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

Re; 9
by James Hickox 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

referral link http://serefmeselesiizle.info/bgy/ Sent: 4/8/2015 6:41:40 AM >From James Hickox

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ISS SSTV April 11 - Again!
by Clint Bradford 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Do not forget next weekend's planned transmitted SSTV images from the ISS project! At 25W or so, you will he hearing the ISS from very low elevations as you record the 183-second broadcasted images. Recording and decoding these can be as easy as holding your HT's spear close to your iOS device! Details at ... http://amsat-uk.org/2015/03/31/iss-sstv/ Clint K6LCS

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Mystery Solved - Pass From The Past
by Bryan Green 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Mystery solved: The "ARLKnnn Keplerian data" e-mails from the ARRL contain the wrong data for AO-73. Those e-mails identify AO-73 as object number 39445 and contain the data for that object. AO-73's object number is actually 39444. Object 39445 is HINCUBE, which I gather was launched at the same time as AO-73. The ARRL archive of these e-mails have apparently had it misidentified since it appeared. http://www.arrl.org/w1aw-bulletins-archive-keplerian AMSAT's Keplerian data identify AO-73 as the correct object. Now contacting the ARRL to resolve future transmissions with corrected data. -- bag Bryan KL7CN/W6

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AMSAT Awards Update
by Bruce 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Here are the awards that have been submitted thus far in 2015. Here are our latest inductions into some of the AMSAT awards community. The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO. Nicolas Romero, KG5BON Steve Kristoff, AI9IN Hope Lea, KM4IPF Faith Hannah Lea, WA4BBC Zechariah Lea, WX4TVJ To see all the awards visit http://www.amsat.org or http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Field Checker (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes

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KM4IPF (Hope – 8 Years Old) FM26 "Expedition"
by James Lea - WX4TV 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

I’m not sure if FM26 is a rare grid square, but Hope will be on SO-50 this afternoon from the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, VA (FM26) from 20:28 UTC – 20:38 UTC. She will be taking the Arrow antenna, FT60 (receiver) and UV5R (transmitter) to Rudy Inlet in Virginia Beach. Our home QTH is in FM16 and this is her first “expedition.” She is especially excited to try to work the station in Haiti, since I was there for about 2 months after the earthquake in 2010. We are planning a trip to Hatteras Island, NC (FM25) later this month and will post it once we know the date and time. Hope is still learning how to handle QSO’s, so if you work her, please give her time to respond back to you. I have to tell her the call sign of the station she works and she takes a couple of seconds to process it before keying the mic. 73, James

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Did Anyone Record the SO-50 Pass?
by James Lea - WX4TV 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Good Morning, Did anyone record the SO-50 pass over CONUS at 0625 Z this morning? I’m still working out the bugs to hear the downlink with the Baofeng UV5R we are using for receive and it would be helpful to hear our signal from the satellite. Thanks, James, WX4TV

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Orbital Debrief
by Paul Stoetzer 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Good evening, By now I hope every AMSAT-NA member has had a chance to read the first version of my Orbital Debrief column in the January/February AMSAT Journal. I would appreciate any feedback on this first edition! If you are not an AMSAT-NA member, you are missing out. Please join AMSAT-NA today. As designed, the column relies on input from satellite operators. If you go on a grid expedition, work a new DX station, have a good story about satellite operating, or receive a unique QSL card, please submit any notes and photos for publication to n8hm(a)arrl.net. Also, I would like to get some data from as many operators as well. I would like to put together a picture of what is possible on the LEO satellites. I have not decided exactly how I will present this data, but I would like to receive a list of the following data (from LEO satellites only) from as many operators as possible: 1. Grids worked / grids confirmed 2. Grid fields worked / grid fields confirmed 3. U. S. states worked / U. S. states confirmed 4. Canadian call areas worked / Canadian call areas confirmed 5. DXCCs worked / DXCCs confirmed 6. CQ zones worked / CQ zones confirmed 7. Continents worked / continents confirmed The "Upcoming Satellite Operations" page on the AMSAT website (http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3921) is designed as a real-time companion to the column, and as mentioned in a previous post, I encourage all satellite operators to bookmark it and check it regularly. Thank you in advance for your suggestions and submissions and I hope you enjoy the column! 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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Upcoming Satellite Operations
by Paul Stoetzer 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

Good morning, A new page listing upcoming satellite operations is now live on the AMSAT website. The direct link is: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3921 It is also accessible from the "Satellite Info" drop down menu at the top of the website. Check it out today as there are some good operations coming up this weekend! Please forward any submissions or corrections to n8hm(a)arrl.net 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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Pass From The Past, continued
by Bryan Green 06 Apr '15

