October 2015 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

DX Coffee Blog Covers the ISS HamTV project
by JoAnne Maenpaa 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

The ISS HamTV project with a downlink at 2.422 GHz and 2.437 GHz is discussed on the DX Coffee blog at: http://www.dxcoffee.com/eng/2015/10/19/the-ham-tv-project-a-technological-su ccess-of-amsat-italia/ The TV format is DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite) -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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Shadowed-Rician fading in satellites
by shakeel -ur-rehman 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

Hi ALL Is anyone working in performance analysis of satellite link considering Shadowed rician distribution in land mobile satellite channesl and many research papers has been published. Anyone who is doing many practical experiments with satellites like listening to amature satellite pass ,downloading telelmetry ...etc and may some one who is evaluating the performance of satellites using theory/publications in ieee/iet .

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TM transmitter is ON and satellite pass
by shakeel -ur-rehman 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

I come to know that funcube TM transmitter is ON during DAY and during NIGHT Transponder in ON during night. I received the satellite BEACON and funcube dashboard was set to capture from sound card dash was showing detected frequency but no telemtry data has been received. the pass was taken at with follwoing date and time FUNcube-1 pass date 15 Oct pass time: 03:53:39 GMT time on 15th Oct please suggest what will be the problem either my dash board software is cause this error and or the TM transmitter in funcube-1 satellite is off. previously i have taken many successfull passes of funcube satellite. regards

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ANS-292 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - 4U1UN as 4U70UN on satellite this weekend!
by Joseph Spier 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-292 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: * 4U1UN as 4U70UN on satellite this weekend! SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292.01 ANS-292 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE October 19, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- AO-85 OSCAR Number Assigned for Fo4U1UN as 4U70UN on satellite this weekend! Word has been received, that, in celebration of the UN's 70th anniversary, 4U1UN will be activated as 4U70UN on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October. The operation by the UN ARC will be from the ground-level garden area within the UNHQ complex in New York City and will be limited to daylight hours. Satellite operation is included in the plans, but time and equipment limitations will exist. Blockage from high rise buildings toward the West is expected. Best passes will be to the East of FN30as and North/South overhead. Possible satellites in view may be AO-73, FO-29, AO-85, AO-7, SO-50, XW-2E and XW-2F. Note that 4U1UN is a separate DXCC entity. See QRZ.COM for QSL info.” For more information please see http://www.amsat.org/?p=4650 [ANS thanks Mike, N1JEZ, and 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 week's ANS Editor, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org

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Symposium-- fantastic
by Nick Pugh K5QXJ 19 Oct '15

19 Oct '15

The AMSAT symposium was fantastic this year many more sat on orbit this year. A big thanks to the team for a great outing. Thanks nick Office 337 593 8700 Cell 337 258 2527 Helping UL become a world Class Engineering and Educational School Disagree I Learn

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WD9EWK radio activity, between Thursday and Sunday
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

