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

Next Antares Launch Attempt Rescheduled
by B J 18 Apr '13

18 Apr '13

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/04/18/orbital-resets-antares-launch-for-fr… http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/04/orbital-antares-debut-launch-attempt/ http://spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/status.html Orbital doesn't appear to have updated its website to show Saturday as the next possible launch day. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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SatPC Rotor issue
by Craig Gagner 18 Apr '13

18 Apr '13

I just noticed that my SatPC32 Rotor control is no longer working. I upgraded to Windows 8 a couple of weeks ago and haven't used it since then. The rotor controller works just fine in the HRD Satellite program but my SatPC no longer will operate the rotor. Any ideas ?? 73 Craig

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Next Launch Attempt For Antares
by B J 18 Apr '13

18 Apr '13

http://spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/status.html http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Antares_Test_Flight/ Weather permitting, it'll be Friday at 2100 UTC. 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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PhoneSat-1 Launch Scrubbed Today
by Peter Portanova 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

Hello: SCRUBBED. The Orbital launch team is securing today's countdown after this unexpected technical problem arose. Officials are assessing the plan ahead to reattach the umbilical and determine when the next launch attempt can be made 73 Pete WB2OQQ

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AMSAT/TAPR Joint Hamvention Banquet Menu Announced
by Alan 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

Join us at the Dayton Hamvention this year for the AMSAT/TAPR Banquet on Friday evening, 17 May. "The Evangelist's Dilemma: Driving New Ideas With Nothing But Words." Bruce Perens, K6BP, presents a humorous history of technology evangelism and the things that inevitably go wrong, drawing from his history with Open Source, No-Code, Software Freedom, Codec2, and Open Hardware, and introducing a few of the new battle grounds. Dinner Menu Roast Prime Rib of Beef Marinated Roasted Garlic Chicken Breast in lemon butter sauce Italian Style Lasagna Petite Double Stuffed Potatoes Fresh Steamed Broccoli Onion and Chive Red Potato Vinaigrette Fresh Garden Toss Salad w/ dressings Fresh Fruit Bowl Rolls and Butter Assorted Pies Coffee, Decaf, Iced Tea, Hot Tea, and Water The dinner will be held at: The Kohler Presidential Banquet Center 4548 Presidential Way Kettering, OH 45429 Doors open at 1830 for a cash bar, with buffet dinner served at 1915. Orders must be placed in advance through the AMSAT Store (via AMSAT.ORG) or through the AMSAT Office. Tickets will not be sold at Dayton, but tickets purchased online may be collected at the AMSAT booth. Orders must be placed by Tuesday, May 14th. $30 per person

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Fwd: Re: Fwd: [Tracking] PhoneSat launch April 17th! 437.425MHz
by Samudra Haque 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

Hello AMSAT community some hams have requested information about the upcoming Phonesat mission telemetry format. This is a challenging objective for those who can track and monitor: there are 3 satellites being deployed from the same P-POD and will be released within moments of each other. The systems are timed to not overlap individual station transmissions, so in a single pass, all three should be heard. For any technical questions, please contact the POC, Oriol Tintore of Phonesat. His contact info is below. 73 de N3RDX Oriol Tintore > Aerospace Engineer > PhoneSat Project, NASA Ames Research Center > c: 650-215-0376 > o: 650-604-2710 > oriol.tintoregazulla(a)nasa.gov >> >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> From: Wolfe, Jasper Lewis. (ARC-RD)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. >> (SGT Inc.)] <jasper.l.wolfe(a)nasa.gov> >> Date: Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 3:05 PM >> Subject: Re: [Tracking] PhoneSat launch April 17th! 437.425MHz >> Cc: "Guillen Salas, Alberto (ARC-SST)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. >> (SGT Inc.)]" <alberto.guillensalas(a)nasa.gov**>, "Tintore Gazulla, Oriol >> (ARC-TH)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.)]" < >> oriol.tintoregazulla(a)nasa.gov> >> >> >> Hello CubeSats and Amateur Radio Operators! >> >> The very first PhoneSat’s will be launching aboard the Antares on April >> 17 >> th at 1700 EDT (launch window to April 19th possibly further). We have >> manifested 2x PhoneSat 1.0 and 1x PhoneSat 2.0 Beta.**** >> >> ** ** >> >> >> Our orbit is very low (270km x 300km 51.6deg) and we’ll only be up there >> for 2 weeks! So we’re looking for as many people as possible to help with >> tracking our satellites!**** >> >> ** ** >> >> >> If any of you are interested in tracking the satellite please let myself >> (+the cc’d team) know – your help will be greatly appreciated! **** >> >> ** ** >> >> All three satellites will be transmitting on *437.425MHz* and TLE’s + more >> info can be found at www.phonesat.org – consolidated info sheet >> attached.*** >> * >> >> ** ** >> >> Feel free to tune-in and submit packets to www.phonesat.org **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Cheers!**** >> >> PhoneSat Project**** >> >> NASA ARC**** >> >> ** ** >> >>

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TH-D7 in kiss mode
by Abdeslam Salah 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

