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

Gagarin meets "Public service Broadcasting"
by andy thomas 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

enjoy this one and its links: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - GAGARIN | | | | | | | | | | | PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - GAGARIN | | | | View on www.youtube.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | | (if link does not appear then go to Youtube and enter "Race to Space" and "Public Service Broadcasting" it's an artistic event btw...H'mm.. 73 de andy g0sfj

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Re: [amsat-bb] First satellite QSO
by James 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

Steve Kristoff AI9IN, I think most of us using satellites had similar experiences as you with our first contact. I know that I was totally amazed how well things worked. For years I used the excuse that working satellites was much too difficult. I now usually use a little Olympus recorder when operating. I just lay it by the speaker, nothing fancy here. This recorder was extremely helpful when working AO-51 mobile. If you really want to have some fun, try a linear satellite like FO-29. You will need to operate SSB or CW which is not possible with your portables. The linear satellites have plenty of bandwidth making many contacts easily possible. Welcome and have fun! 73, -james W5AOO

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Re: [amsat-bb] First satellite QSO
by Rob Rousseau 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

If you have a smartphone, one could also record it using a smartphone app "Voice Recorder" or something similar instead of having to go out and buy a small tape recorder. If you want to use your headphones, you can use one of these to hook it up. http://www.ebay.com/itm/390837998302 Either way, it's all fun! 73, -Rob KI4BKE OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award #465, 14 May 2008 South African AMSAT Award #US-122, 14 May 2008 On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 7:00 AM, <amsat-bb-request(a)amsat.org> wrote: > Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 17:42:25 -0800 > From: "Ted" <k7trkradio(a)charter.net> > To: "'Steve Kristoff'" <skristof(a)etczone.com>, <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] First satellite QSO > Message-ID: <001f01d03f52$a991fed0$fcb5fc70$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi Steve, a workaround for this in lieu of pencil and paper is a small > cassette recorder (commonly used for dictation). They are all over ebay or > other sites cheap. You can just stick it in your shirt pocket and it will > record your voice speaking to the station you are working (incl the call > sign). You could also get fancy and plug it into your receive Baofeng and > record that way > > Good luck and 73, Ted > K7TRK >

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Back on the satellites!
by John Geiger 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

Put up the UHF antenna today, so I am back on the satellites have a couple of years break. Used to be NE0P and AA5JG, some of you might recognize those calls. I have tried Oscar 7 in Mode A a few times in the past couple of months with no luck. I am running an Icom 706 original with a Cushcraft 7 element yagi for the Mode J uplink, and a Baofeng UV-3R plus with a Diamond 15 element yagi for the downlink. Both antennas fed with 50 feet of Jetstream 9913 flex. I have a MFJ 10m Moxon Yagi for the Mode A downlink. Caught 2 passes of SO50 tonight with good results. Even worked a new Grid (DO20)! I recently sent in QSLs to the ARRL that will get me the 200 grid endorsement on my Satellite VUCC (#129) and have 50 or so more waiting on LOTW. It is great to be back! 73 John AF5CC

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First satellite QSO
by Steve Kristoff 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

Well, I got my first satellite contact this evening on a pass of SO-50. Thank you for the help from the forum for getting me started. I used two Baofeng UV82 handhelds and an Arrow antenna. Problem is that I wasn't necessarily expecting it to work, so I didn't plan on a way to record the QSO. So, if you happened to be the person who called back to AI9IN in EM79 between 2331 and 2345 UTC this evening, thank you, thank you, thank you! If you send me your info, I'd be happy to send you a QSL and put you in LoTW. If getting this confirmed by email is "illegal", I understand and won't officially count it, but I'd still like to know who you are so I can send you another set of "Thank yous". Steve Kristoff AI9IN Grid: EM79 Oldenburg, IN skristof(a)etczone.com

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FM15 Ayden, NC area AMSAT members?
by Clayton Coleman 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

A gentleman who posted on another form is looking for some local support form someone who can either loan him or help him build a small antenna capable of satellite reception. He has been showing interest in satellites but needs some local help. The ham is located in FM15, near Ayden, NC. If you can offer assistance, email me off-BB and I will send you his callsign and email address. Thank you, Clayton W5PFG

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My DM23/DM24 road trip on Saturday
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

