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

ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-159 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: * Last Week to Submit AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations * AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 * ISEE-3 Spacecraft Reboot Project Update SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-159.01 ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 159.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 8, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-159.01 Last Week to Submit AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming open seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. A nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Three terms expire normally this year. In addition, a forth Director will be elected for one year to fill the remainder of an unexpired term. Up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which remains unchanged and is the preferred method, nominations may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, FAX, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA(a)AMSAT.ORG or faxed to (301) 822-4371. Written nominations, consisting of names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. Please note the new mailing and FAX instructions. [ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, AMSAT Corporate Secretary, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Field Day Reminder - June 28-29 It's that time of year again: Summer and Field Day! Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a "picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!". The event takes place during a 24-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2014 the event takes place during a 27-hour period from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 28, 2014 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 29, 2014. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 29 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event. If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellite SaudiSat-Oscar-50 for your AMSAT Field Day focus . don't . unless you are simply hoping to make one contact for the ARRL rules bonus points. The congestion on FM LEO satellites was so intense in prior years that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational). A lot of good contacts can be made on the linear transponder satellites including AO-73, VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous SSB or CW contacts. The AMSAT Field Day 2014 event is open to all Amateur Radio operators. Amateurs are to use the exchange as specified in ARRL rules for Field Day. The AMSAT competition is to encourage the use of all amateur satellites, both analog and digital. For the complete listing of the AMSAT Field Day Rules please refer to the AMSAT web: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=216 [ANS thanks AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISEE-3 Spacecraft Reboot Project Update Dennis Wingo KD4ETA has released an update on the attempts by volunteers, including radio amateurs, to gain control of the NASA ISEE-3 spacecraft. The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3), a spacecraft that was launched in 1978 to study Earth?s magnetosphere and repurposed in 1983 to study two comets. Renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), it has been in a heliocentric orbit since then, traveling just slightly faster than Earth. It's finally catching up to us from behind, and will be closest to Earth in August, 2014. In his report Dennis says that the spacecraft was successfully commanded into engineering telemetry mode and he mentions the work of radio amateurs Achim Vollhardt DH2VA (AMSAT-DL Bochum) and Phil Karn KA9Q. [Achim Vollhardt DH2VA and Mario Lorenz DL5MLO plan to attend the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford July 26-27 to give a presentation of their work. The event is open to all] Regarding the possibility of Lunar impact Dennis says ?If we can maneuver the spacecraft by June 17th we get the very small delta V number for the maneuver above. However, this starts to climb rapidly as the spacecraft gets closer to the moon. Also we cannot at this time rule out a lunar impact. It is imperative that we get a ranging pass as soon as possible. We also need time to not only evaluate the health of the spacecraft, but to test the systems, the catalyst bed heaters for the propulsion system, the valve heaters, analyze the rest of the propulsion, power, and attitude control system as rapidly as possible. This will be a lot of commanding so we have to move into high gear next week. This is a very fluid situation and we have made amazing progress, thanks to the support of those who believed in us in our crowd funding and the support of our NASA sponsors at NASA Ames and NASA headquarters. More to come soon!!? Read the report at http://spacecollege.org/isee3/isee-3-reboot-project-update-bullseye-and-mor… Watch ISEE-3 Reboot Project ? Recovering a 30 year old space probe ISEE-3 / ICE Telecommunications Summary http://mdkenny.customer.netspace.net.au/ISEE-3.pdf Dennis Wingo KD4ETA blog http://denniswingo.wordpress.com/ Can radio amateurs command the ISEE-3 / ICE spacecraft ? http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/19/can-radio-amateurs-command-the-isee-3-ice-sp… Radio amateurs receive NASA ISEE-3 / ICE Spacecraft http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-isee-3ice-spacec… Radio hams help attempts to command NASA spacecraft http://amsat-uk.org/2014/05/21/radio-hams-help-attempts-to-command-nasa-spa… ISEE-3/ICE on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ISEE3returns [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK 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 week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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satellite confusion
by Bob- W7LRD 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Or I will just blame senior moment- what is a "easy" way to keep some of these newer birds organized and have them all in the standard list on satpc32. So all the birds are listed on the same list. There have been several Litxxxxxx birds I have got mixed up. Trying to keep up with the program. Station is peaked top perfection, antennas tracking etc. Just trying work out these minor PITA bugs. Your collective wisdom is invaluable the digitally challanged 73 Bob W7LRD a smart man knows his limitations

