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

EQUiSat Optical Beacon CubeSat
by Trevor . 17 Oct '18

17 Oct '18

Students at the Ivy League Brown University are developing an amateur radio satellite EQUiSat that will carry a Xenon Flash Tube (XFT) subsystem to act as an Optical Beacon that should be visible to the unaided eye of observers on Earth. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10635 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAK-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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LVB Tracker USB serial port driver for Windows 7 x64?
by Bill Bordy, NJ1H 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Has anyone located a driver for the LVB Tracker internal USB to serial port adapter on Windows 7 x64? If not, has anyone reverted to the serial port connection on LVB Tracker and used an external USB to serial port adapter successfully with SatPC32 on Windows 7 x64? I have an Edgeport multiple USB to serial port that has drivers for Windows 7 x64 that I will use if I have to. I would prefer using the LVB Tracker with its USB to serial adapter if someone has another solution. 73, Bill NJ1H

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AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010
by Mark L. Hammond 01 Jul '16

01 Jul '16

Hi All, Here is a quick AO-16 update. On Sunday I turned AO-16 long enough to get some telemetry packets. The satellite would remain on for less than one minute after being commanded on. A quick test of the "bent pipe" voice mode repeater was successful. . The "hardware watchdog timer problem" is still evident; as expected, spacecraft temperatures are insufficient to keep the transmitter ON (needs to be above 15 deg C). Orbit projections suggest that satellite illumination conditions will not result in increased temperatures for nearly 10 years. Command stations do periodically turn AO-16 "ON" to check on its condition and see if the hardware timer problem has "automagically" fixed itself (which in not anticipated, but who knows...). AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010 1838 utc PACSAT MBL Telemetry Decoder Ver. 1.3 (c) Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN =============================================================================== (average values) +10V Battery Bus : 0.00 V Battery Charge Reg : 0.55 mA Base Temp : 9.07 °C PSK RF Out : 1.90 W +5V RX Bus : 4.87 V +8.5V RX Bus : 8.49 V +10V RX Bus : 11.24 V Here is another teaser :) Several months ago I commanded the AO-16 S-band transmitter ON; it too remains functional (albeit weak), and was received by me, Drew KO4MA, and Alan WA4SCA. 73, -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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CAPE-2 heard in France
by Jean-Pierre Godet 25 Sep '15

25 Sep '15

Dear friends from University of loisiana in Lafayette, Your bird was heard in the North of France when flying over Oran (Algeria), orbit number 204, especially the CW beacon (on 145.823 MHz +- Doppler) between 12:12:52 and 12:13:06 UTC, content was "EUL CAPE 2 OR UF231". The signal was somewhat chirpy, but it's exactly the sound which the real lover of CW like above all. Really ! :-) http://f5yg.pagesperso-orange.fr/forum/CAPE-2_orb204_03dec2013.mp3 The signal to noise ratio is not too good because I'm using an old AM/FM scanner from the 80s heterodyned by my medium wave homebrew transmitter fitted with a 456.9 Xtal. The antenna was a vertical half-wave inside the attic. The next orbit, number 205, was heard too, with the CW beacon affected at that time by a hoarse voice and suffering from a strong fadding. So I'm not absolutly sure, poor lonesome telegraphist, of my human decoding, "M5UL CAPE 2 ÜR 5045", something like that. It was over the East coast of Spain, between 12:12:52 and 12:13:06 : http://f5yg.pagesperso-orange.fr/forum/CAPE-2_orb205_03dec2013.mp3 Congratulation to the Cajun Advanced Picosat Experiment team from France ! Jean-Pierre F5YG -- Powered by Linux (Slackware 10.0 - kernel 2.4.26)

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FUNcube-1 Launch: Date and time confirmed
by M5AKA 11 Dec '14

11 Dec '14

The latest news about the launch date and time has just been confirmed by Kosmotras. The launch date of RS-20B rocket (Dnepr) with a group of satellites (DubaiSat-2 cluster mission) from Dombarovsky missile area (Yasny Launch Base) has been established for November 21, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT. The back-up launch date is November 22, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT. We will shortly be providing prelaunch TLEs and, in about 7/10 days, the Dashboard software that is needed to demodulate and display the telemetry information. More information about the Dashboard can found here http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/ FUNcube Yahoo Group http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/ ---- 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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Shin-En2 to carry Mode J linear transponder
by M5AKA 01 May '14

01 May '14

Shin-En2 to carry Mode J linear transponder http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/23/shin-en2-to-carry-mode-j-linear-transponder/ 144 and 432 MHz mixed mode helix antennas http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/23/144-and-432-mhz-mixed-mode-helix-antennas/ $4.00 Ham Radio Satellite Antenna http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/22/4-00-ham-radio-satellite-antenna/ Video added to LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder test http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/22/lituanicasat-1-fm-transponder-test/ Book now for International Space Colloquium July 25-27 http://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/22/book-now-for-international-space-colloquium/ ---- Trevor M5AKA AMSAT-UK Website http://amsat-uk.org/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amsatuk Twitter https://twitter.com/AMSAT_UK ----

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AO-73 over UK
by Peter Wilson 01 May '14

01 May '14

Just tried to work through AO-73 (22:00) - managed to hear myself briefly, but way off the normal uplink frequency, I had to tune 11Khz higher than normal, then signal suddenly disappeared? Did anyone else experience this? Any ideas? Peter G8KEK

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Re: LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder - Possible NA Activity
by Kevin M 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

> the LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder will be active from 0930Z-1400Z tomorrow. > That window includes three passes over North America at around 0940Z, 1115Z, and 1245Z > (if I've got the TLEs right - Object 39569, I believe) I think you may have your times off Paul... I show passes over North America for May 1st at 0940 and 1115 EASTERN time (EDST). =^( Which only makes sense, because the 0930Z-1400Z operating period would need to coincide with passes over EU for people to be working LY5N. Otherwise, I'd be outside waving my yagi around looking for you. =^D 73, Kevin N4UFO

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Rotor interface
by Elizabeth McDonnell 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

Hello everyone, Does anyone know of a USB interface to control azimuth on one of those basic Radio Shack T.V. Antenna rotors? in my search I have only found only older parallel port versions. Thank you all in advance, 73, Keith

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Re: LituanicaSAT-1 TLE Confirmation
by Kevin M 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

> Can anyone confirm if these are the proper TLEs for LituanicaSAT-1? From Celestrak, it's object > 39569U, other sources seem to give a different object number. AMSAT-UK sends readers to N2YO and he agrees... http://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=39569 73 Kevin N4UFO

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