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

Re: Path to HEO
by M5AKA 01 May '13

01 May '13

--- On Tue, 30/4/13, Nick Pugh <quadpugh(a)bellsouth.net> wrote: > Both Pumpkin and ISSIS say they have flight heritage on > 50 watt panels. EaLanta has rides to 600 KM 50 watts on a CubeSat ? That surprises me, I don't know of any that have flown so far that have generated more than about 6 watts of Solar Power. When you say "flight heritage" which CubeSat is being referred to ? A free ELaNa CubeSat launch would mean partnering with an educational institution so part of the 3U and some of the solar power would have to be reserved for their payload. > and we will have to deal with MR Van Allen when we get there. Hopefully deal with it by design on the ground first ;-) RS-15 (beacon 29.325 MHz) has been in the lower part (2,158 by 1,900 km orbit) of the radiation belt for over 18 years. 73 Trevor M5AKA --- On Wed, 1/5/13, M5AKA <m5aka(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > Date: Wednesday, 1 May, 2013, 7:53 > --- On Tue, 30/4/13, g0mrf(a)aol.com <g0mrf(a)aol.com> > wrote: > > A compromise could be 4 Watts (ish) from MEO. > > Here's an oldie but goodie..... http://www.g0mrf.com/MEOSAT.htm > > Yes MEO would be good. It should be possible to improve the > signal levels while keeping omni-directional antennas on the > satellite by using lower frequencies bands. > > A 144 to 50 MHz (if we can get an allocation there) > transponder or 144 to 28 MHz would have a significantly > reduced path loss on the downlink (8 dB ?) compared to > 435/145. > > 73 Trevor M5AKA

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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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First Call for Papers for 2013 Symposium
by Daniel Schultz 01 May '13

01 May '13

This is the first call for papers for the 2013 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium to be held on the weekend of November 1 - 3, 2013, at the Marriott Hobby Airport Hotel, Houston, Texas. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your presentation as soon as possible, with final copy to be submitted by October 1 for inclusion in the printed proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Dan Schultz at n8fgv(a)amsat.org

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