A related thread has been running on QRZ.com where I just posted this
comment:
> To all those who have been bewailing the fact that the microwave
> technology needed to use the P4B digital GEO satellite let me
> offer a couplke of comments. I preface this by saying I am a part
> of both the AMSAT and VT "factions:".
>
> All of you are making the mistake in believing that the 10 GHz
> downlink will be complicated and expensive. Au contraire!
>
> How many of you have a 20 to 40 inch dish you use to watch TV?
> Well, the downlink that DirectTV uses is well up in the microwave
> spectrum in Ka band, at about 12 GHz. Many of the other TV
> satellites operate at ~11 GHz. Hams in several parts of the world
> have found that the feed used in these dishes (called an LNB)
> consists of a good feed (designed to work with the small offset
> dishes) coupled to a HEMT Low-Noise Amplifier (don't believe the
> advertising -- the Noise figure is closer to 1 Db and not the 0.1
> dB the vendors claim). The LNA feeds a crystal-controlled down
> converter which, off the shelf, makes the IF come out around 700
> Mhz. I can go on Amazon, Ebay or Alibaba today and purchase a dish
> plus a full LNB plus some dish mounting hardware plus 100 ft of
> low-loss (foam) 75 ohm coax and have it delivered to my house for
> less than $100.
>
> The ~700 MHz IF can plug into a $200-300 RX SDR which converts the
> ~10 MHz wide downlink into usable signal channels. Instead of
> tuning an analog frequency dial, you will select an appropriate
> channel to listen to your buddies. Or you can feed the SDR into
> your local VHF/UHF LAN where you can user your existing HT. If you
> are a skeptic about using the TVRO hardware in the amateur world,
> I'll note that just such hardware has successfully copied the DL
> 10GHz EME beacon in San Diego using a DVB Dongle+a laptop as the
> receiver.
>
> What I described was the downlink side. The ~6 GHz uplink will
> require the addition of a 1-5W PA, a small (probably array of
> patches) with the TX side of an SDR and an upconverter from
> whatever IF your SDR can generate to 6 GHz. The C-band TX should
> cost under $500-$600 with the bulk of the cost in the SDR and TX PA.
>
> If you add up the RX and TX hardware, the tariff is less than the
> price of an FT-1200 or KX-3, i.e. under $1000. We are working hard
> to meet this goal since it meets FEMA requirements for portable
> first responder "Go Boxes" to cover the need during major
> disasters (Katrina, tsunamis, earthquakes) for reliable
> communications in the first 24-96 hours. The ARRL and FEMA have an
> agreement to have a hundred such "Go Boxes" (which also includes
> suitable portable radios to augment whatever local resources exist).
>
> For those of you who want to use "conventional" modes our current
> plans call for a ~100 kHz wide LINEAR C/X-band transponder. I note
> (with pride) that I have figured out how we can have a LINEAR
> transponder built on RX software running the "main" payload and
> getting a LINEAR ANALOG output from a hard-limiting digital PA.
> Using the linear transponder will require you to have a bit
> antenna/TX power, but it will be there as a challenge!
>
> For all the nay-sayers please realize that AMSAT is trying to make
> a miracle happen. We need financial, moral and technical support.
> The "Space Biz" of today is radically different from what it was
> when NASA and ESA were launching their own rockets and when AMSAT
> was able to get sympathy for a bunch of "Space Cadets".
>
> 73 de Tom, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
>
>
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-12-28 19:30 UTC
Quick list of scheduled contacts and events:
Frederick W. Harnett Middle School, Blackstone, Massachusetts, telebridge
via K6DUE (***)
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***)
The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI (***)
Contact is a go for: Tue 2016-01-05 17:42:06 UTC 81 deg (***)
Exp. 44 now back on earth (***)
Oleg Kononenko RN3DX
Kimiya Yui KG5BPH
Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS
Congratulations to all 3! Job well done!
Exp. 46 on orbit (***)
Tim Kopra KE5UDN
Timothy Peake KG5BVI
Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP
Welcome aboard!
****************************************************************************
**
>From 2015-12-20 to 2016-01-04, there will be no US Operational Segment
(USOS)
hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be
conducted by the ARISS Russia team.
****************************************************************************
ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts.
ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send
your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com.
****************************************************************************
Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and
not being able to get in. That has now been changed to
http://www.ariss.org/
Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site.
****************************************************************************
Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS?
If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete
details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video.
http://www.ariss-eu.org/
If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to
provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net
****************************************************************************
ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100
schools:
Gaston ON4WF with 121
Francesco IKØWGF with 115
Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 114
****************************************************************************
The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date
webpages were removed and new ones have been added. If there are
additional
ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know.
Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own
orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed
time.
