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

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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TechEdSat decay
by Nico Janssen 05 May '13

05 May '13

All, Cubesat TechEdSat (38854, 1998-067CQ) may be expected to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere around April 25. 73, Nico PA0DLO

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Re: Path to HEO
by Burns Fisher 01 May '13

01 May '13

One thing that would seem to be a concern to me is how to keep the attitude steady while the ion engine is firing. Yes, not much thrust, but to make the most of it, you want it pointing in as close to the ideal direction as possible. I don't know how the various probes like Hayabusa and Dawn do it.. Cold gas? Gyro? I would not think a bar magnet would be good enough (certainly not for deep space probes, but even for earth orbit). Starting to get more complicated. Another thought about the really cool energy analysis done by KK6MC: Besides the duty cycle imposed by wanting to be out of eclipse, there is another duty cycle imposed by the starting orbit and the desired eccentricity. For example if you were starting from a highly elliptical GTO and you want to get to high circular, you need to thrust mainly at the apogee in order to raise the perigee. If you are circular and you want to be elliptical with perigee equal to the starting height, you thrust at what will be the perigee to raise the apogee. (Of course you probably want to raise both ends some, and you may want to change the plane too but that's the general idea.) Thanks for bringing this up...great thought experiments, and that's how real projects begin! Burns, W2BFJ

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Imagine RIT Festival May 4th - AMSAT Fox-2 Maximum Power Point Tracker Senior Design Project Exhibit
by Bryce Salmi 01 May '13

01 May '13

Hello everyone, I am a senior studying Electrical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and I am a member of a senior design group that was sponsored by AMSAT to produce an engineering prototype *Maximum Power Point Tracker* (MPPT) for the Fox-2 satellite. Most members of our team are licensed radio amateurs and active members of the RIT Amateur Radio Club K2GXT and have had quite the experience with this project! We've worked extremely hard over the past 20 weeks to design and build a working MPPT. We'd enjoy sharing this experience with anyone interested. * Everyone who is in the Rochester, NY area or are willing to drive to the area is invited to come to the RIT campus this Saturday May 4th for the Imagine RIT Innovation & Creativity Festival <http://www.rit.edu/imagine/>. This is a completely free event on the RIT campus*.The previous link will have all the information to get here and find exhibits of interest. Also, here's a pretty concise video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsQoh-_xOmY> on what the event is about. The AMSAT Maximum Power Point Project is exhibit #491<https://www.rit.edu/imagine/planyourday13/exhibit.php?id=491>and will be located in what is known as the "infinity quad" outside the engineering building (There's a big Mobius strip in the middle). We're pretty much in the center of outside activity which is very nice for showing people our project. - Google StreetView of the Infinity quad/loop<https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rochester+Institute+of+Technology,+One+Lomb+…> - 2013 Imagine RIT Festival Map<http://www.rit.edu/imagine/planyourday13/images/2013_map.jpg>(We will be between the orange GLE and red LBR, you'll see a star, mobius strip, and question mark on the map where I am referring too, sorry if it's not clear) Our project is part of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering senior design program and we proposed this project as a group last Summer. Tony Monteiro has been our "customer" for the project and has been great to work with. You can find out more information on our P13271 RIT EDGE wiki<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/Home>which is pretty up-to-date pending a few updates (since PCB bring-up) but largely a great resource for those interested for a more in-depth look into our project. We have not completed our project but will be displaying the working prototype MPPT during the festival and be more than happy to explain/show it to anyone interested. There are some final tests and reports that are left to finish before our project is complete. Some links to high-interest items on our EDGE Server: - 1 Page Project Summary<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/FinalDocuments/Planning_Execution/1_…> - Project Poster<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/MSD_Poster/MSD_Poster_r1.pdf> - MPPT Block Diagram<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/FinalDocuments/Systems_Design/High-L…> - MPPT Schematics<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/KiCad/MPPT/trunk/AMSAT_7W_MPPT_Schem…>(slightly out of date, some final values will be updated soon, largely up-to-date) - MSP430 firmware information<http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13271/public/Health%20%26%20Status%20Firmware> Well, I think I've thoroughly linked to areas people might have interest in. Feel free to poke around the project documentation and learn more or ask questions. If you have any questions about Imagine RIT or anything related to the festival please ask as well. I look forward to potentially seeing some of you at the festival! Sincerely, Bryce Salmi KB1LQC Project Manager P13271

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OPUSAT Lithium-Ion Capacitor CubeSat and Flying Laptop satellite
by M5AKA 30 Apr '13

30 Apr '13

The OPUSAT CubeSat, slated for launch in the Japanese Financial Year 2013, is planning to use a Lithium-Ion Capacitor. I think this will be the first time such a device has been flown in space. If successful the greater power density offered could be useful for future CubeSat missions. OPUSAT CubeSat http://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/30/opusat-cubesat/ Flying Laptop – 130 kg Satellite http://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/30/flying-laptop-130-kg-satellite/ 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK website http://amsat-uk.org/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/AMSAT-UK/208113275898396 Twitter https://twitter.com/AMSAT_UK ----

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IARU Region 1 - Addition 2m Satellite Allocation
by M5AKA 30 Apr '13

30 Apr '13

IARU Region 1 has agreed an addition 2m allocation for the Amateur Satellite Service subject to IARU Regions 2 (the Americas) and 3 (Asia/Pacific) also agreeing it. The IARU Region 2 Conference is in Cancun, Mexico in September 2013 hopefully satellite users in Region 2 will let their National Society know their views on this matter. See http://amsat-uk.org/?p=16797 73 Trevor M5AKA ----

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OA4 qrv satellite
by Lizeth Norman 30 Apr '13

30 Apr '13

Hi all, Will be in the country of Peru, active on FO-29 and AO-7 if at all possible. Other sats by request. Not sure when the first pass will be. Grid for Lima is FH17. Will be going north in two weeks. Not sure which grid squares I'll be activating. Will keep everyone appraised. 73 de Norm n3ykf

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