October 2014 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

SO-50
by Andrew Glasbrenner 17 Oct '14

17 Oct '14

There were a total of three stations on SO-50 right up the east coast just now. Myself, N8IUP, N6RFM, and a couple of guys with no tone chatting on the uplink. That seemed really odd for a beautiful Friday mid-afternoon pass. 73, Drew KO4MA

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Fwd: Beaconsats
by Shamai Opfer 17 Oct '14

17 Oct '14

Hi, DUCHIFAT-1 has a short CW beacon every 1 minute on 145.980 (saying "hi de duchifat"), and a BPSK 1200bd telemetry every 20 sec. I found out that passes above 50-60 deg elevation can be heard with just a handy and its original rubber ducky antenna, such as the Kenwood TH-F6. good luck! shamai 4z1ws ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alan <wa4sca(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 1:55 PM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Beaconsats To: Tom Schuessler <tjschuessler(a)verizon.net>, AmsatBB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Cc: Starcom-bb(a)star-com.net Tom, LU-19 has only a boring carrier, but it is strong and reliable. 73s, Alan WA4SCA <-----Original Message----- <From: amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Schuessler <Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 11:06 PM <To: 'AmsatBB' <Cc: Starcom-bb(a)star-com.net <Subject: [amsat-bb] Beaconsats < <Aside from HO-68 which has a rather strong beacon CW signal, and UKube-1, <EO-79, does anyone have any suggestions for satellites with relatively <strong beacon signals of any kind that would make good "Track the Sat" demos <for the JOTA event I am running this weekend. Keith Pugh, W5IU will be <helping me with AMSAT demos but I have wondered for some time now which <birds folks felt had the strongest, most easily tracked beacon signals. < <Thanks Much < <Tom Schuessler, N5HYP. <n5hyp(a)arrl.net < < <_______________________________________________ <Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available <to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed <are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. <Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! <Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. 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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ANS-290 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin
by E.Mike McCardel 17 Oct '14