06 Apr '15

Hello, all: THIS IS A LONG POST ABOUT MY QUEST TO RESURRECT SOME OLD PASS DATA. PLEASE EXCUSE IT IF IT IS NOT OF INTEREST TO YOU. Long story, but I have some interesting results and a theory: 1. My MP3 file is timestamped UTC as created at January 29, 2015 at 05:19. Here is some indication of that: > ls -la * -rwxrwxrwx@ 1 bag staff 14289701 Jan 29 05:19 20150130T0519Z KL7CN_W6 CM98fn AO-73.mp3 2. My notes indicate that the pass occurred from 21:18 - 21:31 LOCAL time for me on January 28. This corresponds with the MP3 file timestamp, since at that time my local time was 8 hours behind UTC. 3. I have this file that I received from AMSAT by e-mail on January 23, 2015. I stripped it down to the satellite of interest: > cat AMSAT-20150123.tle AO-73 1 39445U 13066AF 15030.17519879 .00004024 00000-0 52953-3 0 3695 2 39445 097.7494 097.9267 0060013 224.4600 135.1787 14.79459520 62573 4. I have this QTH file defined: > cat KL7CN_W6-CM98fn.qth KL7CN/W6 38.573201 121.529596 7 5. With all that in mind, here is what I ran: predict -t AMSAT-20150123.tle -q KL7CN_W6-CM98fn.qth -p AO-73 `date -u +"%s" --date="2015-01-29 05:00:00"` 6. Here is what I get. I call this FINDING OF INTEREST #1: 1422509554 Thu 29Jan15 05:32:34 0 168 104 14 116 2987 6243 1422509643 Thu 29Jan15 05:34:03 6 168 108 19 117 2376 6243 1422509732 Thu 29Jan15 05:35:32 15 169 112 25 119 1777 6243 1422509819 Thu 29Jan15 05:36:59 29 170 116 30 120 1224 6243 1422509898 Thu 29Jan15 05:38:18 54 175 119 35 121 815 6243 1422509952 Thu 29Jan15 05:39:12 82 211 121 38 122 683 6243 1422509966 Thu 29Jan15 05:39:26 84 288 122 39 122 682 6243 1422509977 Thu 29Jan15 05:39:37 79 320 122 39 122 690 6243 1422509996 Thu 29Jan15 05:39:56 68 334 123 41 123 726 6243 1422510031 Thu 29Jan15 05:40:31 51 341 125 43 123 847 6243 1422510088 Thu 29Jan15 05:41:28 32 344 127 46 125 1143 6243 1422510165 Thu 29Jan15 05:42:45 18 346 131 51 126 1620 6243 1422510251 Thu 29Jan15 05:44:11 9 347 134 56 129 2192 6243 1422510341 Thu 29Jan15 05:45:41 2 347 138 61 132 2799 6243 1422510374 Thu 29Jan15 05:46:14 0 348 140 63 133 3029 6243 NOTE: predict indicates that the AOS is 05:32. I went with predict because it is old and very well know. I get very similar results with Orbitron and Nova for Windows, with a start time of 05:32. I get these results even when I set the PC internal clock back to January 29. 7. Here is FINDING OF INTEREST #2: Using GoSatWatch (my go-to prediction software in the field) and using the Keps from TODAY, I get an AOS of 05:16. (It is understandably a bit off due to the Keps being a little off.) This agrees with my extemporaneous notes and the timestamp of the MP3 file. 8. Here is FINDING OF INTEREST #3: David G0MRF very kindly provided this information using Keps from mid-March and Nova. It CONFIRMS my notes and MP3 file timestamp. I am not able to reproduce it. Here is a link to an annotated screen capture: http://screencast.com/t/76mfu9HLi 9. These results are inconclusive. I would LOVE to get predict to work properly with my observations. 10. My best theory: Daylight savings time confuses most satellite prediction software. GoSatWatch knows how to handle it. I wish I knew how to reproduce David's results with Nova. And I wish I could just get predict to work properly. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance and 73! -- bag Bryan KL7CN/W6

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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS Contacts
by AJ9N＠aol.com 06 Apr '15

06 Apr '15

Hi all, ARISS school contacts are performed on confidential uplink frequencies and all use the public downlink of 145.8 MHz. We incorporate multiple sets of confidential uplink frequencies just in case the primary is experiencing QRM. For obvious reasons, that is as much as I am going to tell you about the uplinks. The public uplink frequencies that are posted are for general contacts. We have had interference in the past that was accidental, some flat out deliberate, and some that would be considered deliberate. In some parts of the world, the 2m band is being illegally used by taxi cabs and who knows what else. Over the course of the years, we have had to move our uplink frequencies around due to the continued interference. Don't forget that the ISS can hear a lot more than those of us on earth. So what you may think is not a problem locally, could be a big time issue for the crew. Your footprint radius may be 100 km or so; theirs is about 2400 km. They sort of have a really nice antenna height. As for possible Field Day operation by the crew, that is anyone's guess. We tell the crew the dates and times and it is up to them to decide whether to participate or not. We can not make them participate. The only thing we can suggest is to listen and if you hear the ISS on during FD, then go for it. The same goes for just general listening. If you hear them, then go for it. You do need to be aware of the FM capture effect and do make use of Doppler correction. For the ARISS school contacts, we present a proposed list of times for the schools to prioritize so that we can give them to the ISS planners and hopefully have one get scheduled. Those times are in the 08:00 to 19:30 UTC timeframe. So that will give you an idea of when someone could possibly be on. Hope this helps a bit. Just remember that ham radio is only a guest on the ISS. 73, Charlie AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors In a message dated 4/6/2015 2:00:39 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, dan(a)post.com writes: Info on frequencies here. http://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html I think they also have a backup frequency that is not published. They have had interference on both uplink and downlink in the past possibly accidentally. The exact time of school contacts and normal downlink frequency is usually very well advertised in the country where the contact will take place. Sometimes, including one recent contact in Italy they actually re-attempted the contact at the next pass 90 minutes later as there was interference. They try throw lots of power and gain on the uplink in an attempt to drown out any accidental or low power interference. On 06/04/2015, Daniel Estévez <daniel(a)destevez.net> wrote: > El 06/04/15 a las 17:12, John Brier escribió: > >> fwiw, I do know not to interrupt during scheduled ARISS contacts. I >> was telling someone else who responded to me that it was a good thing >> they don't publish the uplink frequencies not only so people don't >> intentionally try to take advantage of the situation, but also so >> ignorant (and excitedly blind people like me) don't interfere. > > Sorry if this has been asked before, but are not the uplink frequencies > 145.20 for region 1 and 144.49 for regions 2 and 3? Or do they use > different uplink frequencies for scheduled contacts? _______________________________________________ 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://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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