (I cut my teeth on FO-20), VO-52, and AO-73. It looks like AO-7 is both mode A and mode B, FO-29 is mode J, and both VO-52 and AO-73 are mode B. It sounds like there is really a lot to play with up there. 73, Joel - W4JBB

2 1

ISS Repair EVAs Scheduled, Cygnus Launch Delayed
by B J 17 Dec '13

17 Dec '13

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/december/nasa-postpones-orbital-launch-sets-… http://moonandback.com/2013/12/17/nasa-sets-spacewalks-to-repair-faulty-sta… http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/12/antares-cygnus-mission-to-iss-delaye… http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space-flight-news/antares-launch-delayed-… The booster was at the pad when the announcement was made: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space-flight-news/orbitals-antares-rolled… http://moonandback.com/2013/12/17/orbitals-orb-1-cygnus-iss-resupply-craft-… http://moonandback.com/2013/12/17/cygnus-at-launch-pad-station-crew-prepare… http://www.americaspace.com/?p=46890 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

1 0

EA/N8MH QRV on satellites from Madrid, Spain during holidays
by Mark L. Hammond 17 Dec '13

17 Dec '13

Hello European satellite friends, It is possible that I will be QRV from Madrid, Spain on FO-29, VO-52, AO-73, SO-50, and AO-7 (?) while the family is on holiday. This is a very low priority part of the trip, and I can't predict when I'll be able to get on the air (limitations of being in the city with poor view to sky, etc.). But I am going to try at least a few passes one way or another! The opportunity is from around Dec 24 until Jan 2. My station will be very simple--FT-817, Elk antenna, and a hand mic. Working half-duplex on the SSB birds will be very challenging for me! I am spoiled by fully automated station operations. So if you hear EA/N8MH, please be patient and say hello :) It may be the only chance for a QSO with long time friends across the big pond... Should I be able to post an email note in advance of a specific pass/satellite, I will do so. But it might not be possible. 73! -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

2 2