January 2016 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

XE2AT (and also KX9X/5) on 1440 UTC SO-50 pass this morning...
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

Hi! It was nice to hear XE2AT on SO-50 during the 1440 UTC pass this morning. It has been almost 5 years since I logged a satellite QSO with Alvaro, and he used to be among the most prolific of Mexican satellite operators who worked from different grids in that country. In fact, Alvaro (as XE2YVW, his original call sign) was my first satellite contact back in 2000, via SO-35. I'm glad his encounter with the police last night didn't leave him without gear for this morning. I heard Alvaro tell Clayton W5PFG that was "working on more". I hope he is, as it will be nice to hear more grids on the air from Mexico once again. XE2AT, and initially as XE2YVW, has put many Mexican grids on the satellites over many years. The 1440 UTC SO-50 pass came up from the southwest, and went directly over Arizona. I was happy to work XE2AT early in the pass, once the satellite cleared a house and some trees to my southwest. After I worked him, I heard XE2AT acknowledge 7 other stations with their full call signs - KC7MG, XE1AO, AA5PK, W5PFG, NP4JV, W5CBF, and XE2BHL. I heard Alvaro try to answer one station twice with partial call signs after working XE2BHL, a different partial call each time. Unfortunately, I did not hear XE2AT after the midpoint of the pass here, which meant he wasn't able to work stations for the last 4 to 5 minutes he would have had on that pass. I also heard Sean KX9X/5 working from the Vicksburg Military Park in Mississippi. Thanks for picking me up, Sean! In the last few minutes I had on that pass, I heard Sean get several stations for his log. It will be nice to see another NPOTA site show up in LOTW. :-) XE2AT has used LOTW in the past, although I have never received an LOTW QSL from him for any of our satellite QSOs. Omar XE1AO said that Alvaro can confirm QSOs via LOTW, so it will be nice if these grids show up in there. I know XE2AT has been good answering my QSL requests sent to his PO box over the years, and I'll mail Alvaro a QSL card with SASE. If anyone else wants to send XE2AT a QSL card with an SASE, I have lots of Mexican postage stamps. Please e-mail me directly, or send me a direct message in Twitter, and I can get some stamps out to you. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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SatPC32 CAT control and HDSDR via VSPE
by Tom Schuessler 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

Hello all, Not having a good satellite capable radio (Yet) but wanting to dabble deeper in to our world of satellite communications, I have been experimenting with CAT control of the SDR program HDSDR via the CAT interface from SatPC32 through the Virtual Serial Port Emulator (VSPE). VSPE has an option to create a serial port "Pair" of ports. In this case, you have to assign one port of the pair to SatPC32 and in HDSDR's CAT to HDSDR options, you match the baud rate in HDSDR and SatPC32 but assign the other half of the pair. Cool thing is it allows HDSDR tuning to affect the frequency listed in it's downlink window while continue to track Doppler shift adjustments provided from SatPC32. This is pretty cool. Well I have an interesting question which may relate as much to the way SatPC32's CAT control window works as much as it relates to this Virtual serial port thing. The above mentioned ability to tune SatPC323 from HDSDR works wonderfully on Linear transponder (LSB/USB) modes but not the same on FM modes like Lilacsat-2, SO-50 and AO-85. In these cases, shifting the frequency on HDSDR does NOT change the SatPC32 display and in a few seconds, HDSDR snaps back to the CAT controlled frequency. Now the difference of course in SatPC32 CAT adjustment window is the inability to shift and store the changes in frequency, or even just shift them in FM mode like one can do with Linear sat frequencies. Am I missing something here or is this just a built in feature of SatPC323 that I will need to work around by providing more appropriate Doppler.SQF setups that work for me as opposed to somebody else? Anybody who has played with this please drop me a note or share your experiences via the list so more people can lear. Thanks, Tom Schuessler 2713 Lake Gardens Drive Irving, Texas 75060 972-986-7456 214-403-1464 (Cell) n5hyp(a)arrl.net

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RX and decoding 1K2 BPSK Satellites
by Vincenzo Mone 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

Please anybody can tell me which program to use to catch and decode the 1k2BPSK Satellites trough SDRSharp? Thanks Enzo 73's de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ********************************** ******* GSM +39 328 7110193 ******* ****** SMS +39 328 7110193 ****** *** 2nd e-mail: vimone(a)tin.it *** *********************************

