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

Re: [amsat-bb] QB50 precursor satellites receive OSCAR numbers
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 02 Jul '14

02 Jul '14

Hi, Congratulations to all concerned with the projects and welcome to the growing list of success stories in our world of "amateur radio". The signals from both satellites are being heard at my QTH hear in South Wales -UK just using an "Elk" antenna. I must download the software that Mike has so kindly once again put time and effort into assist with decoding. Thanks again. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat -UK Amsat NA

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QB50 precursor satellites receive OSCAR numbers
by Wouter Weggelaar 02 Jul '14

02 Jul '14

Hi All, The QB50 precursor satellites, launched on 19th of June 2014, are in good health and still being commissioned.These satellites are part of a risk-reduction program for the QB50 main mission. Read all about QB50 on the project website at https://qb50.eu/ These satellites are also carrying amateur radio transponders: - QB50p1 carries the FUNcube-3 transponder system by AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL - QB50p2 carries an FM transponder by AMSAT-Francophone I am grateful to be able to announce that these two CubeSat Satellites have been awarded OSCAR numbers by AMSAT-NA: QB50p1 shall be known as European OSCAR 79 or EO-79, and QB50p2 shall be known as European OSCAR 80 or EO-80. Thank you AMSAT-NA! The transponders are expected to be switched on after the main mission, which lasts about 6 months depending on progress made. Details about sending in reports and decoding the beacons can be found on the ISIS Ham page at http://isispace.nl/HAM/qb50p.html Mike DK3WN has kindly made and published a decoder at his website: http://www.dk3wn.info/software.shtml based on the published formats. Thanks all for your support and reports, they are much appreciated! Kind Regards, Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG AMSAT-NL QB50p team

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Any other audio from NA1SS passes on Saturday?
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

Hi! Did anyone in the central or eastern parts of the USA record the NA1SS passes on Saturday afternoon? I have my recordings which I used for my slideshow videos I posted on YouTube, but they do not cover the other contacts that took place as the ISS moved away from me during each pass. I am interested in trying to piece together a longer recording, possibly covering the time the ISS was passing over North America during each pass. I did this many years ago for an ISS pass over North America, piecing together a couple of recordings covering a pass down the Pacific coastline of the USA and Mexico, and would like to try to do that again for the Field Day passes. If you have any recordings, please e-mail them directly to me. If the recordings are too large for e-mail, please contact me so we can make arrangements to transfer the files in some other manner. Thanks in advance, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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13 Colonies on satellites- NOT PARTICIPATING
by Dave Webb KB1PVH 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

I just want to clarify that the decision was made and posted here that we are not taking part in the 13 Colonies special event this year due to lack of state stations. We could only muster up just over half the states and felt that it would be better to have all or nothing this year. Dave-KB1PVH Sent from my Verizon Wireless Droid RAZR

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Stacking of dissimilar antennas
by Nitin Muttin 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

Friends, Need some help. I am planning to stack two 2 meter Cross Yagi and two 70 cms cross yagi on a H frame. Can some one guide me on the horizontal and vertical stacking distances that I need to maintained. I have some information for example from http://www.directivesystems.com/STACKING.htm but confused what should be the final configuration. 73 Nitin [VU3TYG]

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W1AW/9 satellite operations
by Grant Zehr 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

Thanks to everyone who called W1AW/9 - IL and helped make the week a success for us here in Illinois. QSO's were made via AO-7, FO-29, SO-50, VO-52, and the ISS packet repeater. So far I have logged only 2 QSO's on the ISS packet repeater (an exchange where the packet is clearly directed to my call and confirmed). Stations worked via ISS were KA1OLE and KO0A. If you feel you made a valid 2-way contact with W1AW/9 via ISS packet, but are not listed here, send me your capture file in the next couple days. I will compare it to mine and make any corrections needed. There are still a few more passes available this afternoon.so hope to see you on the birds! W1AW/9 -IL (op. Grant AA9LC)

