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

CM94/CM95 this afternoon
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 12 Jul '15

12 Jul '15

Hi! I will work some passes from the CM94sx/CM95sa grid boundary near Santa Maria CA this afternoon. At 2100 UTC, I will be on SO50, then will try to work passes through the 0035 UTC FO29 pass. I may try for some evening passes, depending on how I feel. I have a 500-mile drive tomorrow, and need to get out of here early (and also reach DM23/DM24 in Arizona for at least a pass or two). I will also try the 2040 UTC ISS pass over the west coast, if anyone out here wants to try for a packet QSO on this line. Still using Twitter to post updates, and photos too. More to come this afternoon. Use this link if you aren't a Twitter user: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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NO84 telemetry
by Steve Kristoff 12 Jul '15

12 Jul '15

Has anyone else been decoding telemetry from NO84? I keep getting values around 200 degrees for Battery Temperature. I'm no aerospace engineer, but that seems a little warm for a battery floating around in space. Your thoughts are appreciated. Steve Kristoff AI9IN EM79ji skristof(a)etczone.com

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BPSK demodulators?
by Ken Swaggart 12 Jul '15

12 Jul '15

Are there any other 1200 baud BPSK demodulators available other than Warbler.jar? Ken, W7KKE

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ANS-193 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 12 Jul '15

