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

W5PFG/P EM11
by Clayton Coleman 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

Next weekend, February 14-15, I will be operating several satellite passes from EM11. If you need this grid square confirmed, I would be glad to QSL via LoTW or paper after our QSO. I'll post more detailed pass time information in near real-time next weekend via my Twitter feed: @w5pfg or http://www.twitter.com/w5pfg I might take a short drive west and operate from EM01 that Sunday afternoon. 73 Clayton W5PFG

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FUNCube Warehouse Outage
by David A B Johnson 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

Hi, The hosted server was restarted at 01:50 UTC on Saturday morning by the hosting company. Whilst the server itself came up cleanly, the warehouse and data web services did not. We therefore lost about 7 hours of data, 0.0006% of all data :-) Will fix the startup process so that it doesn't happne again. 73 - Dave

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The future of AMSAT launches???
by Jacob Tennant 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

This seems so smart that I don't know why they haven't done this already. http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/06/darpa-alasa-video/?utm_source=Feed_Class… Jacob Tennant WF8S

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tracking software and Doppler interface
by Jim White 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Before I start buying stuff I want to be sure the following setup will work. SatPC. USB interface to an LVB tracker to a G-5400B (DIN connector). USB CI-5 interface cable (EBay) to IC910 for Doppler and freq control. (I assume) USB - serial adapter to M2 RC2800 rotor controller Can anyone advise if that config will work? Anything else I need for rotor (2 different ones) and radio (IC-910) control? Can I buy an LVB tracker assembled and tested? All I see on the AMSAT web site is extras for it. Thanks, Jim jim(a)coloradsosatellite.com wd0e(a)amsat.org

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Splitter for receiving system?
by Mark L. Hammond 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Hello All, I am really wishing for a "splitter" for my receiving system, good for both 2M and 70cm (so say, 144-450MHz or so.) Any suggestions? I really don't to lose 3dB in the process, but fear the only way to avoid that is some powered/amplified system. I recall such a device, but cannot for the life of me think where or the possible source. I do not need to xmit through it; receive only. Also, I do not need to pass 12V to power preamps, etc. So, just a low loss splitter good for 2M and 70cm. SMA, BNC, N connectors--any will work in my shack. Do folks refer to these as splitters? Combiners? Power splitters? I know about Mini Circuits--that's a sensory overload of stuff to pick through :) Any pointers to sources or such devices will be welcomed! Thanks--- -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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TYT TH-9000 on satellites
by John Geiger 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Has anyone used one of the TYT TH-9000 UHF models on the satellites? I am currently using a Baofeng UV-3R Plus for the SO50 downlink, and think that the receive could be better on a different radio. The price is nice for the TYT for a brand new FM UHF rig. The Jetstream JTS-270M also looks tempting for a dualbander. 73 John AF5CC

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AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2015 – Call For Speakers
by David Johnson 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

This is the first call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2015 which will be held from Saturday, July 25 to Sunday, July 26 2015 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, United Kingdom. http://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2015/ AMSAT-UK invites speakers, to cover topics about micro-satellites, CubeSats, Nanosats, space and associated activities, for this event. They are also invited to submit papers for subsequent publishing on the AMSAT-UK web site. We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors’ absence. We also welcome “unpresented” papers for the web site. Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes: e-mail: dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk Postal address at http://www.qrz.com/db/G4DPZ AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ. 73 Dave, G4DPZ

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Grid square map "app"?
by Steve Kristoff 06 Feb '15

06 Feb '15

Does anyone know of a downloadable or online grid square map that you can add markers and notation to, like on Google Maps? I'd like to be able to map out my contacts by grid square on the computer. Any and all suggestions welcome! Steve Kristoff AI9IN skristof(a)etczone.com

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First impressions on FO-29
by Daniel Estévez 05 Feb '15