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ANS-031 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-031 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: * Weekly engineering report for Phase 4 radio project from AMSAT * Write About Satellites, Space and Radio! * UFO Researcher To Launch CubeSat To Search For E.T. Close To Home * Pair of Satellites ejected from ISS for In-Space Navigation Exercise * LilacSat-2 FM Transponder * 6W8CK on Satellite * IARU Paper: APRS Harmonization and removal of OSCAR sub-band * ISS Orbit Boosted Ahead of March Crew Swap - Check Your Elements * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-031.01 ANS-031 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 031.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. [MONTH DAY, YEAR] To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-031.01 Weekly engineering report for Phase 4 radio project from AMSAT The Phase 4 Ground weekly report focuses on the current modulation schemes. We're looking at DVB-S2X to receive, and OQPSK to transmit. Repository for documents and software can be found: https://github.com/phase4ground We have nearly 50 volunteers on the mailing list and activity across the country. We're working hard to make a wonderful radio for AMSAT and terrestrial microwave, and we appreciate your support, feedback, comments, and critique. DVB-S2 stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite - Second Generation. There is a recent extension to this standard, called DVB- S2X, that has very low SNR capabilities and a lot of other goodies. The geo project, ascent, and eventually the high earth orbit project, are expected to transmit using DVB-S2X. This is the foundation of our common air interface. DVB-S2X specifies the modulation and coding for our received signal. There are five major landmarks. One, an input stream adapter. Input streams can be packetized or continuous, from single or multiple sources. This is helpful! Two, forward error correction. Our type is low density parity check codes concatenated with BCH codes. What does this mean? A concatenated code is one that combines two different coding schemes. In coding theory, there's a fundamental problem in that finding a really great code that has very low probability of error usually means that the block length has to go up, and the decoding is more and more complex. When you use two codes together that each have particular strengths, they balance each other out. You can get exponentially decreasing error probabilities, but you only have to pay a polynomially increasing cost in terms of code block length. This may seem complicated, but just remember concatenation is codes doing teamwork, and the standard that we're using is bad ass. Our inner low density parity check code can achieve extremely low error rates near channel capacity. This means, it's about as good as you can get. The outer BCH codes are used to correct sporadic errors made by the LDPC decoder, and to trick it out so that we don't have enormous block lengths and stuff like that. Three, we have a wide range of code rates. The code rate is expressed as a fraction. The top number is how many uncoded bits go in. The bottom number is how many coded bits come out. We have four constellations. This is the the type of transformation from bits to symbols. We have great choices here, and DVB-S2X provides additional choices. Four, there is a variety of spectral shaping available to us in DVB- S2. This is a really neat thing. You can change the pulse shape of a transmitted waveform in order to make it better suited for the radio environment it's expecting to be traveling through. Usually this means making it fit into a bandwidth better. You don't get something for nothing, though, so being too aggressive with the pulse shaping shows up in other aspects. Our particular shaping is different levels of raised-cosign filtering. DVB-S2X provides additional levels of shaping. Five, this standard lets us learn and develop with something very much like cognitive radio. As you can see, there are a lot of choices for coding and modulation. We can specify a fixed coding and modulation. This is called CCM for constant coding and modulation. In the past, people like us looked at a link, designed for the worst case solution, and used coding and modulation that would cover almost all the bases. DVB-S2 has CCM, but it also specifies something called variable coding and modulation, or VCM. The coding and modulation can be changed on a frame-by-frame basis in response to different station types or changes in the channel. In addition to that, there is something called adaptive coding and modulation, or ACM, where modulation and coding automagically adapts. This can happen on a frame by frame basis. DVB-S2 has things called annexes. In annex M, there's a specification for something we've already talked about wanting to do. We want to map the transmitted services or station streams into time slices and then recover information without having to demodulate the entire signal. DVB-S2 