17 Oct '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-290 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * Design the Next AMSAT Satellite! SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-290.01 ANS-290 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 290.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE October 17, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-290.01 Design the Next AMSAT Satellite! At the 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium AMSAT Vice President - Engineering Jerry Buxton announced the plan for the next generation of AMSAT satellites. "The door is open for everyone, to submit their ideas. AMSAT Engineering has a long term strategy and this is the first step." The Engineering long term strategy includes the following goals * Advancement of amateur radio satellite technical and communications skills * Enhance international goodwill * Grow and sustain a skilled pool of amateur radio satellite engineers * Establish and maintain partnerships with educational institutions * Develop a means to use hardware common to all opportunities With respect to the last goal Jerry said "Within the bounds of the type of satellite it takes to achieve any of the various orbit opportunities, let's consider in those plans the possibility of developing a platform that can suit any and all orbits. Perhaps a modular CubeSat, using a common bus as we did in Fox-1, which gives great flexibility in building and flying different sizes and configurations of CubeSats with simple common-design hardware changes." Submissions should be thorough and contain the following information. The purpose of the proposal is not just in suggesting an idea; being an all-volunteer team AMSAT needs your help in carrying out the idea. * Design * Implementation - CubeSat platform * Estimated timeline * Cost - volunteer resources, commercial (COTS) units * Launch - how does it get to orbit * Strategy - how it fits into AMSAT's Engineering long term strategy As mentioned above the idea should be based on the CubeSat platform. This is the standard through which we will look for launches in the foreseeable future. In considering your proposal, Jerry encourages you to contact him for more details on the criteria. In particular, if you plan to include a university as a partner to provide experiments or other support and you are not representing that university, please contact Jerry for assistance in working with our existing partners or establishing a new partnership. "Being amateur radio operators, it is easy for us to fall into a particular trap because of our history of communicating with other amateurs throughout the world" says Jerry. "Specifically, most people who are not already involved in the world of satellite technology are unaware of or simply overlook the provisions of the current ITAR and soon to be EAR export rules particularly with regard to deemed exports which requires governmental permission to discuss satellite projects with foreign nationals." While all amateurs are invited to submit ideas, U.S. amateurs must take particular care of they choose to become involved in a collaboration which includes individuals from other countries. It is permissible to receive ideas and proposals from outside the U.S., but it is not permitted for U.S. Persons to export or share design ideas with other countries unless they have taken the proper steps to insure compliance with ITAR and deemed export rules. Additionally, those wishing to work on proposals should use care in presenting themselves in their contacts. While the goal is for AMSAT to build and launch the satellite, it is not an AMSAT project until it is accepted by the AMSAT Board of Directors. It is acceptable to represent yourself as members of a project team that plans to submit a proposal to AMSAT for a future satellite project, as the AMSAT name is well known. "It is not our intention that ideas be submitted to AMSAT-NA which would be more appropriately handled by an AMSAT organization in a country where AMSAT is established. AMSAT-NA is seeking ideas from amateurs in North America and will certainly consider ideas from amateurs in countries which do not have an established AMSAT organization or relationships with an existing AMSAT organization." The deadline for submissions is May 30, 2015. After the submission date the ideas will be screened for completeness and then reviewed by a board consisting of the AMSAT Engineering Team, AMSAT Senior Officer and Board of Directors representatives, and aerospace industry members. The review board may modify or consolidate ideas and will consider which meet the criteria to become a project based on feasibility, cost, and the ability to bring value to the amateur satellite community. The review process is expected to be completed in September 2015. For those ideas selected to become a project which satisfy the requirements for an ELaNa launch, the idea authors will be asked to work with the AMSAT Engineering Team on an ELaNa proposal. The Engineering Team will then work on the details of execution for the selected project(s) and present a proposal to the AMSAT Board of Directors in October 2015 for final approval to begin work. Once approved, any ELaNa proposals will be submitted in November 2015 and the project(s) will move forward. Now is the time for YOU to begin working on the next AMSAT satellite! [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This Special ANS Editor, EMike McCardel, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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Beaconsats
by Tom Schuessler 17 Oct '14

17 Oct '14

Aside from HO-68 which has a rather strong beacon CW signal, and UKube-1, EO-79, does anyone have any suggestions for satellites with relatively strong beacon signals of any kind that would make good "Track the Sat" demos for the JOTA event I am running this weekend. Keith Pugh, W5IU will be helping me with AMSAT demos but I have wondered for some time now which birds folks felt had the strongest, most easily tracked beacon signals. Thanks Much Tom Schuessler, N5HYP. n5hyp(a)arrl.net

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satpc32 rotor question
by Keith McDonnell 16 Oct '14

16 Oct '14

Hello to all. I just took my g5400b out of storage and decided to test it. The g5400 appears fine when not under computer control. Az/El motors work fine and the needles on the controller box correspond where the rotor is pointing. I ran satpc32 V.12.8b with the labjack u12 interface. I loaded all drivers for the labjack as well as serverlabjack. under computer control, the elevation works flawlessly but the az is out of wack. as soon as I hit the R+ button to initiate rotor control, the az will go completely to the clock wise end point and the labjack light remains on, power still going to the motor even at end stop. I even switched the turning point setting to north from south. This made the az do the opposite, completely CCW without shutting off. While I was playing with it, a satellite came in view. The g5400 started tacking the sat. At first it was right on target, but then the az kept moving CCW in small increments until it reached its end stop, still not shutting off power. I thought it might be a bad pot in the rotor, but I am receiving accurate readings on the controller. Position readings on the serverlabjack dde screen do not correspond with the actual pointing direction. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks and 73, Keith

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Rumble in the Amazon Jungle Today - Ariane 5 Lauch WebCast
by JoAnne K9JKM 16 Oct '14

