AMSAT-BB February 2013

131 participants
165 discussions

EQUiSat Optical Beacon CubeSat
by Trevor . 17 Oct '18

17 Oct '18

Students at the Ivy League Brown University are developing an amateur radio satellite EQUiSat that will carry a Xenon Flash Tube (XFT) subsystem to act as an Optical Beacon that should be visible to the unaided eye of observers on Earth. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10635 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAK-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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LVB Tracker USB serial port driver for Windows 7 x64?
by Bill Bordy, NJ1H 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Has anyone located a driver for the LVB Tracker internal USB to serial port adapter on Windows 7 x64? If not, has anyone reverted to the serial port connection on LVB Tracker and used an external USB to serial port adapter successfully with SatPC32 on Windows 7 x64? I have an Edgeport multiple USB to serial port that has drivers for Windows 7 x64 that I will use if I have to. I would prefer using the LVB Tracker with its USB to serial adapter if someone has another solution. 73, Bill NJ1H

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AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010
by Mark L. Hammond 01 Jul '16

01 Jul '16

Hi All, Here is a quick AO-16 update. On Sunday I turned AO-16 long enough to get some telemetry packets. The satellite would remain on for less than one minute after being commanded on. A quick test of the "bent pipe" voice mode repeater was successful. . The "hardware watchdog timer problem" is still evident; as expected, spacecraft temperatures are insufficient to keep the transmitter ON (needs to be above 15 deg C). Orbit projections suggest that satellite illumination conditions will not result in increased temperatures for nearly 10 years. Command stations do periodically turn AO-16 "ON" to check on its condition and see if the hardware timer problem has "automagically" fixed itself (which in not anticipated, but who knows...). AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010 1838 utc PACSAT MBL Telemetry Decoder Ver. 1.3 (c) Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN =============================================================================== (average values) +10V Battery Bus : 0.00 V Battery Charge Reg : 0.55 mA Base Temp : 9.07 °C PSK RF Out : 1.90 W +5V RX Bus : 4.87 V +8.5V RX Bus : 8.49 V +10V RX Bus : 11.24 V Here is another teaser :) Several months ago I commanded the AO-16 S-band transmitter ON; it too remains functional (albeit weak), and was received by me, Drew KO4MA, and Alan WA4SCA. 73, -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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rx Sirius sat beacons with AIDC3733 converter
by f6htj＠aol.com 24 May '13

24 May '13

In addition: Good reception of sat carriers (+/- 2320.190 MHz) with AIDC3733 2400>144 converter (was modified for AO40 rx): receiver set at +/- 64.190 MHz (instead of 144.190) 73 de Michel F6HTJ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hello all; for information here in south west Europe we use 2320,100 to 2320,300 cw/ssb portion of 13cm band for tropospheric , AS , RS, traffic. I have been told by Piero I5CTE there is permanent continuous carrier beacon around 2320.190 MHz (+/- doppler) by 1 of the 3 Sirius elliptic NA satellites. It appears reception is very good here with small 20 turn helix antenna (in spite of 12m heliax coax) peaking 539. Apogee (50000km ) around 325deg with 27deg elevation. F5BOF reports same signal with small hand held 25 elements f9ft yagi. So these are for us very interesting beacons. Depending hours we can receive 1 o 2 sats. Real time positions (Sirius-1 / Sirius-2 / Sirius-3) here: http://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=33 Any info about beacon sat polarisation and eirp ? 73 de Michel F6HTJ Amsat #7409

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inquiry about homebrew az-el systems
by Samudra Haque 28 Mar '13

