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

WD9EWK @ DM33/DM43 in Phoenix, now
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 21 Nov '15

21 Nov '15

Hi! I have been working passes from the DM33xp/DM43ap grid boundary in Phoenix since 1600 UTC, and will be here for another hour or two. This used to be my "home QTH" when working satellites for several years. My location is visible via APRS or http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9 and I have been updating my @WD9EWK Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/WD9EWK ) as well. QSOs will be uploaded to LOTW later today. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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AO-13(B) Record Updated - Still looking for more!
by Paul Stoetzer 21 Nov '15

21 Nov '15

NJ1H submitted an updated record for AO-13 Mode B this morning - a 16,464 km QSO between him in FN42fs and VK1ZZT in QF44ms on 5-Oct-1988. That edges out IK1SLD's 16,337 km QSO with VK4ASB. Did anyone ever do better? I would also like to find records for other satellites, including, but not limited to: AO-6 AO-7(A) AO-8(A) AO-8(J) RS-* AO-10(B) AO-10(L) AO-13(L) AO-13(S) ISS (Packet) ISS (Repeater) AO-27 AO-51 VO-52 SO-50 The AMSAT Satellite Distance Record page is located at http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=4751 73, Paul, N8HM

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FUNcube-1 in transponder mode for our 2nd Birthday
by Graham Shirville 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

Hi All, Just to confirm that, as usual, FUNcube-1 is now in permanent transponder mode for the weekend. Tomorrow, Nov 21st, marks our second birthday in space and an update about the mission has just been posted on the http://funcube.org.uk/2015/11/20/the-second-birthday-of-funcube-1/ webpage to celebrate this event. The FUNcube team is really delighted to have reached this milestone with the spacecraft continuing to perform pretty well perfectly. We are very grateful to everyone who is continuing to download the telemetry and to forward the data to our Data Warehouse. It is really valuable both to the Operations team and for outreach purposes. Please keep this data flowing if you can and if you know of any possible listening sites in out of the way places around the globe we would be pleased to hear about them. We are continuing to develop further enhancements of the ground software and will be making further announcements about these as soon as we can. Have FUN 73 Graham G3VZV FUNcube-1 Ops Team

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VUCC Trivia
by David Jaeger 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

Hello to all, Over the past decades I have accumulated a stack of QSL cards covering satellite QSOs dating back to the early Oscars and RS12/13 days. I never got around to applying for the VUCC award or any others associated with working the birds. Last year I made the decision that when I hit 100 satellite LOTW grids I would apply for the VUCC sat award the easy way electronically. Two weeks ago I checked my total online and found out that I was at 91 grids. At that time I figured that at the rate I am going it would be in 2016 before I ever hit 100. Then along came Wyatt AC0RA as W0N with his roving grid expedition and I picked up 12 new grids and they were all uploaded and confirmed by Monday afternoon. A few more grids were picked up from other stations in the last two weeks and yesterday I applied for my LOTW VUCC for 107 grids. Thanks Wyatt and all the others that uploaded their logs. Now for the trivia part of this post. Rovers made up a large part of my LOTW log. Those that uploaded multiple grids for my award were as follows: KG5CCI - 14 grids, AC0RA (W0N) - 13 grids, WD9EWK - 8 grids W5PFG - 5 grids, N8HM - 3 grids, KX9X - 3 grids, WA7HQD - 3 grids, K8YSE - 2 grids, KA4H - 2 grids, N6UA - 2 grids, VE3NKL - 2 grids That is 57 grids out of 107 total. In that stack of cards that I have yet to turn in for credit are additional grid confirmations from some of those listed above. My best example is my QSL from KF9PL/6Y5 (now KX9X) from 5/27/94. So thanks again to all those that upload to LOTW for helping with my VUCC... 73, Dave WN9Q

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Scuola Media Statale "G. Marconi", Soleto, Lecce, Italy
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Scuola Media Statale "G. Marconi", Soleto, Lecce, Italy on 23 Nov. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:21 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and VK4KHZ. The contact should be audible over portions of Australia and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. Scuola Media Statale "G. Marconi": The Soleto state institute includes preschool, primary school and 1st grade secondary school in the Cities of Soleto, Zollino, and Sternatia. A total of 811 students are attending in these three locations. There are 10 sections of preschool, 20 of primary school and 12 of secondary school 1st grade Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. How long do people train to become an astronaut? 2. At first, were you afraid of living on the space station? 3. Do astronauts get cabin fever while they're in orbit? 4. What are the objectives of your mission? 5. Why don't they place the moles on the comets surface? 6. About the veggie experiment, how many days does it take to grow salad and what's its taste? 7. Is it true that clothes become garbage when used? 8. What time zone is used on the ISS? 9. How do they dispose of the rubbish? 10. Which is the best moment on a space day? 11. Is there space junk? 12. Do you like living with other six people? 13. Do you sleep in a sleeping bag or in a bed? 14. Have you got any problems on the ISS? 15. Do you bring a supply of additional food from earth? 16. What's your favorite planet? 17. How do you communicate with earth? 18. What are you doing on the station at the moment? 19. How do you wash your hair? 20. When did you start to enjoy astronomy? 21. In the USA a pensioner, the famous astronaut John Glenn, went into space at the age of 69. wasn't he too old? 22. Which is the first place you want to see when you return home? 23. How expensive is going in space? 24. How has this experience changed your life? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): 1. Dragonskolan, Umeå, Sweden, telebridge via VE4ISS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for: Wed, Nov. 25, 2015 09:44 UTC ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the volunteer support and leadership from AMSAT and IARU societies around the world with the ISS space agencies partners: NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program visit the ARISS website at ariss.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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High Performance Portable Rotor
by Thomas Doyle 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