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Astronaut wins June Twitter award - beautiful!!
by Arthur Feller 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/07/01/39-reminders-… 73, art….. W4ART Arlington VA http://afeller.us

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AMSAT FD 2014 debrief
by Bill (W1PA) 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

Using a modest set-up, I was able to give our local club (W1BIM) their bonus satellite contact on FO-29 Saturday afternoon (thanks to the team at W1AW/3). It was on the third pass attempt. I ran a FT-847 barefoot with an 11 ele yagi on 436 and a 3 ele yagi on 2m. I ran SatPC32 with the custom exe I got from Erich to address my older FT847's unidirectional CAT. Ran out of the hatch of my Subaru, armstrong rotor on a camera tripod. I have a lot of experience on the FM birds, but due to the lack of a home station very little on the transponder birds, at least not since AO-40. A couple of questions: For each satellite, once I dial in the correct VFO offset in SatPC (using the +/- keys), does the value stay the same pass to pass, or does it change on each pass? When I tried to run the ISS passes (2m up and down), the 2nd VFO on the FT-847 came up "reset" in the rig display when SatPC pushed the frequencies over -- is that a rig issue or SatPC issue I need to discuss with Erich? I had a script print out that I generated from NOVA as a back-up to SatPC32. I found in comparing it that it did not show all available passes -- if passes overlap in the NOVA scripting output, does it have a preference and drop one of them? SO-50 was pretty much non-usable except for passes over the ocean. No surprise. When in the right mode, I could hear AO-7 no problem , but it would switch itself off or change modes 1/3 way through the passes. On VU-52 and FO-29, signals would start strong and then dive... I assume this is the same thing I saw from my AO-40 days on FD... as the bandpass fills with stations, the available downlink output must be shared by everyone, so the overall signals from the birds drop off significantly... is that correct? Obviously, under "normal" conditions, it does not take much to work the linear birds... a quick search of "Amsat demo" on You Tube will demonstrate that for you -- small linear yagi's, a 2nd person on the tripod, a couple of FT817's barefoot, and no PC. FD is, of course, a different animal. I'd like to find out, off line, what folks were running set-up remote (not home stations). You don't have to post here; please send it to me direct (my call at hotmail dot com) In particular: 2M: TX power, antenna type and polarization, # of elements, RX pre-amp (y/n) 70CM: TX power, antenna type and polarization, # of elements, RX pre-amp (y/n) Single radio, or 2 radios? PC control of rotor? (y/n) PC control of rig? (y/n) What was your goal: Give bonus points to FD effort, or full AMSAT FD? If folks are interested I will summarize and repost, but I will not post any individual station info. We had great weather in New England, and a great FD outing. After making the needed QSO, I had a few more failed attempts on subsequent passes where I had trouble finding myself. Spent the rest of the weekend on 20CW, and trying to conjure up an opening on 6M. Bill W1PA (W1BIM 6A WMA)

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Re: [amsat-bb] Working the ISS
by Clint Bradford 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

Yes - It was one of Christy's kids that made a contact Saturday! I already forwarded to her the instructions for obtaining a QSL card from the contact. I just found it amusing that of the first three or so contacts on that pass, one was made with a mobile rig at high power, and you and I chose 5W or less to accomplish the exact same thing ... Long live workin' the birds with low power! Clint K6LCS

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Re: [amsat-bb] WD9EWK Working the ISS
by Clint Bradford 01 Jul '14

01 Jul '14

WD9EWK>> ... used my IC-2820H, Elk log periodic, with the power cranked down to 5W ... What? FIVE WATTS?!?! You power hog ... (grin) Just for the heck of it, I tried with an HT turned down to TWO Watts, and a tape measure beam ... and got right through! http://work-sat.com/ISS-062814.html I believe a Boy Scout from Victorville got in there at the beginning, too ... THEN the pile-up began! What a marvelous achievement - courtesy of ARISS and NASA. Clint K6LCS

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