Hi! It has been fun over the past few days here in Dayton for the Symposium. Since my post about the passes I worked on Wednesday to start this trip, I have worked other passes over the past few days: Thursday (15 October) - from the Indiana/Michigan/Ohio border tripoint in grid EN71oq for a few SO-50 and FO-29 passes, followed by two AO-85 passes from different spots in grid EN70 on my way to Dayton. Friday (16 October) - an AO-85 pass from the parking garage next to the Crowne Plaza Dayton hotel in downtown Dayton, followed by a western AO-85 pass at the Indiana/Ohio state line near the I-70/US-40 interchange west of Dayton. Sunday (18 October) - Paul N8HM and I worked an AO-73 pass just after noon/1900 UTC from the parking garage next to the Symposium hotel, and we both listened to the 2130 UTC AO-85 pass with SDR receivers from the same location. The AO-73 pass was part of an unofficial SDR Q&A session for a few hams who were still at the hotel today. We compared HDSDR settings, and for one ham I was able to verify his HDSDR setup was ready to use an SDRplay receiver by plugging my SDRplay into his laptop. Paul and I used a midday AO-73 pass as a demonstration - Paul with two FT-817s and an Arrow Yagi; I had my FT-817/SDRplay combination with an Elk log periodic. For the midday AO-73 pass, and we had a small audience on the garage for the AO-73 pass. Red KC4LE also had his FT-817/SDR setup out at the garage. We could hear - and, using HDSDR, see - Red's CW signals through the AO-73 transponder, but it was too bright for Red to see his laptop's screen up on the garage. It was tough for me to see my 8-inch tablet's screen, but I was able to get lined up for 3 QSOs on AO-73. Paul worked 4 stations on the same pass. Nick K5QXJ and Doug K9DLP were out with us on the garage. At the tripoint, I either used a Kenwood TH-D72A to work the SO-50 passes, or my two FT-817s hanging around my neck to work FO-29. I could not park my car on the tripoint, which was in the middle of a narrow county road, so I went with completely portable options for working FM and SSB out there. For the other passes I have worked after the stop at the tripoint, I used my IC-2820H and SDRplay SDR receiver for the AO-85 passes, and the FT-817ND/SDRplay combination for today's AO-73 pass. As I have worked AO-85 passes, I used HDSDR to write RF recordings from those passes. I then played those recordings from HDSDR into the FoxTelem software, so the telemetry I received on these passes would get to AMSAT. If you look on the http://amsat.org/tlm page, you can see my call sign with a grid locator after a hyphen, indicating where I was for the number of data frames I received and uploaded for those AO-85 passes. I worked only one AO-85 pass from EN71 in Indiana Wednesday (14 October) evening, 3 AO-85 passes from EN70 (one in Indiana Wednesday evening, two on Thursday evening from Ohio), and 3 AO-85 passes from EM79 (two at the parking garage next to the Symposium hotel, one on the Indiana/Ohio state line west of Dayton). I have uploaded the RF recordings for the AO-85 and AO-73 passes I have worked over the past few days, along with audio recordings and other files for those passes, on my Dropbox space. These are accessible at: http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/ Hit F5 to refresh your browser, if the file/folder listing does not appear in your window. All of the QSOs I have made up through today on this trip are in Logbook of the World. QSL cards are available on request, if you are in my log. Just e-mail me the QSO details, as I don't normally collect QSL cards for my satellite work away from central Arizona. As I posted a little earlier, I will set out on what may be a 1000-mile road trip tomorrow afternoon. My rental car already has about 600 miles on it from the past 4 days, so it is getting a workout. I may not work every single pass during the trip, but will try to work from the spots I have planned - and maybe a couple of other spots, if time and weather allow for that. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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post-Symposium road trip
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

Hi! As the AMSAT Symposium is wrapping up, I am planning to start my post-Symposium road trip Monday afternoon, after the tour of the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base tomorrow. I still plan on heading north from Dayton, and hope to be able to work from the EN93/EN94 grid boundary Tuesday afternoon. It is possible I could work from some location in EN82 or EN83 tomorrow night, and possibly from EN92 on Tuesday before or after my visit to the EN93/EN94 boundary. And on my way back to Indianapolis on Wednesday morning, I may be able to work from a grid or two on the way home (my rover map does not have EN60 and EN72 filled in yet, along the route I will probably use for that drive. When at EN93/EN94, and possibly EN92, I will use VA7EWK/3 as my call on the air and for my Logbook of the World uploads. For any activity in Indiana or Michigan, I will just use WD9EWK without any extra indicators. The QSOs made over the next 3 days will be uploaded to LOTW, to go with the other QSOs from the past few days that I already uploaded to LOTW. I will be happy to send QSL cards for QSOs made at any point during this trip. Please e-mail me with the QSO details. If you are in my log, I will be happy to send you a card (or cards) for each of those QSOs. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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Possible ISS School Contact Experiment idea?
by Robert Bruninga 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