Hi! First of all, many thanks to everyone who worked WD9EWK from the DM23vx/DM24va grid boundary on Saturday. I had not been out there in a couple of years, and was looking for a day-trip somewhere that didn't have snow or ice. Put "34.0 N 114.21533 W" into your favorite mapping Web site or application to see where this is. It was a nice high spot, overlooking a highway junction, which let me work passes in a couple of directions all the way down to the horizon. Between some passes, I was able to drive northwest to Parker - a small town along the Colorado River - to get something to eat and return to the grid boundary in time for more passes. I left home a couple of hours before sunrise, hoping to make it out there in time for the SO-50 pass around 1545 UTC (0845 local time). I made it with time to spare, a good thing. I planned on working whatever passes were available from that time until a little after sunset, not wanting to stay out there well into the night. The day went well, and made for a nice road trip of about 400 miles/640km in 18 hours. APRS coverage in this part of Arizona is pretty good, with the grid boundary stop covered by 3 different mountaintop digipeaters. I logged 69 QSOs on 11 passes of the 4 satellites that currently support voice communications: 5 SO-50 passes, and two passes each for the 3 SSB/CW satellites (AO-7, AO-73, and FO-29). I also tried a third AO-73 pass just after noon, a 4-degree pass, where I only heard myself. I tried two NO-44 passes in the afternoon, and saw a station on each pass, but wasn't able to log a QSO. I was able to log 12 QSOs on two of the SO-50 passes, and one SO-50 pass saw 16 QSOs go in the log. FO-29 was also busy, with 8 QSOs logged on one pass that went over the middle of North America. Thanks, as always, to the AMSAT-UK command stations for making AO-73's transponder available day and night on the weekends! After I wrapped up my operating at DM23vx/DM24va, I made two stops on the drive home to copy the ISS SSTV transmissions. The first stop was at a truck stop in Quartzsite, Arizona, in grid DM23vp. I copied one picture, and part of another picture, from here around 0251-0259 UTC Sunday (Saturday evening, local time). For the next ISS pass, I drove about 75 miles/120km east to another truck stop in Tonopah, Arizona, in grid DM33ml. Again, I received part of one picture and all of another picture during the 0426-0436 UTC pass. The complete picture was not received as cleanly as the picture I received earlier in Quartzsite. I uploaded all of my SSTV pictures to the ARISS SSTV archive from Saturday night on the road, as well as last night's pictures I received at home. They are visible at: http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php (one from last night is on this page, and the others are on the archive pages) I uploaded my log from Saturday's activity to Logbook of the World yesterday. If anyone wants to receive a QSL card to confirm a QSO, please e-mail me with the QSO details. There's no need to first send me a QSL card and/or SASE to get my card. This location is well outside my VUCC 200km limit, so I don't look to collect QSL cards for the QSOs I make. Just like I enjoy working new station and grids when I'm at (or near) home, I enjoy giving out the contacts when I am on the road. Thanks again, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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ISS SSTV
by PY5LF 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

Hi Here are ISS SSTV signal heard yesterday over here ; http://youtu.be/zJibQ-FNwhc 73 PY5LF Luciano Fabricio Curitiba-PR-BR GG54jm http://www.qrz.com/db/PY5LF

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K1N satellite ops
by Andrew Glasbrenner 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

>From announcements on http://navassadx.com/, it looks like K1N might be on the air (on HF at least) sometime this evening. This would be a good time to update everyone on the planned satellite operations. I spoke with Gregg, W6IZT last Tuesday morning as he was packing for his departure the following day. Gregg will be the satellite op, although others may also participate. Gregg will be operating half-duplex with a Yaesu FT-817 (provided by AMSAT) and an Arrow antenna. Gregg has pass prediction information for FO-29 and SO-50, for all passes that are 20 degrees or higher at the island (thanks to John K8YSE for preparing those). While the focus will be on FO-29, it is possible they may try SO-50 as well. Gregg did mention satellite operations are more likely in the second half of the expedition as opposed to the first half. The radio is programmed with 5 split-band memory channels for SO-50, and has two high quality LMR-240UF jumpers to connect directly to the Arrow via the front and back antenna ports. Additionally, the VFOs are programmed for FO-29 operation with a fixed uplink of 145.980, for a downlink at 435.813 to 435.827 depending on Doppler. This is the important part: Gregg will be tuning his receive for replies, and may not be listening directly on his own downlink. Calling while he is transmitting will not work since he is half-duplex. This is much the same way other rovers such as KL7R and UT1FG operate. This particular frequency scheme was chosen to reduce QRM (both given and received) and allow a quick tune to the beacon for antenna pointing when there are not many callers. Gregg has my email and cell phone number, and I have asked him to alert me if possible, no matter the hour, when they decide to get on FO-29, which I will pass along to the list and the AMSAT twitter feed immediately. The team is still in need of financial help for the expedition. Please consider helping them out at http://69.89.25.185/~trexsoft/t-rexsoftware.com/k1n/donate.htm Good Luck and 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations

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UT1FG/MM Tentative Itinerary
by John Papay 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

Yuri, UT1FG/MM, is heading to Riga Latvia and expects to be there February 3-4. The next port will be Klaipeda, Lithuania, February 5-7. Once loaded he will sail across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. His ports will be in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica on the Pacific side. He is very busy with his shipboard duties. Ship traffic is very heavy and leaves little time for operating. Once enroute crossing the Atlantic there should be more time for operating. Yuri always tries to operate from new grids as much as possible. Good Luck. 73, John K8YSE

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