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

06 Feb '13

FYI.. Just worked this guy on PSK31, but thought I'd pass on his QRV Sat activity for those hard core sat operators. (I doubt I have the equip to make a contact with him) "Announcement: 1 man 1 luggage holiday-expedition, February 2013 During my 1 month time off between two employer, I will realize an old dream: A Space-Radio-Dive Expedition. January 31th to February 3th: KP4/HB9WDF - Puerto Rico (Includ visit of the Arecibo Observatory) February 4th to February 11: FY/HB9WDF - Kourou, French Guyana (I hope to watch the Launch of Ariane 5 Rocket) February 11 to February 21: FM/HB9WDF - Martinique (A beautiful underwater world) During my trip, I will be active on satellite (AO-7, FO-29, VO-52 and SO-50 and others if they are active) Also I will be active on HF in PSK-31 and sometimes in SSB. Good Luck TK, K7TRK

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UKube-1 to launch in June 2013 + 5 New CubeSats
by Trevor . 06 Feb '13

06 Feb '13

The Herald newspaper reports that the CubeSat UKube-1 will be launched in June, 2013. http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=12524 Five new CubeSats hope for 2013 launch http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=12514 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ Join or Renew your AMSAT-UK membership at http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_7/Membership-of-AMSAT-UK.html ----

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SpEx Shadow times Feb 08 09 10 2013
by Kevin Forbes 06 Feb '13

06 Feb '13

Hi folks, here are the times for the upcoming SpEx Shadow runs for Feb 08, 09, 10 2013. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SpEx Shadow RS0ISS Digipeater activation times for Feb. 08, 09, 10 2013 Times are UTC. 08-02-2013 13:50 Beacon ON 09-02-2013 08:50 Beacon OFF 09-02-2013 14:30 Beacon ON 10-02-2013 08:50 Beacon OFF ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the times for the SpEx Shadow ISS Australian beacons. AEST = (Melbourne Canberra Hobart Sydney Time) Adelaide = AEST (- 30 minutes) Brisbane = AEST (- 1 hour) Darwin = AEST (-1 hour and 30 minutes) WST = (Perth Time) 09-02-2013 03:17 UTC VK3UKF 09-02-2013 14:17 AEST 09-02-2013 11:17 WST ORBIT 81481 + 71 MINUTES 09-02-2013 04:54 UTC VK3UKF 09-02-2013 15:54 AEST 09-02-2013 12:54 WST ORBIT 81482 + 75 MINUTES 09-02-2013 06:28 UTC VK6MJ 09-02-2013 17:28 AEST 09-02-2013 14:28 WST ORBIT 81483 + 76 MINUTES ------------------------------- 10-02-2013 02:28 UTC VK3UKF 10-02-2013 13:28 AEST 10-02-2013 10:28 WST ORBIT 81496 + 71 MINUTES 10-02-2013 04:03 UTC VK3UKF 10-02-2013 15:03 AEST 10-02-2013 12:03 WST ORBIT 81497 + 74 MINUTES 10-02-2013 05:37 UTC VK6MJ 10-02-2013 16:37 AEST 10-02-2013 13:37 WST ORBIT 81498 + 75 MINUTES ------------------------------- I have an appointment clash for the first pass on Feb 10. The plan is to take the radio and laptop with me. I've notified SpEx team. Kevin, VK3UKF.

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SO-50
by Vince, K9TSU 06 Feb '13

06 Feb '13

I will try and do a test of our Juda School ARISS contact plan tomorrow, the 7th. I will be testing our AZ/EL rotator and antenna (well, mine) but I'll be set up at the school testing for "radio dead zones." I'll be on the 12:16PM Central Time SO-50 pass, however if I call out will be another story. If you hear K9TSU "high school test," a "come back" would be appreciated If someone could record.. that'd be great too. Thanks all! K9TSU, EN52eo (Wisconsin)

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Help! to install a unsupported receiver in SatPC32
by Charlie -K3VDB- 05 Feb '13

05 Feb '13

Has any one installed a IC-R8500 in SatPC32 to control its Freq? Or any other unsupported radio. Any tips would be helpful. Thanks Charlie K3VDB

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PCSAT normal(?) operations resume
by Robert Bruninga 05 Feb '13