Hi All, I’m a little bit disappointed. I try to use my kenwood TH-D7 in kiss mode. When I send an APRS packet via [BCON] of my second kenwood TH-D7, I receive this packet with my first kenwood TH-D7 operating in kiss mode but without the flags (0x7E). Here is an example of what I received in Hex Format. C0 20 A6 A6 60 A6 A0 A8 60 82 82 82 60 40 40 E0 A4 8A 98 82 B2 40 60 AE 92 88 8A 40 40 61 3 F0 27 7C 26 22 6C 20 1C 5B 2F 3E D C0 Same thing when I’m transmitting. I send the previous packet via the serial port without the flags, and I received it perfectly with my handheld TH-D7. I’m asking if my kenwood TH-D7 operating in kiss mode removes those flags before sending the packet via the serial interface, and adding them before sending the packet via RF? Or simply replace the flags with FEND? How the kenwood TH-D7 operating in kiss mode deal with FEND character inside the message? Should I replace the FEND with the two byte sequence FESC TFEND or the TH-D7 do it himself? 73's CN8XS

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Fwd: [Tracking] PhoneSat launch April 17th! 437.425MHz
by Samudra Haque N3RDX & S21X 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

I am forwarding a request from NASA ARC Phonesat project, relevant to my mail earlier yesterday. This is a 3-for-1 special for amsat community. 73 de N3RDX ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Wolfe, Jasper Lewis. (ARC-RD)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.)] <jasper.l.wolfe(a)nasa.gov> Date: Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 3:05 PM Subject: Re: [Tracking] PhoneSat launch April 17th! 437.425MHz Cc: "Guillen Salas, Alberto (ARC-SST)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.)]" <alberto.guillensalas(a)nasa.gov>, "Tintore Gazulla, Oriol (ARC-TH)[Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.)]" < oriol.tintoregazulla(a)nasa.gov> Hello CubeSats and Amateur Radio Operators! The very first PhoneSat’s will be launching aboard the Antares on April 17 th at 1700 EDT (launch window to April 19th possibly further). We have manifested 2x PhoneSat 1.0 and 1x PhoneSat 2.0 Beta.**** ** ** Our orbit is very low (270km x 300km 51.6deg) and we’ll only be up there for 2 weeks! So we’re looking for as many people as possible to help with tracking our satellites!**** ** ** If any of you are interested in tracking the satellite please let myself (+the cc’d team) know – your help will be greatly appreciated! **** ** ** All three satellites will be transmitting on *437.425MHz* and TLE’s + more info can be found at www.phonesat.org – consolidated info sheet attached.*** * ** ** Feel free to tune-in and submit packets to www.phonesat.org **** ** ** Cheers!**** PhoneSat Project**** NASA ARC**** ** ** This time attached :D**** _______________________________________________ Earthstation mailing list Earthstation(a)cubesat.org http://lists.cubesat.org/mailman/listinfo/earthstation

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Re: Mount an Arrow on rotator with 2m vertical or horizontal
by N0JY 17 Apr '13

17 Apr '13

I did it at field day last year, a couple of Arrow antennas with the 2 meter side set up for RHCP. Seemed to work real well on the analog birds. Some 75 ohm coax does the matching, see a picture at http://www.n0jy.org/images/IMG_20120623_215906.jpg The picture was taken at night, so look closely and you'll see a 1/4 wave 75 ohm section at the tee to both sides, the right side directly to the antenna and the left side to another 1/4 wave 50 ohm section connected to the antenna. Credit goes to SV1BSX I got the idea from his web site http://sv1bsx.50webs.com/antenna-pol/polarization.html Jerry N0JY On 4/16/2013 1:31 PM, Douglas Phelps wrote: > Any reason why, using identical coax lengths, you could not transform the > impedance to 100 ohms and then use a T connector to sum both antenna signals and > achieve 50 ohms to the radio? I know Transmit power will be 3 dB down at either > antenna but is there any reason it will not work? Any antenna gurus out there? > > > > > ________________________________ > From: R.T.Liddy <k8bl(a)ameritech.net> > To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Sent: Tue, April 16, 2013 11:46:35 AM > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Mount an Arrow on rotator with 2m vertical or horizontal > > For the Satellites, it completely doesn't matter. At any given moment, > you only have 1 chance in 90 that you will have matching polarization. > > So, if you plan to use the antenna for other than Satellites, set your > polarization > for that purpose (V for FM or H for SSB/CW). > > My plan is to install 2 Elk antennas, one V and one H. Then, have a relay that > I can switch between the two and choose the best downlink signal at any > given moment. This arrangement will also give me optimum flexibility for > terrestrial operation on 2 & 440. > > Now, where can I find a relay to do that function????? > > 73/GL, Bob K8BL > > > --- On Tue, 4/16/13, Lee Maisel <maisel(a)lobo.net> wrote: > > > From: Lee Maisel <maisel(a)lobo.net> > Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Mount an Arrow on rotator with 2m vertical or horizontal > To: "Don Hoover (WS4E)" <ws4e(a)arrl.net> > Cc: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 12:24 AM > > > Hi Don, > > I have mine mounted with 2m elements horizontal, because that's how it > seems I used it most when it was handheld. > > Lee > W5LMM > > > Don Hoover (WS4E) wrote: >> Just wondering, should I mount my arrow with the 2m elements oriented >> vertical or horizontal? >> >> I am planning on putting it at 15deg and just using a az rotator. >> >> Does it even matter which way its oriented since the polarity of the sats >> are always changing? >> >> Maybe I should mount it like this: / instead. >> >> Just curious what some thought was the best way to go. >> _______________________________________________ >> 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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Re: for sale
by Bruce R Brown 16 Apr '13

16 Apr '13

both trackers are sold...tu bruce ke0lx

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