All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8061 date
and
time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2015-12-12 03:00 UTC.
(***)
Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and
questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and
instructions for any contact that may be streamed live.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1015.
Each school counts as 1 event.
Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 980.
Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot.
Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46.
A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the
file.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact:
Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont,
Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin
Islands.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QSL information may be found at:
http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html
ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS
****************************************************************************
The successful school list has been updated as of 2015-12-09 07:30 UTC.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf
Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing
Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction
.rtf
Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf
Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts
https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415
****************************************************************************
Exp. 43/44 on orbit
Scott Kelly
Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF
Exp. 44 now back on earth (***)
Oleg Kononenko RN3DX
Kimiya Yui KG5BPH
Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS
Exp. 45 on orbit
Sergey Volkov RU3DIS
Exp. 46 on orbit (***)
Tim Kopra KE5UDN
Timothy Peake KG5BVI
Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP
****************************************************************************
73,
Charlie Sufana AJ9N
One of the ARISS operation team mentors
And dont forget how you can take most old 10' dishs and disassemble it into
4 sections and make FOUR vrey high gain antennas. Just mount the feed to
fully illuminate your quarter section of the dish and you have adequate
gain in 1/4th teh space. Lots of fun with microwafves..
I thought I had photos, but cannot find them. I did find this old portable
briefcase 1m dish system I put together for AO40:
http://www.aprs.org/ao40ant.html
Bob, Wb4APR
On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 5:00 AM, Tom Clark <k3io(a)verizon.net> wrote:
> A related thread has been running on QRZ.com where I just posted this
> comment:
>
> To all those who have been bewailing the fact that the microwave
>> technology needed to use the P4B digital GEO satellite let me
>> offer a couplke of comments. I preface this by saying I am a part
>> of both the AMSAT and VT "factions:".
>>
>> All of you are making the mistake in believing that the 10 GHz
>> downlink will be complicated and expensive. Au contraire!
>>
>> How many of you have a 20 to 40 inch dish you use to watch TV?
>> Well, the downlink that DirectTV uses is well up in the microwave
>> spectrum in Ka band, at about 12 GHz. Many of the other TV
>> satellites operate at ~11 GHz. Hams in several parts of the world
>> have found that the feed used in these dishes (called an LNB)
>> consists of a good feed (designed to work with the small offset
>> dishes) coupled to a HEMT Low-Noise Amplifier (don't believe the
>> advertising -- the Noise figure is closer to 1 Db and not the 0.1
>> dB the vendors claim). The LNA feeds a crystal-controlled down
>> converter which, off the shelf, makes the IF come out around 700
>> Mhz. I can go on Amazon, Ebay or Alibaba today and purchase a dish
>> plus a full LNB plus some dish mounting hardware plus 100 ft of
>> low-loss (foam) 75 ohm coax and have it delivered to my house for
>> less than $100.
>>
>> The ~700 MHz IF can plug into a $200-300 RX SDR which converts the
>> ~10 MHz wide downlink into usable signal channels. Instead of
>> tuning an analog frequency dial, you will select an appropriate
>> channel to listen to your buddies. Or you can feed the SDR into
>> your local VHF/UHF LAN where you can user your existing HT. If you
>> are a skeptic about using the TVRO hardware in the amateur world,
>> I'll note that just such hardware has successfully copied the DL
>> 10GHz EME beacon in San Diego using a DVB Dongle+a laptop as the
>> receiver.
>>
>> What I described was the downlink side. The ~6 GHz uplink will
>> require the addition of a 1-5W PA, a small (probably array of
>> patches) with the TX side of an SDR and an upconverter from
>> whatever IF your SDR can generate to 6 GHz. The C-band TX should
>> cost under $500-$600 with the bulk of the cost in the SDR and TX PA.
>>
>> If you add up the RX and TX hardware, the tariff is less than the
>> price of an FT-1200 or KX-3, i.e. under $1000. We are working hard
>> to meet this goal since it meets FEMA requirements for portable
>> first responder "Go Boxes" to cover the need during major
>> disasters (Katrina, tsunamis, earthquakes) for reliable
>> communications in the first 24-96 hours. The ARRL and FEMA have an
>> agreement to have a hundred such "Go Boxes" (which also includes
>> suitable portable radios to augment whatever local resources exist).
>>
>> For those of you who want to use "conventional" modes our current
>> plans call for a ~100 kHz wide LINEAR C/X-band transponder. I note
>> (with pride) that I have figured out how we can have a LINEAR
>> transponder built on RX software running the "main" payload and
>> getting a LINEAR ANALOG output from a hard-limiting digital PA.
>> Using the linear transponder will require you to have a bit
>> antenna/TX power, but it will be there as a challenge!
