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

Turksat status
by paul robinson 28 Jun '13

28 Jun '13

I listed to turksat for the first couple of days in orbit,the becon was weak for the first day,there were reports that the transponder had been heard also weak,i did not hear it, I did try and put a signal through it while the becon was on but nothing heard...the becon lasted a few days and got very weak until not heard...my throughts are that some how the solar cells did not charge..and its a dead duck...I was hoping for great things like a few of us but looks like its dead.Paul. 2E1EUB amsat-uk amsat-na RSGB

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Re: turksat
by Richard Lawn 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Its not you. i don't think any one has hear a peep out of this supposed new bird. Information does not seem to be plentiful also though a friend,on the list did find keps, but we aren't sure if they are accurate. Perhaps they just haven't opened it up? I have no idea. Rick W2JAZ

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TURKSAT-3USAT Status?
by Les Rayburn 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Does anyone know the current status of TURKSAT-3USAT? I can't find much news about it since early May, and haven't copied it's CW beacon recently either. Still learning the ends and outs of PCSAT32, so it's more than likely I've screwed up entering the Kep data. -- -- 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF 121 Mayfair Park Maylene, AL 35114 EM63nf 6M VUCC #1712 AMSAT #38965 Grid Bandits #222 Southeastern VHF Society Central States VHF Society Life Member Six Club #2484 Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light

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$442,000 Kickstarter Lunar CubeSat / Scout Project
by M5AKA 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

A Kickstarter project from Bristol in the United Kingdom that aims to raise £290,000 ($442,000) to send a 3U CubeSat to the moon. Interesting from the point of view that it aims to have it's own propulsion and in the "Scout" satellites it intends to deploy in both Earth and Lunar orbits. See http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecr… 73 Trevor M5AKA

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Planet Labs (formerly Cosmogia Inc.) to fly 28 3U CubeSats
by M5AKA 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Planet Labs, builders of the Dove-1 and Dove-2 CubeSats plan to launch 28 3U CubeSats on single Antares flight into a 400 km orbit. Presumably these will be operating in the 2400 MHz band ? anyone have any further info ? 73 Trevor M5AKA

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Re: FO-29 wierdness during field day
by Art McBride 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

Greg, I had a hard time getting into the bird on that pass, figured it was pointing angle or inversion layer. Next morning it was fine. Art, KC6UQH (W6NWG for FD) -----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Greg D Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 8:50 PM To: Amsat BB Subject: [amsat-bb] FO-29 wierdness during field day Hi folks, Now that the bustle of Field Day is over, an observation I want to pass on. Did anyone else experience this? On one of the Saturday night passes I noticed that FO-29 suddenly went kind of silent. Not totally so, but enough that the QSO that I was desperately trying to complete was interrupted. It was around 9:45 pm local PDT, if I recall. Just finished with K6MMM, and was trying to get K6AA, I think. (Note to self: turn on the recorder next time!) I didn't check for an eclipse, but that's my guess, though it was also about the time the bird went past TCA and all Doppler had broken loose. The bird sounded like 20 meters during the day, but with everyone's VFO on skids going in different directions. Right towards the end of the pass I heard another station on, so I know the bird hadn't died. Anybody hear that? Greg KO6TH _______________________________________________ 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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FD Postmortem: was "a cheap LEO tracker for single op"
by Bill (W1PA) 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

A quick follow-up and some questions. I made it to the FD site about 11pm local. Schedule had two passes of SO-50 (1am and 3am) and two passes of AO-7 (at 4am and 6am local). Let's focus on AO-7. I had my FT-847, two 10 ft lengths of coax, and the trusty Arrow dual-band. I had my Ubuntu netbook with gpredict and a printed frequency list. I ran AO-40 full manual back in the day (no computer assist or Doppler) --I can do this, right?: AO-7 (B) 432.125-175 up, 145.975-925 down. Load 432.125 on the main VFO, and 145.975 (USB) on the secondary. Set Sat mode, (tracking REVERSE) Hear the bird great -- can’t find my downlink. Nada. Voice or CW. Confirmed 432 TX and power out with a meter -- ran up to 30 watts in. Moved the sub-tune up and down on the RX side for Doppler (at least 15khz each side). Coax was connected correctly. Nothing on the next pass either.... excellent hearing, can’t find myself. Bird is directly overhead. Epic fail. So what did I do wrong? Did I have a de-sense issue because of the crossed yagi? Enough power? What sideband should the uplink have been (LSB, correct)? Even if it was wrong, I should have heard CW, right? Bill W1PA

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2400 MHz Consultation + ESA CubeSats
by M5AKA 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

Joint Submission by AMSAT-UK, UKuG, BATC and RSGB to Ofcom 2.4 GHz Consultation http://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/joint-2400-mhz-submission/ ESA Announce Six CubeSats Chosen for Phase 1 http://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/esa-announce-six-cubesats/ Two Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSats Plan 2013 Launch to ISS http://amsat-uk.org/2013/06/26/two-lithuanian-cubesats/ ---- 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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FO-29 wierdness during field day
by Greg D 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

Hi folks, Now that the bustle of Field Day is over, an observation I want to pass on. Did anyone else experience this? On one of the Saturday night passes I noticed that FO-29 suddenly went kind of silent. Not totally so, but enough that the QSO that I was desperately trying to complete was interrupted. It was around 9:45 pm local PDT, if I recall. Just finished with K6MMM, and was trying to get K6AA, I think. (Note to self: turn on the recorder next time!) I didn't check for an eclipse, but that's my guess, though it was also about the time the bird went past TCA and all Doppler had broken loose. The bird sounded like 20 meters during the day, but with everyone's VFO on skids going in different directions. Right towards the end of the pass I heard another station on, so I know the bird hadn't died. Anybody hear that? Greg KO6TH

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Kudos to the Amsat PR and Publications team(s)
by Tom Gentry 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

To all the AMSAT volunteers in the Webpage, Newsletter and Dayton Video teams, please accept my profound thanks for your efforts. I am enjoying the newsletters and the webpage is looking better and better. I think the new "Blog" format is very informative and useful as are the restored links to the old pages. Keep up the good work. Recently I complained about the perceived lack of information and action on the issues with ARISS and NASA. Now after watching the videos from the Dayton Hamvention presentations, I understand the challenges of dealing with bureaucracies much better. Many thanks to the ARISS team for explaining the issues so clearly in the video. I also am hopeful that the ITAR issue will be resolved soon and we can get back to perhaps exchanging technology and knowledge for rides. A couple of long lasting birds would go a long way toward attracting new ground stations and users. Perhaps a cloud based application where captured telemetry from the "CubeSats" could be forwarded to be stored for later download and information on the necessary hardware to build such stations would be a low maintenance yet broad based program. This way hams and non-hams could participate and contribute, with ease. Thanks again for a job well done (and doing). 73s, Tom K5VOU

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