Hi, http://www.tomdoyle.org/hpr 73 W9KE Tom Doyle

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Re: [amsat-bb] Nova question
by Graham Shirville 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

Thanks everyone for the feedback! All seems now to be working again properly. I removed the existing Novakeps.dat file and repaired the software from the setup.exe programme. I then modified the internet keps update to only look at the ftp://www.amsat.org/amsat/keps/current/nasabare.txt file. This is a much smaller file than I had originally! So far so good - after 24 hours operation the antennas are rotating properly still 73 Graham -----Original Message----- From: Graham Shirville Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 10:35 AM To: AMSAT BB Subject: Nova question Hi All, I have been a NOVA user for many years but I know find that, when it is set up to drive the rotator to track FUNcube-1, at start up I get a Nova message box that says “ List index out of bounds (0) " - this comes up immediately, before the prog starts to update the keps, and the rotator operation is very unreliable. I am using W10 machine and a LVB tracker box with its built in USB converter. Any suggestions about a cure would be much appreciated... thanks Graham G3VZV

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(no subject)
by Gregory Beat 19 Nov '15

19 Nov '15

Spaceflight Now expanded on Tory Bruno's ULA CEO announcement from Thursday, November 19. University of Colorado at Boulder appears to be lined up for an early launch (ULA is headquartered in Colorado). ULA says it will launch some cubesats for free https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/11/19/ula-says-it-will-launch-some-cubesats… Sent from iPad Air

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Funcube Dongle Pro+ settings with FoxTelem 1.02b
by Mark L. Hammond 19 Nov '15

19 Nov '15

Hi Bob, I am going to copy AMSAT-BB because this will help some others I hope! Here is what works well for me and the FuncubeDongle Pro + and FoxTelem 1.02b: 1-On main screen, "Check" Track Doppler and Find Signal; I use default values in the boxes (15.0dB, 6.0dB) 2-Under the Spacecraft Menu, go to both Fox-1Cliff and Fox-1D parameter screens and "Uncheck" Track when Find Signal Enabled 3-Under the Spacecraft Menu, go to Fox-1A and "Check" Track when Find Signal Enabled; I use Downlink=145979, Lower Freq. Bound=145973, Upper Freq. Bound=145985 THAT should get your good, fast lock on the Fox-1A signal. Works well here setup like that. Let me know how you make out! 73, Mark N8MH On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:02 AM, Bob KD7YZ <kd7yz(a)denstarfarm.us> wrote: > Hi Mark. > Early on with Fox1A "somebody" emailed me about trimming down the > FOX1A_fm.dat a bit and limiting the scan range for FoxTelem to find the > beacon early on in an orbit. > > I just beeefwittedly overwrote some data files when updating the > FoxTelem program. Thus I now have numerous "Tabs" of Fox1-1C and H and > so forth. > > Were you the one who suggested the trim-down ? > > Otherwise, any ideas on shaping that Dat file to make it find the signal > earlier and stay locked on? > > Mine "was" working just fine with whatever I'd put in the folder. Or > maybe the stock program as it is now written is just fine. > > > -- > 73, > Bob KD7YZ > www.qrz.com/db/kd7yz > AmSat LM#901 > -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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FM Repeater Test at IO-86 Satellite
by P. Suryono Adisoemarta 19 Nov '15

19 Nov '15

Dear all, We just received a confirmation for the upcoming test of the FM Repeater on IO-86 Satellite (LAPAN-A2/ORARI), that would be conducted this weekend: - Saturday, 21 Nov 2015, at 02:30 UTC - 04:50UTC - Sunday, 22 Nov 2015, at 02:55 – 05:00 UTC Voice Repeater info: - Uplink 145.880 Mhz tone 88,5 - Downlink 435.880 Mhz AMSAT Keplerian data 0 IO-86 1 40931U 15052B 15316.15776324 .00001070 00000-0 60618-4 0 9994 2 40931 6.0030 69.3893 0012877 275.6206 84.2533 14.76374433 6653 As the satellite was designed for emcomm using handheld radio (the reason of the relatively high-power downlink), we would like all reports of portable ops (handheld radio using some sort of portable directional antenna, ie. CJU / IOio / Moxon / Arrow / etc). 73 de Suryono Adisoemarta – YD0NXX / N5SNN

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