05 Feb '13

PCSAT (NO44) is again returned to users (but not usable until a few weeks when sun angles get better). The Transponder on ISS is also operational now. The variation of power available to PCSAT is inversely proportional to the “sun-to-orbitplane-angle” (viewable in Instantrack with the “E” and “D” keys. It is currently above 78 degrees. Once it went above about 65 degrees was our last successful commanding. Recovery did not work this period. But we learned enough to be more successful in the Fall. A “sun-to-orbitplane-angle” means PCsat’s orbit is now over the day/night terminator meaning it is in full sun (no eclipses) with solar power coming in on the (weaker) side panels and little if any on the +Z face(best panel). Attitude is maintained by alignment with the Earth’s magnetic field. It’s the best time for a recovery (no eclipses to cause a reset), but the worst time for commanding. It is too weak to respond to the needed logon and 3 additional commands. Though it will be strong again as the sun angle improves (lower). Then it will have better sun on the +Z face for commanding, but then it will be doing Eclipses. And even though we can then command it to turn off unnecessary loads, it does not have enough time before the next eclipse to charge up enough to survive the next eclipse. What we did (re)learn is a condensed command method where we can put all 3 PCSAT low-power commands in a single packet (using the TNC’s ^V pass character). That way, we only need a successful logon to complete the Restoration. 1) The CONNECT ACK. 2) The password challenge, 3) Then the command prompt. Then we can hit it with the full low-power command set and disconnect all in one packet which cancels the need for PCSAT to respond to each command separately. On the FIRST day available in full sun(our best shot), I not only got logged on, but completed all 3 requried functions. Then signals sounded so good, I got greedy and put in the another three (which also improves power budget, but not as much as the first three). Yep, I gambled and lost. It died on the last one! The next day I got all 3 in, and it died on the 3rdcommand due to a user packet I think. Days since, I have been unable to logon. Hence, end of this attempt period. In most attempts in the past (after successful logon) we would send one command at a time to give it a few seconds rest between each one. But these 3 commands then required 3 ACKS and 3 RESPONSES in addition to the 3 required to get logged. Those extra 6 packets kill it, especially if there was a user packet in there. Next time all we need are the 3 loggon responses. Also, next time, we will give users advance warning to QRT all transmissions when we are trying to command. Each one of their packets robs us of power we need to complete the command. I failed to warn everyone this time, and so we had some interference. As sun angle improves, You may continue to experiment with PCSAT during MIDDAY passes. That is when it is strongest (in the Northern Hemisphere), but do limit yourself to only attended operations so humans can actually contact humans, or if you are doing an unattended test, keep your transmissions to once every 2 minutes. That should let you get one good successful packet per pass. Which is the mission of PCSAT. See the downlink on http://pcsat.aprs.org There you can see the telemetry packets (list at the bottom of page) right now are rarely getting above 001 meaning typically a minute or so of life before it gets overloaded and resets back to 000. It is easy to visualize the relationship of the sun angle to the orbit plane and to see how that affects power budget given that our best panel (out of 5) is on the +Z face and that is magnetically aligned to point towards magnetic South. There is NO panel on the –Z which is why PCsat is rarely usable in the Southern Hemisphere (not planned, but just a result of it crashing in every eclipse). Just thought you would like to know what is going on with one of the oldest student projects in space that is still “semi-operational” for users. Bob, Wb4APR US Naval Academy Satellite Lab *From:* Robert Bruninga [mailto:[email protected]] *Sent:* Thursday, January 31, 2013 10:53 AM *To:* amsat-bb(a)amsat.org *Cc:* aprssig(a)tapr.org; aprs(a)yahoogroups.com; bruninga(a)usna.edu *Subject:* QRT all PCSAT transmissions! Please QRT all transmissions to PCsat to save power for COMMANDing. PCSAT (W3ADO-1) is entering its 3 day RECOVERY window this year starting 31 Jan. Today we got logged on for commanding twice, but both times user packets killed the bird. At best PCSAT can usually only save up enough power for 2 or 3 solid packets per pass and we need 3 successfully for command and recover. One user packet in the middle of that and we lose it for the pass. MY fault for not making this announcement earlier. Not their fault. But if you see this email and you are transmitting to PCsat, please QRT for the next several days. Commanding is being done from the East and West coast of the USA and over Germany. WB4APR, Bob USNA Command Station

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error loading SatPC32
by jeff kb2m 05 Feb '13

