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

OUYA Satellite Tracker Interest
by Joseph Armbruster 11 Jul '13

11 Jul '13

Everyone, I have NASA WorldWind running on the OUYA, see: http://libjoe.blogspot.com/2013/07/worldwind-on-ouya.html It wouldn't take much to turn this into a full-on satellite tracker app. If anyone is into Android or the OUYA and would like to exchange some ideas, please let me know. Joseph Armbruster

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funcube
by w6gmt＠bak.rr.com 11 Jul '13

11 Jul '13

Looking for Used Funcube plus for project involving tracking birds and animals at the Discovery Center where I volunteer. -- W6GMT BROCK THOMSEN MARCELL MN 56657 EN37EN

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Next Antares Launch
by B J 11 Jul '13

11 Jul '13

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/07/10/orbitals-cots-demonstration-mission-… 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Back Issues of AMSAT Journal in PDF
by Les Rayburn 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

Does AMSAT offer compilations (back issues) of the AMSAT Journal in PDF format on CD, similar to the way that the ARRL and other organizations do with their publications? I've been buying all the back issues I can find at hamfests and on Ebay, but it's slow going. If they are not available, I'd be willing to donate the labor to archive them into PDF format so that AMSAT could offer them for sale. My firm provides this service commercially to our clients (mainly in healthcare, who want to archive specialty publications for niche audiences). I'm sure my staff would enjoy taking a break from scanning endless issues of "Radiological Imaging Today" :-) -- -- 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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Yaesu G-5500 Azimuth Motor Replacement
by Sion Chow Q. C. (9W2QC) 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

Dear All, Greetings from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have a Yaesu G-5500 rotator that has a spoilt azimuth motor while the elevation motor works fine. Looking at the specifications published by Yaesu, the G-800 rotator seems to be very similar with the azimuth motor of the G-5500. Instead of purchasing a whole new set of G-5500 just to replace the spoilt azimuth motor (the control box is working and this has been verified with another working azimuth motor), I wonder if anyone has tried replacing the azimuth motor the G-800 instead? Will the G-5500 control box work with the G-800 motor, are there some modifications needed, or is this simply not possible? Any pointers will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. 73, Sion Chow Q. C., 9M2CQC, WQ2C

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Proton Launch Facility Operations To Be Examined
by B J 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/07/10/outside-experts-to-examine-khruniche… 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Re: APRS & Twitter
by PA3GUO 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

Hi Rizwan, First of all: we are all very interested in your CAPE-2 project. Would you be able to share some more information on CAPE-2 ? In case you involve radio-amateurs in capturing telemetry/data from your satellite you will have an huge increase in coverage, as we are spread across the entire globe. We do have the APRS system up-and-running, and NO-44 (PCSAT-1) and ISS-APRS data packets for example are monitored and automatically forwarded to the internet already. On messaging to twitter email: In case of a malfunction or wrong software setting the satellite may not be able to change its transmission pattern, when it is in space and cannot be reached anymore (e.g. up-link broken). Alternative would be to break it up in two steps: Step 1 Transmit a status in APRS format, and have that captured/received as regular packets. Here is for example how all the ISS data (real-time) looks like: http://www.ariss.net, and here is how NO-44 looks like: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi Step 2 Have a software program running that looks at the the received APRS telemetry, and derive from that a Twitter tweet (every hour, every day, ...). For example if the telemetry says: "CAPE 012000105" this could mean I am alive and battery voltage is 10.5 volt and temperature is 12 degrees Celsius. The tweet could be: "Hi this is CAPE-2 in space, I feel cold (12C) and my battery is good (10.5V)". Just a thought. Regarding APRS email: http://www.aprs.org/aprs-messaging.html explains how to do this. Here is an example on how this worked on ANDE-1: ANDE-1 digipeat: !T 12:26:38 PA3GUO-8>APRS,ANDE-1*,qAO,PE1ITR::email :[email protected] Hi ROb !S 12:26:36 :email :[email protected] Hi ROb Here an example on how this worked on ISS: TNC settings an email to PE1ABC (pe1abc(a)spamsat.org) via ISS (RS0ISS-3): MYCALL PA3GUO-5 U APRS VIA RS0ISS-3 BEACON EVERY 1 BTEXT :EMAIL :[email protected] Hi there! The result (the email received by pe1abc): From: ksproul(a)rci.rutgers.edu Date: 25-02-2004 08:00 To: pe1abc(a)spamsat.org cc: Subject: APRS Message from PA3GUO-5 Hi there! Please let us know if this helped & success with CAPE-2! Henk, PA3GUO www.pa3guo.com >Greetings AMSAT! > I am one of the software engineers on the CAPE-2 Cubesat project at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I am interested in information on how to set up our satellite to tweet over APRS to a specific twitter account. For example: If i want our satellite to tweet once a day what our satellite's status is, and have it be posted to a CAPE-2 twitter account, how can i make this happen? We've seen other groups do it, and we are wondering how to replicate this. Thanks for your help! Sincerely, Rizwan Merchant Call Sign: KF5BNL

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(no subject)
by B J 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2013/07/10/proton-launch-failure-update-… 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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APRS & Twitter
by Rizwan 'Drake' Merchant 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

Greetings AMSAT! I am one of the software engineers on the CAPE-2 Cubesat project at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I am interested in information on how to set up our satellite to tweet over APRS to a specific twitter account. For example: If i want our satellite to tweet once a day what our satellite's status is, and have it be posted to a CAPE-2 twitter account, how can i make this happen? We've seen other groups do it, and we are wondering how to replicate this. Thanks for your help! Sincerely, Rizwan Merchant Call Sign: KF5BNL

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Alternative TLE / Satellite Info Source
by David A B Johnson 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

Hi, There are many very worthy sources of TLE data and satellite catalogues. However, there is no user-defined source. I.e one where the user can: Categorise their own satellite types Choose from one of the many aliases for an individual satellite Have satellite channels / modes available for viewing Have individual / mixed schedules (constellations) available ... If there is any interest in creating such a service to the AMSAT/CubeSat community then I should be interested in discussing it. I should be particularly interested in API proposals from existing source providers. This will NOT be a commercial undertaking, any income will go to AMSAT worlwide. I am going to make a similar propsal at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium in two weeks time. 73 Dave, G4DPZ AMSAT-UK AMSAT-NA

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