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SatPC32 Question
by n0jy 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Hi All, I just installed (upgraded) to SatPC32 v. 12.8c. Now, I have two installations here. One on my new laptop, and one on my desktop PC. Laptop is for portable work, of course. I noticed that on my laptop installation, on the SETUP menu OPTIONS dialog, there is a checkbox for GROUND TRACK. This option does not exist on my desktop installation. Same program, same settings otherwise... I see these parameters are held in SATSTART.SQF. I see + as the last entry (and it is one more entry than my desktop file has) which corresponds with the GROUND TRACK checkbox. If I edit SATSTART.SQF on my desktop PC and add that +, when it starts it does not have GROUND TRACK turned on. So I can't fool it. Any thoughts, suggestions, help? Thanks! Jerry NØJY

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Help on setting a RTL-SDR Dongle
by Vincenzo Mone 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Hi folks I am interested to receive the satellites with the USB RTL-SDR Dongle. I found on eBay one called: I bought on eBay the DVB-T USB Stick HD/DIGITAL TV Television FM Radio HDTV. Tried to follow the instructions found on Jason's' page at: http://n4jtc.wordpress.com/ but I get stuck on the step: 8. Tune into a known frequency like the National Weather Service, this is required to adjust the PPM Please which is the frequency of the PPM? I have tried to set the frequency on a local packet but cannot find it on the Software. Please can anybody give more help to set it in the right way? Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks for help in advance. 73's de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ********************************** ******* GSM +39 328 7110193 ******* ****** SMS +39 328 7110193 ****** *** 2nd e-mail: vimone(a)tin.it *** *********************************

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Lituanicasat-1
by PY5LF 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Hi Lituanicasat with telemetry only now 15:39UTC over Brazil. 73 PY5LF Luciano Fabricio Curitiba-PR-BR GG54jm http://www.qrz.com/db/PY5LF

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Re: [amsat-bb] LituanicaSat-1 this evening
by Chris Del Plato KQ2RP 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

As it turned out, I jinxed myself with that post. Stood at the ready during the pass and heard nada.... Thought maybe the transponder was turned off....At about the midway point I noticed one of the micro-coax connection points to my (uhf) yagi was broken. Will have to fix that.... ah well. "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" ~ Albert King 73, Chris KQ2RP