follows the usual flow of having input data coded up to remove unnecessary redundancy, which is called source coding, and then it is put into one of two different stream types. Because DVB-S2 is designed for MPEG streams, it has a lot of mechanisms for MPEG data types, and I believe that this is the transport stream path in the drawing. We aren't going to use MPEG, so we fall into the generic stream category. The functional blocks of DVB-S2 include these things in trapezoids. Mode adaptation, which starts to build up the data frames by constructing the right header to go with the data. Stream adaptation, which adds in the right amount of padding and scrambling. Forward error correction, which produces coded frames that are of one of two sizes. Mapping to constellations, which is the modulation. Finally, there is physical layer framing. An open question is how minimal of a station can be supported? Driving it down as low as possible is going to be fun and challenging. What we are anticipating is that the space teams will obtain an implementation of a DVB-S2X transmitter. Talks are already underway for this. Phase 4 ground is going to engineer the various DVB-S2X receivers. Standards documents are already in the repository and work is beginning. Get off the bench and hit the books! So let's talk a bit about some changes in the uplink for phase 4 radios. We were MSK, or minimum shift keying, but we are now OQPSK, or offset quadrature phase shift keying. That is what the payload team is currently designing for. Like MSK, Offset QPSK has no more than a 90 degree phase shift at a time. This is good. In order to create this, you begin with a QPSK signal, where you take two data bits at a time. These two binary data bits make four distinct values. Each of these values are mapped onto four transmit phase shifts. For offset QPSK, the odd and even bits coming into the modulator have a timing offset, of one bit period. Hence the name. That means the in-phase and quadrature signals, the I and the Q, never change at the same time. The power spectral density of QPSK and Offset QPSK is the same. The shift in time doesn't effect that. Uplink experiments are beginning. We started putting together Team HackRF, which will investigate the use of HackRF SDRs as one of the phase 4 radio recipes. Lots of other experiments to work out other recipes for amateurs to experiment need to happen too. If you have a set of hardware and you want to work in parallel, then speak up. The USRPs will get into the act ASAP, some people have BladeRFs, and so on. Review the weekly report at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0CMv0pJHgY&feature=share [ANS thanks Michelle W5NYV for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Write About Satellites, Space and Radio! The AMSAT Journal is seeking interesting articles about amateur radio satellites, space and radio – topics that feed the passion of AMSAT members. Whether the focus is working the birds, new products, building a new piece of equipment or an entire station, writing software, training or doing demos, or anything else related to amateur radio in space, please consider sharing your experience and expertise with other AMSAT members by writing for the Journal. Desired article length (rough guidelines): Short articles – 800-1400 words Longer articles – 2000-2500 words Find out more about writer’s guidelines here. Photos, diagrams or other images always help illustrate your points or projects. If you are interested in seeing your byline in The AMSAT Journal and sharing what you’ve learned with other members, email us at journal(a)amsat.org. [ANS thanks Joseph KB6IGK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- UFO Researcher To Launch CubeSat To Search For E.T. Close To Home An engineer turned UFO researcher is hoping to launch a low-earth orbit CubeSat to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Canadian Dave Cote has assembled a seven-person team to design, fund, build and launch the project that he hopes will provide some answers about the origins of recent unidentified object sightings across the globe. “We have had astronauts, military personnel, police officers and the former Defence Minister of Canada come forward stating that extraterrestrial UFOs are real, and that we are being visited,” says Cote. “How can this be ignored and brushed off as nonsense?” Concerned that the public isn’t getting straight answers, the group has turned to crowdsourcing the project on Kickstarter. Measuring roughly the size of a shoebox, CubeSats can pack a lot of science equipment into a small space. They have also made satellite deployment much more affordable, in some cases costing less than the price of a lower-end automobile. Sites like CubeSatShop.com have taken much of the complexity out of ordering needed components. Cote says they’re a “go for launch” already but are looking for more funding so they can pack it with as much science equipment as possible. They aim to include