I wonder if we could collect data from skilled portable "arrow" operators on the reception of ISS comms near the horizon during upcoming school contacts. The interesting question is the viability of using well placed fixed tripod "arrow class" antennas at AOS and LOS instead of the current requirement for a full AZ/EL Oscar class antenna system at the school. By using two fixed portable beams on the AOS and LOS sides of the school for reception, for example, then maybe the 50W uplink can work fine from a more simply located and operated central omni antenna that is easier to set up. A concept paper with details on this idea will be posted Monday afternoon at http://aprs.org/aos-los-test.html The desired data would be a minute-by-minute log throughout the pass of ISS signal quality especially noting any nulls or fades without moving or adjusting the antenna. Just orient the beam vertically with an up tilt of 15 degrees. Then aim it in Azimuth half way between AOS (LOS) and when it rises above (drops below) 30 degrees elevation to cover the first (or last) portions of the pass. Above 30 degrees the ISS is 3 times closer and 10 dB stronger and would probably be heard fine on the central omni. An audio recording would make it easier to prepare the log after the pass or you can just make checks or X's every 5 seconds on a piece of paper and summarize it later. Do NOT run open squelch. Set the squelch for normal ham radio operation to silence the radio when the signal would be unintelligible anyway, since we would not want unintelligible noise from one receiver to distract from good audio from the possible others.. The concept is to bring in all three receiver speakers (left-to-right) into the auditorium operating position to give equal weight to each receiver but also give a sense of the passage of the ISS. During this test, It is tempting to want to re-orient or move your AOS (or LOS) beam, but we need the data horizon to horizon on the original fixed antenna orientation to see how well the squelch eliminates the distraction of a noisy receiver when it is not the prime contributor. If this test shows any promise, it could not only eliminate all the complexities of long crossed yagis, AZ/EL rotators, big masts and active tracking, but also completely eliminate the problem of long runs of coax from the school gymnasium to the antennas. The coax is eliminated by placing 50W mobile rigs (capable of cross band repeat) at each of the possible three antennas and operating them remotely via 3 UHF HT's indoors on-stage (coupled into the sound system). So, if there will be an ISS school contact within range of your station, and you have an arrow on a tripod at your QTH, you could collect data to see if this idea is a possibility. Again, this is *independent* of the actual school contact, you are just taking your own receive data where ever you are of how well an arrow on a tripod can hear the ISS at low elevations. Be sure to find a place with a good horizon at AOS(or LOS) to set your antenna. I'm on deadline to deliver a satellite in 12 days, and so if someone else might be interested in collecting and summarizing any incoming reports, that would be helpful too. If we learn that there will be any significant fades or loss of signal, then this idea fails... But if it works, then the two arrows, tripods, three mobile rigs and three UHF HT's could be made into a suitcase GOKIT to standardize school contacts with a lot less work. Just an idea Bob, WB4APR

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Fox-1A with Signalink USB
by Mike 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

I have my FT-897 setup with a Signalink USB interface. Inside the Signalink box their is a jumper setting for the audio. Should this be set up for pin 4 9600 out? In the radio setup menu #73 their is a packet setting for 1200 or 9600. Should this be set for 9600 as well? Thanks for any help in Adv. Mike N6IMF

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Easy & instant predictions
by Pedro Converso 18 Oct '15

18 Oct '15

New, quick, easy & instant predictions at http://amsat.org.ar/pass.htm . Detects and remembers your location, operates with and without Internet access. Sould work on any PC browser, tablets or smart phones in your local time, not worry about keps. Useful for planning field operations, showing current and future passes with real time graphics. Displays azimuths and elevation as well as Uplink / Downlink frequencies. It helps compare results with your tracking program. If you try, comments or suggested changes/additions welcome. Congratulations to all for the great satellite activity. 73, lu7abf, Pedro Converso.

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