12 Jul '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-193 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * DeorbitSail Launch Information * AMSAT Field Day Submission Deadline 13 July 2015 * AMSAT Featured on Live W5KUB.com Tuesday, July 14 Webcast * International Space Colloquium at Guildford * ARISS Challenge Coin * Delfi-C3 RASCAL Update Necessary for New Server IP Address * CAMSAT Launch Postponement SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-193.01 ANS-193 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 193.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. July 12, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-193.01 DeorbitSail Launch Information The CubeSat DeorbitSail built by researchers and radio amateurs at the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford carries a 1200 bps BPSK beacon on 145.975 MHz. The satellite was successfully launched at 1628 UT on Friday, July 10. DeorbitSail is a 3U CubeSat sized satellite with a deployable sail that will demonstrate rapid deorbiting. Chris Bridges 2E0OBC writes: Dear AMSAT’ers, CubeSat’ers, Friends, Please find attached exclusive details of a UK CubeSat called DeorbitSail flying out tomorrow evening on PSLV. Please feel free to distribute to other hams that can help out. This contains all the info you should need including: • Initial TLE • DeorbitSail Flyer > Launch details, etc. • Predicted first packet transmission on 145.975 MHz, 1k2 BPSK -> we predict to be over Russia in the evening. First packets sent in will get a Signed Certificate of thanks from the team! If you have any telemetry or TLE/frequency information, please send it to me and/or to deorbitsail.messages(a)gmail.com so we can quickly learn our satellite state. Any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! 73 Chris 2E0OBC DEORBITSAIL 1 55554U 58056A 15191.72643157 .00000000 00000-0 +13828-4 0 335 2 55554 97.9842 81.0881 0007584 273.9578 86.0949 14.75593446209360 Follow @SpaceAtSurrey on Twitter Deorbitsail website http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/research/space_vehicle_control/deorbitsail/ ISRO PSLV-C28 / DMC3 Mission http://www.isro.gov.in/launcher/pslv-c28-dmc3-mission [ANS thanks Chris 2E0OBC, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Field Day Submission Deadline 13 July 2015 For those of you that only worked one or two stations on the satellite or if you worked 10, 20, 50 or more stations, please still submit your scores for Field Day. Although the form online at http://www.amsat.org (click on the Events tab and then the Field Day link) is in PDF format, you can copy and paste the submission portion into Word (amazing how they migrate back and forth). Or you can download the DOCX file from http://www.amsatnet.com/fd2015.docx Please remember that ARRL submissions are due much later than our submission date. Your submission must be received by 11:59 PM Central Time on July 13, 2015 (Monday). That will leave less than a week to tabulate and write the article for the Journal. Please include any pictures that will show off your field day site. We have had flamingos, long horn steers, clocks running on lemons, campers, ladder towers and all kinds of neat stuff in the past. You will receive confirmation that your submission was received, usually sometime that day. If you do not receive confirmation, please send to the other email address, or send to both at the same time. kk5do(a)arrl.net kk5do(a)amsat.org [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Featured on Live W5KUB.com Tuesday, July 14 Webcast Join hosts Ted Randall, WB8PUM, and Tom Medlin, W5KUB, on the live ham show Tuesday, July 14, at 8:00 PM CT on W5KUB.com. In addition to watching on w5kub.com, this show is simulcast on powerful shortwave station WTWW on 5085 KHz. Call-in phone lines are open during the show. Guests this week include AMSAT Vice President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY and Vice President Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA. Jerry and Drew will talk about the latest AMSAT information: + Fox-1A launch coming this fall + Operational satellites + AMSAT's future opportunities The webcast window and an accompanying chat room for the show are on Tom's web page: http://w5kub.com/ If you wish to get on the chat room you'll need to pre-register with Tom's site. When you get to W5KUB.com the chat room should open automatically. Or, you can click on the icon at the bottom right of Tom's page. Select "new user". Many use their call sign for their username. The webcast is recorded and is available a day or so later if you miss the live show. [ANS thanks Tom Medlin, W5KUB for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Colloquium at Guildford The AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium will be held on July 24- 26 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK. Among the speakers will be: • Peter Guelzow DB2OS with an update on AMSAT-DL projects, including the Phase 4 satellite • Chris Brunskill, formerly of Surrey Space Centre (SSC), now working at the Space Catapult at the Harwell Campus. He will be presenting an extremely novel project aimed at schools and education • It is hoped the BATC will be able to demonstrate live Digital TV reception from the International Space Station, using the Ham TV system • Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA, from AMSAT North America will be attending, and presenting the latest news of the FOX satellite(s) due for launch later this year, and also on their Phase 4 project The Colloquium is open to all further information is at http://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS Challenge Coin The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program is announcing a brand new ARISS Challenge Coin that will be a thank you memento to donors who give to ARISS. The beautiful coin will be a keepsake to treasure. The ARISS program relies on resource support from NASA, ARRL, AMSAT, and individual donors to ensure continuing the day-to-day operations and communications, and to pay for space-flight certification of equipment. Current finances to sustain operations in future years are insufficient. The ARISS program is initiating a fundraising campaign with the goal of securing greater financial stability for the program. According to ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, “To assure the future of the program we are looking to individuals and corporate sponsors to provide the resources we will need to sustain operations and to acquire needed equipment upgrades.” Plans are underway to develop a new higher power Amateur Radio station for the ISS Columbus module. The current radio is a lower power unit that sometimes results in weak signals. A new radio system will improve the communications for education groups whose students are scheduled for ARISS contacts and related educational activities. The new system will also allow greater interoperability between the Columbus Module and the Russian Service Module. Integration of the equipment into the ISS infrastructure and required testing and certification require hours of engineering resources that ARISS must pay for and cannot afford. Each ARISS contact offers the opportunity to inspire young people through ARISS’ unique window into space exploration activities, opening the horizon of possibilities of a career in a STEM field. Each contact also introduces students and their communities to Amateur Radio—all positives for Amateur Radio and our country and world. ARISS needs your help to secure these opportunities for the future. Individuals may make donations to ARISS online at www.amsat.org by selecting the “Donate ARISS” button. (AMSAT-NA will provide people resources to handle your gifts to ARISS.) Individuals contributing $100 US or more will receive the brand new ARISS Challenge Coin. Corporate donors may contact Frank Bauer at KA3HDO(a)verizon.net or ARISS(a)arrl.org. [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Delfi-C3 RASCAL Update Necessary for New Server IP Address Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG, reported this week that due to security and maintenance reasons the Delfi-C3 team had to migrate the Delfi-C3 telemetry server to a new environment. This change also required that the IP address for uploading data needed to change. This means your server settings in RASCAL need to be updated to: New IP: 131.180.122.144 Port: 1099 On July 9 Wouter reported, "The migration has been completed almost without a problem. We still have some minor issues to sort out. Telemetry submission is operating normally but the database performance seems slow. This makes processing more difficult on our end. New user accounts cannot be created but new users can successfully submit received data via the 'guest' account." The team reports that Delfi-C3 is doing great. They have long exceeded the design lifetime of the satellite and she continues to work well. They appreciate your help in acquiring data of Delfi-C3 and hope that you continue to track their "old" bird in the future as well! [ANS thanks Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG and the Delfi-C3 team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMSAT Launch Postponement A launch postponement has been announced for Beijing’s new CZ-6 rocket which is planned to carry a constellation of amateur radio satellites. Soon to be launched six CAMSAT satellites CAS-3A to F have now been named as XW-2 (Hope-2) amateur satellite system, and correspond to the XW-2A to F. All the satellites have completed environmental testing, currently being burn-in tests, everything is underway. The satellites will be moved to the launch center in mid-August and launch date has been postponed to early September. [ANS thanks Alan, BA1DU, for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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New Edited Video of ISS Kopernik Contact from Yesterday
by John Brier 12 Jul '15