>>
>> For all the nay-sayers please realize that AMSAT is trying to make
>> a miracle happen. We need financial, moral and technical support.
>> The "Space Biz" of today is radically different from what it was
>> when NASA and ESA were launching their own rockets and when AMSAT
>> was able to get sympathy for a bunch of "Space Cadets".
>>
>> 73 de Tom, K3IO (ex W3IWI)
>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>
I did a look through on You-Tube, and did not find any.
Does anyone have a nice video of people using NO-84?
I'd like to make up a club presentation.
Joe WB9SBD
--
Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.comhttp://www.idle-tyme.com
Hi,
Tried to reach the EO-79 Transponder but it seems to be in the off state. Didn’t try listening for the beacon will do that on next pass.
Regards
Terence PD3T
I know this has been asked a hundred times, but I'm going to make it a
hundred and one. I'm using UISS for packet on satellites. What do I put
in the "VIA" box to get into NO-84. I've tried ARISS, APRSAT, and PSAT
and I was not heard. Obviously, it could be that the satellite just
isn't hearing me, but I'd like to know that I'm using the correct path
to give myself the best chance of getting in.
Most of the packets I see from NO-84 have a couple of paths designated
like "CQ,PSAT,ARISS". Do I need to put in two paths like "PSAT,ARISS"?
If so, how do you do that on UISS?
Thanks for the help and Happy Holidays!
Steve AI9IN
EM79ji
Oldenburg, IN
APRS question:
I am using AGWUIDigi to Igate the 145.825 data from ISS, NO-84, etc.
How do I avoid that when a local HAM uplinks to ISS, I hear his
uplink, I Igate his uplink, and then when ISS digipeats, that is seen
as a dupe ?
Result would be that that local HAM would never show up anywhere as
heard via ISS or NO-84, as I would have Igated his uplink 2 seconds
prior to the digipeat.
Setting the APRS server logon filter to exclude his CALLSIGN, would
that block just incoming or also outgoing (RF to Internet) packets ?
If so, I could use such a filter: -b/CALLSIGN
Would this be the way to solve this ?
Henk, PA3GUO
I have been sucked into a discussion that makes me feel like I have spent
the last six months in a coma...
In a nutshell:
QUOTE
Now, let me remind you of the latest developments, as seen from a casual
but highly interested observer like myself, and you will tell me if this is
a sad joke or what.
1) From the AMSAT newsfeed, on July 25 we learn that "AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-DL,
and Virginia Tech Announce Potential Phase-3E Opportunity".
2) In the following months there has been absolutely NO FOLLOW-UP, no
information whatsoever on this potentially crucial piece of information.
3) A couple of days ago, completely out of the blue, we learn that "AMSAT
Ground Terminal Development Expands to Texas".
Hello? WTF is going on here? The P3E launch opportunity has morphed into a
geostationary satellite (never heard a thing about that). The projct has
morphed from a P3E "old school" satellite into this digital monster (never
heard a thing about that). Things have developed to such an extent that now
"ground terminals are being expanded"...
UNQUOTE
Here's a link to the thread:
http://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/first-amateur-radio-in-geosynchrono…
73 HNY Pete MM0TWX
Hello All,
Greetings. In an effort to test a new autobaud selection feature in FoxTelem 1.03, the Operations Team will be conducting some experimental sessions with AO-85 next week (Dec. 29 and 30, 2015).
Telemetry collectors in/near the US are encouraged to participate and help with testing the autobaud selection feature by installing the 1.03 test version available here:
http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/test/
I suggest you do a clean/fresh install in a new folder so you can always go back to 1.02 if you prefer. (It's possible to upgrade only the new files, but if you have to ask how, you'd better not do it ;))
You'll see a new "Auto" button option, next to the Low and High speed buttons; use it.
Specifically, during the following passes we'll be switching from the current voice transponder operation with low speed telemetry, to high speed telemetry (Note: in high speed mode, voice operations are OFF). The switches will take place about every minute or two during the pass. Please avoid making contacts during these testing periods.
29.12.2015 AO-85 11:19 11:32 UTC
29.12.2015 AO-85 13:00 13:12 UTC
30.12.2015 AO-85 11:45 11:59 UTC
During 2016, two or three more Fox satellites are planned for launch into orbit, and these birds will need to operate in high speed data mode from time to time to download space photos, experimental data, etc. Taking advantage of some in orbit testing with Fox-1A/AO-85 will be very helpful to the further development of the FoxTelem ground station software. All the thanks go to Chris Thompson AC2CZ for his extraordinary efforts on the telemetry software (both client and server side)!
Feedback about your experiences will be appreciated. Email to the list is preferred so all can learn.
73,
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]