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Show Low AZ hamfest & DM54/DM55 activity on Saturday
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Hi! Saturday was a busy day. Starting with the White Mountain Hamfest in Show Low, Arizona, just after 0500 local time (1200 UTC), to working several passes from along I-40 and old US-66 at the DM54/DM55 grid boundary in the afternoon, to the driving up to the hamfest Friday evening and back home Saturday evening, it was another fun trip. The Kachina Amateur Radio Club has held its White Mountain Hamfest for many years in early June in Show Low, and this club has graciously provided AMSAT space at the hamfest. I had my table, complete with AMSAT banner and merchandise, ready for the official start of the hamfest at 0700 local time. I also had my station ready to go for an FO-29 pass an hour earlier, which was a demonstration for a few people who were already wandering around the hamfest site (parking lot for Show Low City Hall). I worked passes on FO-29, VO-52, AO-73, and SO-50 during the morning from here, and many thanks to the operators across North America for calling WD9EWK and being a part of the on-air demonstrations. It didn't hurt that the hamfest is in a grid locator not heard often on the satellites, DM44. The hamfest was wrapping up by noon, and I took advantage of that to get lunch before making an hour-long drive northeast from Show Low to a point along old US-66 and the I-40 freeway that straddles 35 degrees North latitude - the line between grids DM54 and DM55, two more grid locators rarely heard on the satellites. This spot is about 50 miles/80km west of the New Mexico state line, not far from the town of Holbrook and the Petrified Forest National Park. I have been to this spot in the past, a parking lot for a (now) former souvenir shop east of a freeway exit. After setting up my gear and taking the obligatory (for VUCC purposes) photos of my station with a GPS receiver, I also took pictures of some wandering visitors - cattle - around the property. Then it was off to working passes on AO-7, FO-29, VO-52, and LO-78 (it was still LituanicaSAT-1 when I was up there). I also took advantage of an ISS pass to use my TH-D72A HT to show my location via APRS - something I did as part of the demonstrations at Dayton a few weeks ago. Even on the high desert at almost 5300 feet/1615m elevation, it was still warm in the afternoon (around 96F/36C at one point). Once I wrapped up the DM54/DM55 operating, I packed my gear, drove west on I-40 to find some dinner, and make the 4-hour drive from up there back home. Not much to see at night driving through a couple of national forests, other than some elk near the road - and one crossing in front of me. Almost 500 miles/800km in about 29 hours, and going from the 96F heat at DM54/DM55 to around 50F/10C in the forest on the drive home. For anyone who worked WD9EWK on Saturday and would like to receive a QSL card, please e-mail me directly with the QSO details. If you are in the log, I will gladly send you a card. No SASE needed. Other than the QSOs on LO-78/LituanicaSAT-1, I have uploaded yesterday's QSOs to Logbook of the World. The LO-78 QSOs should be uploaded shortly, now that ARRL can enable this satellite in LOTW using LO-78 instead of LituanicaSAT-1. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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LituanicaSAT-1 Transponder Off
by Paul Stoetzer 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Good evening, It appears that the LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder was off over North America at 0121Z. Strong signals were heard from the FM morse beacon. I will listen to my recording and decode the telemetry. 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Washington, DC (FM18lv)

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Re: [amsat-bb] LituanicaSat-1 this evening
by Bill Acito 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Nothing heard here on that pass. Were you on? Bill

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DC Mini Maker Faire - Satellite Demo Report
by Paul Stoetzer 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Good evening, Thanks to all for the many QSOs on several passes of SO-50, AO-73, AO-7, and FO-29 from the DC Mini Maker Faire at Yards Park (named for the nearby Washington Navy Yard, which used to also occupy the area that is now a park) on the Anacostia River waterfront in Washington, DC. I got quite sunburned and will not be updating my log tonight, so I'm not 100% sure how many QSOs were made. Despite some technical problems on my end (didn't remember I had to turn my demo speaker on to charge it's battery), we were able to demonstrate ham radio and amateur satellites to many people. Being a Maker Faire, this was not your normal hamfest crowd, and there was a good crowd of especially younger people, who already possess some interest in electronics and technical projects. Some have licenses but haven't done anything with them, others have had licenses but have not been active in a while, and still others indicated that they were thinking about getting their license. Hopefully some will follow through with it and hopefully some will get involved in amateur satellites and join AMSAT! If there are any Maker Faires in your area, consider setting up amateur radio and AMSAT exhibits. It is a good way to make demonstrations to a different, but potentially interested crowd. After all, the 2014 AMSAT apparel is branded "AMSAT: The Satellite Makers." Thanks to Lee Ciereszko, N4TCW, for deciding to setup an amateur radio exhibit at the outdoor faire (a last minute decision he made on Thursday). He brought a TS-2000 (which we could have used for satellites, but I used my normal 2 FT-817 setup), a solar panel, batteries, and HF/VHF/UHF antennas. We also made a few HF QSOs during the day. By the way, the 436.795 MHz birdie on the TS-2000 is so strong, I had to turn that radio off while working SO-50, despite being a good 10-15 feet away from it. 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Washington, DC

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