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

Second pass VP2MKV
by Jim White 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

Second pass not as good as it should have been. We weren't hearing as well as we should have. N4ZQ XE1MEX WA4NVM AA5AK Tomorrow 1744 and 1925 passes Jim

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Re: [amsat-bb] satellite qso
by Jim White 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

HI John, Yes, you were the first. As listed in order in the previous email. That pass was mostly through the villa for the first half. Apparently the uplink was getting through it but the downlink was blocked. Next pass will be in the clear once it clears the volcano after about 4 minutes or so. The only stations worked were listed in the previous email. Sorry, we are are not going to take time to pass the grid. Just a waste of time in my view. We are in FK86vs, as posted on qrz.com / vp2mkv. We are pleased to give out Montserrat to as many unique calls as possible. We should be able to be on passes as listed on the qrz.com page for at least the next 4 days. We got a late start because our crate of antennas, which we paid to have sent directly to the villa, had to be ransomed out of customs, which took two days and hours and hours of time, two inches of documents, a lot of explaining, along with money. But it's all good now with 6 HF antennas up and a big 6 meter beam. Made a few 6 meter contacts yesterday, nothing today. Our 6 meter beacon board turned out not to be compatible with the keyer so we are not beaconing on 50.102 as previously advertised, but will be listening mostly on 50.125. Hoping for Europe tomorrow morning. HF has been noisy and weak signals until just the past few hours. Jim eOn 6/12/2015 1:26 PM, John Papay wrote: > Tim, > Thanks for getting on FO-29 from VP2M. And thanks for > letting everyone know where you would be transmitting. It > helped me find you since it was 29KHz up from the center > on receive. I heard Drew calling CQ near 850 at my AOS. > When I found you up at 879 I thought he might have already > worked you. But then I heard him work you much later. > > I gave you a long call because I thought you might not know > exactly where you were on receive. I was strong into the bird > but you weren't hearing me very well at first. Later on you > were hearing calls right away. I heard you finish with KB1RVT > at your LOS. I do have a recording which I will post. Did you > work any South Americans? Was I the first NA contact? > > The next pass should be very good for most of the US. I will be > calling you again but this time with K8YSE/7, my internet remotable > station in Mesa Arizona. It's a good idea to give your grid > square on the exchange. Although it is not rare, it's likely a > new one for many who will be trying to work you. > > Thanks very much for making the effort. A new country on the birds > is a big deal. > > 73, > John K8YSE > > > John Papay > john(a)papays.com >

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VP2MKV worked on FO-29
by Andrew Glasbrenner 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

Jim had a good signal, and worked right to his horizon. Uplink around .925. 73, Drew KO4MA Sent from my iPhone

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VP2MKV first contacts
by Jim White 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

First contacts a few minutes ago from VP2MKV. K8YSE AA9LC K3SZH KO4MA KB1PVH Heard KB1RVT at the end of the pass but did not complete. Please do not tune your uplink. Just use 145.925 as your uplink and we will tune for you. When stations slide around it makes it much harder to catch calls and wastes time. We will be on the next pass, which is much better for us with less volcano blockage. See QRZ.COM VP2MKV for details of the operation. Jim WD0E operating W0ETT as the human antenna rotor

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VB Audio Cable & Mixers
by Les Rayburn 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

With many of us moving towards SDR based receivers, RDS decoders and loggers, etc. there is increased need to route signals using Virtual Audio Cables. Wanted to make everyone aware of a free alternative to the more popular VAC application. VB Cable is "donation-ware" and works great. Their audio mixer is also a wonderful and visual GUI that makes complicated routing simpler for many since you can easily visualize the signal path. Give them a try! -- 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63 Member NRC, IRCA, & Medium Wave DX Circle Former CPC Chairman for NRC/IRCA ============================== FM DX Sony XDR-F1HD, Sangean HDT-1, Elad FDM-S2, AirSpy. Denon TU-1500RD w/Ray Dees RDS Decoder, FM6 Antenna with CM7777 Mast Pre-Amp, RG-11. "Nothing but blues and Elvis and somebody else's favorite song..." AM DX Elad FDM-S2, Wellbrook ALA1530+ Loop, Clifton Labs Active Whip, Superloop. Quantum Phaser, Kiwa Loop, Palstar MW Pre-Selector

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Bill Pasternak, RIP
by Clint Bradford 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

Bill passed away yesterday. For decades he brought Amateur Radio Newsline to the world. His unwavering support of everything "amateur radio" will never be matched. Clint Bradford K6LCS

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VP2MKV
by Jim White 12 Jun '15

12 Jun '15

We finally got the crate of antennas out of customs today and have the sat station set up. We expect to run the pass tomorrow that starts at 1837UTC and probably the one after. We will transmit on 145.925 and tune the passband for callers. Jim

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Re: [amsat-bb] Panoramic tour of ISS - Columbus Module with HAMTV tx!
by Cor PDØRKC 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

Spotting the amateur radio HAMTV transmitter. Blue box with the white stripes on the floor (hi!). 73s Cor PD0RKC Trevor M5AKA wrote, Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF worked on a project that shows the ISS in a new way: here's a sneak preview of the first module, Columbus. Can you spot amateur radio HAMTV transmitter ? http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Sta… The return to Earth of Samantha Cristoforetti IZ0UDF will be shown on NASA TV during Thursday, June 11. Amateur transmitters will be turned off during the day http://amsat-uk.org/2015/06/05/radio-ham-returns-to-earth/ The ISS launch of UK astronaut Tim Peake KG5BVI has been postponed until December 15, however, Andreas Mogensen KG5GCZ is still planned to fly on September 1, 2015. Some of you may remember meeting Andreas at the 2009 AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium. This year event takes place July 24-26, booking details are at http://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2015/ 73 Trevor M5AKA

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APRS Satellite in Los Alamitos needs voluntter?
by Robert Bruninga 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

Is there any HAM operator near Los Alamitos, Ca that can help test the next APRS Satellite being integrated there? All we need is someone to configure a radio to RX on 144.39 on a good outside antenna, and another radio to TX the audio on 145.825 (low power into a dummy load) near the spacecraft. This will provide some “traffic” on the 144.825 channel (low power) to make sure the spacecraft does not do anything weird when it begins to see user packets. I envision the volunteer to make a trip to the plant to set up this radio, and then come get it later after testing is complete. It will take two 2m radios and GOOD audio response so that packets do not degrade as they are retransmitted on 145.825. The trick will be giving it a high enough receive antenna so that it can hear plenty of source packets, and then to have the other TX on low power and into a dummy load placed near the spacecraft so that the 145.825 repeated packets don’t QRM the satellite channel outside the building. Anyway, it is a challenge, but critical to making sure this APRS satellite is flight ready? Anyone feel up to contributing some time and effort to the next APRS satellite? Bob, WB4aPR

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FUNcube at Goonhilly
by M5AKA 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

Today's BBC TV News features Dr Chris Bridges 2E0OBC who was explaining about the FUNcube-1 CubeSat and FUNcube Dongle SDR at the Goonhilly Space Operations training event. Chris appears at 0:33 into the report. Watch the BBC video at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33090284 The Generation of VLF Emissions by Meteors http://amsat-uk.org/2015/06/09/the-generation-of-vlf-emissions-by-meteors/ This year's AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium takes place July 24-26, booking details are at http://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2015/ 73 Trevor M5AKA ---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK ----

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