28 Mar '13

Hi, about two years ago, I started a design for a robotics class project of a AZ-EL rotator controller system, and a hardware package for the mechanism for rotating an antenna in any direction subject to mechanical stops. The system would have been able to handle regular and flip modes. I didn't do anything more than calculations, and moved on to building a classroom instructional robot then. Lately, as I am setting up (K3GWU, the George Washington University Amateur Radio Club and Research Station) I find that the price of az-el systems such as G5500 + Yaesu AZ-EL rotors are expensive, and are not typically available on an affordable basis on Ebay or eham.net etc. Well, of course, expensive is a relative term, for a student hobby organization, it's a lot, and I guess for small ham operators it is also moderately expensive. This may be a frequently asked topic: does any one have experienced with (tested) kit designs for AZ-EL rotors that can be made with parts from current suppliers ? I know there are a number of controller designs, but I am interested to know if there are any options for suppliers of the required gears/motors etc. I have located several large AC motors / DC motors at my university mechanical engineering workshop, but they are not all guaranteed the same specs. I now realize if I do embark on a actual design process with my model/simulation/hardware, it would be nice to build several of these all at once to share the development cost over the production run, and ensure those who want a cheap AZ-EL system can get one. Otherwise the production cost of one heavy duty system is going to be quite high. I hope some of you may have suggestions for me, both (+) and (-) or perhaps (~) in nature. I thought amsat / amateur radio folks have a common need to encourage homebrew activity to keep their brain cells in working condition? I'm opening this question up to the national US audience, and welcome any discussion on the challenges of making the ever-so-important azimuth-elevation rotor. I've studied some of the alternatives: Alliance U100 and Yaesu G-5500. I think we can do better in 2013. But ideally, to allow the wide adoption of AMSAT ground stations, what price point would the system have to be to make it worth building ? 73 de N3RDX George Washington University

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Re: inquiry about homebrew az-el systems
by Daniel Schultz 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Exactly my point. Lots of people can build a one-of-a-kind design using parts that they pulled out of a university dumpster, especially if they have the machine shop resources of a university department at their disposal. For undergraduate students, there might be some educational value in building their own rotor, especially if it uses time that would otherwise be spent partying in Georgetown on a Saturday night. But we were talking about the "average ham", using an "average homeowner's" workbench, designing and building a workable rotor system as an alternative to paying $700 for a commercially made rotor, and sharing that design with other hams who want to save a few hundred bucks by building their own. I am all in favor of that, but I find that there is a practical limit on how many active projects I can have open at any one time. 73 Dan N8FGV ------ Original Message ------ Received: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:54:00 PM EST From: Samudra Haque <samudra.haque(a)gmail.com> To: Daniel Schultz <n8fgv(a)usa.net>Cc: Amsat-bb <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: inquiry about homebrew az-el systems > I would like to clarify: this antenna project is going to be handled by > others ham operators who have contacted me. Where possible, I am > contributing some hardware/mechanical parts that I have in stock. The work > for the antenna is not for my Ph.D program. As I mentioned, it is for the > K3GWU project which will go on in parallel, and there are others at GWU who > will be involved. I have donated a lot of equipment to the K3GWU station, > and that can go on to connect with an antenna when ready. > > On the other hand, the ECE dept and MAE dept has resources (motors, gears) > that they want to throw away ... and that they *have* to junk at some time > after 5-10 years. >

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Latest satellite identifications from Space Track
by Alan 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Here is the latest from Space Track of the object-satellite pairings. 73s, Alan WA4SCA Satellite number and name changes, hot of the presses! JSpOC has named the following satellites: 39086 - SARAL 39087 - AAUSAT3 39088 - SAPPHIRE 39089 - NEOSSAT 39090 - STRAND 1 39091 - CANX 3A (BRITE-ASRA) 39092 - CANX 3B (UNIBRITE) 39093 - PSLV R/B 39094 - PSLV DEB Due to catalog requirements, which requires payloads to be listed prior to the rocket body and another launch debris, objects 39086, 39087, 39092, 39093, and 39094 had to be shifted to be placed in proper sequence. Elsets were shifted as follows: 39086 was moved to 39093 (PSLV R/B) 39087 was moved to 39094 (PSLV DEB) 39092 was moved to 39086 (SARAL) 39093 was moved to 39087 (AAUSAT3) 39094 was moved to 39092 (CANX 3B)

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STRaND-1
by Roland Zurmely 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

See here my setup for direct receiving STRaND-1 (no recording): http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/strand.htm#b http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/strand.htm#a 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ

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IARU Announces Frequencies for Korean Ham Radio CubeSat OSSI-1
by Trevor . 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

See http://amsat-uk.org/2013/02/28/iaru-announces-frequencies-for-korean-ham-ra… 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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Antares-110 CubeSat Integration Completed
by Trevor . 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

See http://amsat-uk.org/2013/02/28/antares-110-amateur-radio-cubesat-integratio… 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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AMSAT-BB February 2013