12 Jul '15

Video from my reception of the International Space Station (ISS) contact with Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, New York July 10th, 2015, as received in Raleigh, North Carolina on top of a landfill park. http://youtu.be/LGFEanljOG8 John Brier, KG4AKV

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DeorbitSail identified
by Nico Janssen 11 Jul '15

11 Jul '15

All, Using detailed doppler shift measurements, I find that DeorbitSail is object 40719, 2015-032E, without any doubt. 73, Nico PA0DLO

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DeorbitSat - Warbler vs SoundModem comparison
by Ken Swaggart 11 Jul '15

11 Jul '15

During the 1940Z pass, 7 degrees max elevation over the Pacific, I ran both Warbler and SoundModem ver 0.83b. SoundModem captured slightly more than twice the frames that Warbler captured ( 14 vs 6). I did have to un-tick the non-AX.25 filter option in the SoundModem settings for BPSK AX.25 1200 baud. Thanks to all the responses to my BPSK demodulator query. 73, Ken, W7KKE

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CM86, now!
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 11 Jul '15

11 Jul '15

Hi! I am in Santa Cruz CA, in grid CM86xw, ready to work passes for the next 4+ hours, starting with the ISS at 1956 UTC (please use APRS messaging to work me). I may be able to make another try for CM96 later. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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Re: [amsat-bb] Handheld for LEO satellites?
by Steve Kristoff 11 Jul '15

11 Jul '15

The Alinco DJ-G7 claims to be full-duplex capable. Anybody have thoughts on that radio? Steve AI9IN skristof(a)etczone.com On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 1:11 PM, D. Craig Fox <DFox(a)rwglaw.com> wrote: > All of the foregoing responses express valid approaches. One thing to keep > in mind if going the HT approach, is the long term reliability of the > radio. The fact that there are still so many Icoms, Kenwoods, Yaesus out > there is evidence of their long term reliability. Perhaps the inexpensive > Chinese radios will stand the test of time- maybe not. But for very little > more than the cost of two of the new cheap radios, you can have a full > duplex HT. As others have said, there is no real substitute for hearing > your downlink. I happen to like my full duplex Kenwood D7 because of its > on board TNC giving me the ability to communicate through the ISS > digipeater as I point my elk antenna while watching it go by. Way cool > experience. > > If you get really bitten by the sat bug like most of us, you will > eventually want a full duplex, all function transceiver to enable you to > work the linear (rd: low stress, high fun) satellites. Consider saving up > for that instead. > > Just my $.02 > > Craig > N6RSX > > > > NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential > information. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, > or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to > the intended recipient, please advise the sender by reply email and > immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or > disclosing the contents. Thank you. > _______________________________________________ > 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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Is it possible to us both SatPC32 & Dx Labs-Suite with IC910H ?
by Bob KD7YZ 11 Jul '15

11 Jul '15

Before I give up and sell any Sat gear I have, I thought I'd ask if there is anyone USING an IC910H, SatPC32 and also reading/logging the UpLink and DownLink frequencies with DxLabs Commander. For many. many months I have wasted countless hours trying to get that combination to work together. SatPc32 with flawlessly control the rotors and the IC910H. DxLabs Suite Commander will pretty-well control the IC910H. If I try to use VSP Manager or Virtual Serial Port emulator to allow both controlling programs to use the IC910H, it simply will not function. Thus if I want to work the Sats, after each QSO I have to write down the uplink and downlink QRG , times, and such, so I can later log the QSO by typing it into the computer. It's a bit overwhelming to log when I often get a few calls for a semi-rare State, Kentucky. I seriously could use some help to set these programs to make the IC910H play the game. thanks (hopefully) 73, -- Bob KD7YZ http://www.qrz.com/db/kd7yz AMSAT LM#901

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