16 Oct '14

Here is some news for those who enjoy the roar of a rocket engine in the evening. On the fifth Ariane 5 launch this year, Arianespace will orbit two telecommunications satellites: Intelsat 30 for the operator Intelsat and, Arsat-1 for the Argentine operator Arsat. The ARIANE 5 ECA Launcher lift-off for this flight is scheduled on October 16 to 17, 2014 as soon as possible within the following launch window: Kourou : Between 06:00pm and 07:51pm on October 16, 2014 TU/GMT : Between 09:00pm and 10:51pm on October 16, 2014 Paris : Between 11:00pm and 00:51am on October 16 to 17, 2014 Washington : Between 05:00pm and 06:51pm on October 16, 2014 Webcast of the launch will be on http://www.arianespace.tv/ -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org AMSAT VP User Services

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Re: [amsat-bb] Beaconsats
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 16 Oct '14

16 Oct '14

Hello Tom, Good luck with your event at the weekend - I am hoping to be available for an event to be held over here in Wales on the Sunday. Amsat -UK have kindly posted to the Funcube-1 message board ( Dashboard ) best wishes to all Scouts participating in the JOTA event. Not sure at the moment on the operating status for the weekend ( ie usual weekends the transponder is fully on and data mode in low power ) The message to the scouts is currently available on the "Fitter" display you may like to save it and perhaps use in your demonstration. Regarding other satellites -please consider EO-79 and EO-80 they are quite strong if the pass times are co-incident with your events. Sadly UO-11 has not recovered from its shut down but you might also like to consider DO-64 or the packet modes from the ISS. Good luck hope all goes well. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat -UK Amsat NA

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Re: [amsat-bb] Scouting's jamboree on the Air this weekend.
by Geert Jan de Groot 16 Oct '14

16 Oct '14

> This coming weekend, October 17-19, is the 57th annual Jamboree on the Air, A point of trivia, related to AMSAT as it is using OSCAR zero: You may know that in the Netherlands, the CAMRAS foundation took over the large telescope of Dwingeloo. This year during upcoming JOTA weekend, several stations will try to make QSO's using QRP EME via the moon using WSJT and the telescope (accessible via WebSDR) as Receiver With Large Ears. Information, in Dutch alas, can be found at http://www.camras.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog… You should be able to listen in using the same WebSDR station. Please join me to congratulate the volunteers of CAMRAS, and especially Frans PE1RXJ, for organizing and facilitating this impressive feat. Unfortunately, I'm too busy with other aspects of JOTA but I wish the stations doing this experiment / demonstration the best of luck! Geert Jan

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Great symposium
by Nick Pugh K5QXJ 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Hello00 All The symposium this past weekend was fantastic A big thanks to Frank and his crew and the inspiring talk by Jan King nick Office 337 593 8700 Cell 337 258 2527 Helping UL become a world Class Engineering and Educational School

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Scouting's jamboree on the Airr this weekend.
by Tom Schuessler 15 Oct '14

15 Oct '14

Hello all, This coming weekend, October 17-19, is the 57th annual Jamboree on the Air, a World Scouting Organization event linking Scouts to Scouts internationally via Amateur Radio. There will be hundreds of JOTA stations on the air this weekend, most on HF and local V/U repeaters but some of us will also attempt satellite contacts as well. I will be managing a rather large event at the National Scouting Museum in Irving, TX, EM12. We will be operating as K2BSA/5. Aside from HF and V/U, Echolink and IRLP, we are hoping to make a few satellite contacts as well. Our operation will be limited to 1500-2200Z on the 18th so our satellite opportunities are limited but for sure we will be on an afternoon SO-50 pass and hopefully an earlier AO-73 pass as well. Please look for K2BSA/5 and any other JOTA stations on the birds and give them a shout. Tom Schuessler Irving Amateur Radio Club Scout Radio Coordinator 214-403-1464 (Cell) n5hyp(a)arrl.net

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