05 Feb '13

While trying to bring up SatPC32 I'm getting an 'error loading Prior.SQF!' error, then the program shuts down. This just started for no apparent reason, SatPC32 was working fine. I'm running WIN8. Anyone have any ideas ? 73 Jeff kb2m

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ARISS International website
by Trevor . 05 Feb '13

05 Feb '13

Does anyone know what happened to the ARISS-International pages on the RAC website ? ARISS-EU is at http://www.ariss-eu.org/ But ARISS-International which used to be at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ seems to be missing. 73 Trevor M5AKA

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(no subject)
by Charlie -K3VDB- 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

Has anyone configured SatPC32 to control a Icom R8500 W/CIV? Radio works fine with SpectraVue. TNX for any help Charlie K3VDB

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Re: hams on ISS
by AJ9N＠aol.com 03 Feb '13

03 Feb '13

Hi all As part of my volunteer duties with ARISS, I post the schedule of upcoming ARISS contacts on practically a daily basis. I post to the SAREX BB (_sarex(a)AMSAT.ORG_ (mailto:[email protected]) ). You can also check the schedule at _http://www.issfanclub.com/_ (http://www.issfanclub.com/) and at _http://ariss.rac.ca/_ (http://ariss.rac.ca/) (actually _http://ariss.rac.ca/upcoming.htm#NextContact_ (http://ariss.rac.ca/upcoming.htm#NextContact) and look for the link saying Tentative List of Upcoming School Contacts . You can also go directly to _http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf_ (http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf) . In spite of what some may think as to how up to date the schedule is, as soon as I get updates on the schedule and success of a contact, I usually have updates posted in less than a day. There are times when we get the locked down time from the ISS planners for a contact almost at the last minute so my heads up might be very short. Unfortunately we sometimes find out about the Russian contacts after the fact and thus I am unable to give everyone a heads up. Usually we at ARISS get the scheduled date and time about 10 to 14 days in advance but we warn all schools that we may get told with less than 36 hours. We have also been aborted with less than 10 minutes to go before a contact. We are often asked about when the crew is going to make a general contact. We simply do not know. The crew is super busy and when they do get free time, they have many things they can do. We can suggest that they get on the radios; we can never demand. So ham radio may or may not be in their game plan for that day. By the way, all of the ARISS school contacts actually take place during a scheduled off time for the crewmember. That means they either gave up some free time or their day gets extended. 73, Charlie AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors In a message dated 1/30/2013 7:30:56 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, ve3nxk(a)gmail.com writes: On 30/01/2013 9:30 PM, Personal wrote: > Remember they don't get paid to sit up there on the radio. Remember too that > ham radio in manned space flight has changed since SAREX and Mir. > It's no longer the back up system it once was. They have iPods and such aboard > now. There is Internet access and a telephone to speak with family. I don't generally get into these types of verbal banter, but this time I make an exception. Right now a Canadian, Chris Hadfield, is onboard and doing a great job with pictures and Twitter. I see today that he did a live feed to a school here in Ontario. The part that bugs me is there were a few ARISS Ham contact before Christmas that did not show up till the day of the contact. The Canadian RAC site had no mention of it on their site and still is stuck in November..... I read a lot of AMSAT/ARRL news letters and I have suddenly realized that the ham community is out of it altogether. It would appear that starting this year NASA themselves is looking after the contacts. I would have thought that the ham community would have been in an uproar over this, guess not. I know that the chances of hearing or contacting the ISS is like winning the lottery, but I think now it is long gone. I am disappointed that when an USA or Russian is onboad you may hear them once or twice. I doubt that you will ever hear Chris at the mic......... he seems to be caught up in social media. > I'm not sure what the definition of a real ham is but too many times it seems >to be a person stuck in the past, bemoaning the things that used to be No I do not feel that way, I try all kinds of stuff when I have the time. Mind you I see the day when the radio will have an iPhone built in, and we will no longer need the the communication devices we have now. Long live the smell of the big tube Collins and Heathkit rigs Sent from my personal computer. -- Bill Booth VE3NXK Sundridge ON, Canada 79.23.37 W x 45.46.18 N FN05ns Visit my weather WebCam at http://www.almaguin.com/wxcurrent/weather.html Organ and Tissue Donation - The Gift of Life Talk to your family. Your decision can make a difference. _______________________________________________ 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

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