image, infrared, electromagnetic, and radiation sensors. This would give them the capability of not only verifying visual data, but also correlating it with other events such as electromagnetic and radioactive fluctuations. The team plans to measure ionized radiation with a scintillation counter and two cameras will capture a near 360-degree view around the CubeSat. They plan to remove the infrared filters on the cameras to cover more of the visual range. Cote hopes to use amateur radio frequencies to transmit the data back to earth and a worldwide network of ham volunteers to receive it. “We are planning to use the ham frequencies to send data down from the CubeSat to earth in hex or datafax protocol,” says Cote. “From what we understand, we should be able to send a 100kB packet every few minutes and this will enable us to send image thumbnails from space, along with some basic EM data.” While the details of the transmissions have yet to be determined, Cote hopes to assemble a worldwide team of hams willing to receive and log whatever data the satellite captures. “We need help from the ham community, in capturing the data and relaying it to our site,” he says. “There will be a 15-minute window for download from the CubeSat, and then another volunteer would be needed for the next 15-minute time window.” Cote is cautiously optimistic that the satellite will provide corroboration of UFO reports from eyewitnesses on Earth. But even if the satellite doesn’t capture evidence of faraway visitors, he’s hopeful that it will record interesting natural phenomenon like meteors and solar flares. “We can only hope that those who would like to know the truth will step forward and help,” he says. To learn more about the project or to volunteer, visit their KickStarter page. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1889966504/cubesat-for-disclosure [ANS thanks Matt W1MST and AmateurRadio.com for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Pair of Satellites ejected from ISS for In-Space Navigation Exercise A package of two satellites was ejected from the International Space Station on Friday to begin a mission dedicated to a demonstration of autonomous navigation, rendezvous and docking technology. The second LONESTAR mission is comprised of two satellites built by two American Universities to undertake a demonstration of communication cross links, data exchange, GPS-based navigation, relative navigation, stationkeeping and data transmission to the ground. LONESTAR stands for "Low Earth Orbiting Navigation Experiment for Spacecraft Testing Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking" and includes four missions flown over a period of years in a cost-effective technology development program with the goal of mastering autonomous rendezvous and docking. The second LONESTAR mission consists of the AggieSat4 satellite built at Texas A&M and BEVO-2 built by students at the University of Texas. The smaller BEVO-2 satellite is facilitated within a deployer on the AggieSat4 spacecraft to be released once the two have flown well clear of the International Space Station. The two satellites, already packaged, were sent to the Space Station aboard the Cygnus OA-4 mission. Launching satellites to ISS for deployment has the advantage of allowing the satellites to be launched well-packaged to avoid damage and providing the opportunity of an inspection in space to check for any damage encountered during launch before committing them to flight. Given the size of the AggieSat4 satellite, the deployment conducted on Friday made use of the SSIKLOPS deployment mechanism, going by the full name "Space Station Integrated Kinetic Launcher for Orbital Payload Systems." SSIKLOPS can be used to deploy larger satellites of different shapes up to a mass of 110 Kilograms. It is a flat structure that includes grapple fixtures for the robotic arms of the Space Station and a single grapple fixture for the satellite that is to be deployed. The fixture includes clamps and springs for the deployment of the satellite. Overall, the structure is 127 by 61 by 7.6 centimeters in size. It also includes interfaces for the slide table of the JEM Airlock. SSIKLOPS first saw action in 2014 when deploying the SpinSat spacecraft and spent most of its time in storage aboard ISS, awaiting the deployment of future satellites. Final preparations for Friday's deployment were made on Wednesday when ISS Astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Peake installed the SSIKLOPS deployer on the Slide Table of the Kibo module's airlock followed by the installation of the Small Fine Arm (SFA) Plate on the deployer and the attachment of the LONESTAR satellite package. The slide table was then retracted and the airlock sealed off for depressurization on Thursday. The outer hatch of the airlock was opened and a careful ground- controlled operation started to retrieve the SSIKLOPS deployer and hand it from the Small Fine Arm to the Japanese Robotic Arm that was then positioned for