05 Feb '15

Hi everybody, I'm setting up a portable satellite station to work the linear and FM birds. The equipment is a Funcube Dongle Pro+ for RX (with a diplexer to avoid desensing), an FT-817ND for TX and a homebrew handheld yagi similar to the arrow satellite antenna (3el on 2m and 6el on 70cm, DL6WU spacing). I use computer control for Doppler on both RX and TX. I'm quite a newbie to the satellite world and yesterday it was the first time I managed to hear myself on the downlink of some satellite, after a few unsuccessful attempts (in which I also had to cope with bad weather). It was on FO-29, at about 17:00UTC, 4th February (my locator is IN80do). I'm quite excited about it. Hopefully, next time I will be able to work some contacts. I have some impressions and some questions on operating tips that may be useful. The first impression is that it's very nice to use an SDR with Doppler correction for RX, because I get to see the full passband of the transponder and the beacon of the sat, and the frequencies I see at my screen are the frequencies as transmitted by the satellite. I can see the Doppler of the satellite by looking at how local spurs sweep up across the band, and I can also check the precision of my TLE's by checking if the beacon drifts. This time it was rock solid. It also seems that most people tune only their receive, since the QSOs slowly get higher in frequency. This is probably the most sensible thing to do if you're not using computer Doppler control, because FO-29 is V/U. I've also seen that most people crowd the centre of the passband, at about 435.850MHz. FO-29's transponder is 100KHz wide but I've heard that the downlink is stronger near the centre of the passband. Does anyone know how much the difference is or if this hardly matters at all? Also, since I'm using full Doppler control, is there any suggestion for a frequency on which to call CQ? If I'm just next to a station which is tuning only the downlink, I will be run over when he goes up due to Doppler shift, so I have the impression that I'll be probably better at something like 435.840MHz, with most people above me. Or is this lower part of the passband for CW? Of course this question is only for FO-29. It doesn't apply to AO-73 because its passband is only 20KHz, so there is not much free room usually. Another nice thing of the SDR is that I have it calibrated to report signal strength in S-units (with S9 = -93dBm) in a more or less accurate way. This way, I can see that my noise floor is S2, the beacon ranges between S3 and S4, and strong stations are S5 to S6 in the downlink. Would you guys consider it useful if I use this "true" measurements when giving signal reports? I hear that most people go with 59 or 58 or nothing at all, but keep in mind that with my setup a report of 56 really means 12dB above the beacon, and nobody will likely be 59 if that's at all possible, keeping in mind the power of the satellite and the path loss equation. My own downlink had about the same signal strength as the beacon. I guess that's about right to make plenty of contacts. I also read somewhere that you should adjust your power to be about the same strength as the beacon. I keep hearing stations much stronger than the beacon, so I guess that it's not practical for everybody to measure their downlink strength or lower their power. I also heard people working some stations that for me where completely in the noise for me, so I guess these people have much better RX equipment than me. Those of you with good RX, could you provide an accurate measurement of strength of the beacon for you so I can compare with my own measurements? Another thing that I observed is that there were FM signals on two frequencies being repeated by the transponder. This had the Doppler shift that a fixed frequency 2m signal will have when repeated by the satellite. One of the signals had CTCSS while the other didn't. The signals where two weak to copy, but it seemed that the language was Spanish. It seems that it people talking on FM simplex about 145.985MHz. Does this happen often? It's a pity that people don't follow good operating practices. Finally, sorry for the long post, and in case anyone wants it, I have a full SDR recording of the pass. I will usually be recording the SDR when I'm working satellites, so if anyone finds these useful, please let me know. Hope to work you soon on the satellites. 73, Dani EA4GPZ.

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Re: [amsat-bb] First impressions on FO-29
by Daniel Estévez 05 Feb '15

05 Feb '15

El 05/02/15 a las 17:08, John / NS1Z escribió: > Daniel, do you think you could walk me thru the steps necessary to set > up my FunCube Dongle Pro Plus SDR receiver to work like your setup? > > I have made a couple of attempts but one thing or another always stopped > me. I have the Yaesu FT-857D but will probably upgrade to the FT-817ND > after we get the receiver working. > I have SatPC32 working well on the PC but of course it is only one way. > > Thanks for listening to my plea.. Sure. I'll contact you off list with the description of how everything fits together. If anyone else is interested in this things, my current setup is linrad, gpredict and rigctl, all running on linux, but of course the same kind of principles and tricks can be used on other software. 73, Dani.

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