the deployment to ensure the satellite departed to the correct direction, ruling out any possibility of re-contact with ISS on subsequent orbits. Release was triggered just before 16:00 UTC on Friday and the LONESTAR package slowly floated away from ISS, embarking on its mission that will last as long as the satellites can remain in orbit, typically between six and twelve months. Drifting away from the Space Station, LONESTAR showed slight body rates on all three axes as it slowly faded into the distance. The Mission Team confirmed they were happy with the observed body rates and declared the deployment a success. Congratulations were exchanged between the different teams involved in the deployment - NASA's Mission Control, the JAXA Control Center in Japan, Payload Controllers in Huntsville and the payload's operators in Texas. The spacecraft was programmed to power-up automatically ten minutes after release, perform a health check and start transmitting telemetry. Acquisition of signal was expected later on Friday to begin a multi-day checkout campaign ahead of the satellite conducting its de-tumble maneuver to enter a three-axis stabilized attitude setting up for the deployment of BEVO-2. The AggieSat4 satellite, developed and manufactured at Texas A&M University, has a mass of approximately 55 Kilograms and measures 75 x 75 x 35 centimeters in size. The satellite hosts body-mounted solar panels for power generation and is equipped with a three-axis attitude determination and control system with an actuation accuracy of two degrees, making use of reaction wheels and magnetic torquers. The Electrical Power System hosts two battery packs delivering an operational voltage of 34 V and a capacity of 95 Watt-hours. AggieSat4 hosts two low-data-rate (LDR) radios, a high-data-rate (HDR) radio, a crosslink radio for short-range communication with the Bevo-2 satellite, and a DRAGON GPS Payload. AggieSat4 will be tasked with completing a number of mission objectives: demonstrating three-axis stabilization, the collection of GPS data, recording video of the release of BEVO-2 with a 2MP camera, computing and crosslinking relative navigation data based on relative GPS measurements and tracking BEVO-2 based on these navigation solutions. The 4.2-Kilogram BEVO-2 satellite uses the 3U CubeSat Form Factor, 10 x 10 x 34 centimeters, employing an ISIPOD for deployment from AggieSat4. The satellite features 24 solar cells installed on its external panels to deliver power to 6 batteries operating at a voltage of 7.4 V. BEVO-2 has four deployable radio antennas and GPS patch antennas. Attitude determination is accomplished with gyroscopes, magnetometers, a star tracker and sun sensor while attitude actuation employs reaction wheels and magnetic torquers. To connect with AggieSat4 for the exchange of navigation data, the spacecraft hosts a crosslink radio unit while communications with the ground make use of a UHF/VHF terminal for data downlink and command uplink. The satellite is outfitted with a cold gas thruster module holding 90 grams of Dupont R-236fa refrigerant stored at pressure to be released for maneuvers of the satellite for stationkeeping and rendezvous exercises with AggieSat4. As the second of four LONESTAR missions, AggieSat4 and BEVO-2 build on the success of the previous mission in 2009 as part of a program outlined to make successive progress towards the ultimate goal of achieving an autonomous rendezvous and docking of two satellites. The autonomy aspect of LONESTAR is of particular importance for future missions to distant targets where communication delays require spacecraft to act autonomously. [ANS thanks spaceflight101.com for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- LilacSat-2 FM Transponder Paul Stoetzer reports: "I have noticed that LilacSat-2's FM transponder has been on nearly continuously for the past four days They may be keeping it active continuously during the holiday period in China. It's worth checking out if you haven't worked it yet. It's got a good signal and can be easier to track than SO-50 because the carrier stays active for a period when not receiving signals. The downlink antenna also uses circular polarization, so there is less fading when using linear antennas than on SO-50. Uplink: 144.350 MHz FM (No PL) Downlink: 437.200 MHz FM Keep in mind that this uplink frequency is not within the normal 145.800 - 146.000 MHz satellite subband on two meters, though this frequency is within the 144.300 - 144.500 MHz "New OSCAR subband" in the ARRL band plan and is allocated to the Amateur Satellite Service (as is the entirety of 144 - 146 MHz). On passes over the United States, quite a few packet signals can be heard through the transponder. If you use LoTW, the satellite name to use when uploading QSOs is 'CAS-3H.' [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6W8CK on Satellite Conrad, 6W8CK, will be active on satellites from IK14 near Mbour, Senegal until mid-February. He does not wish to publish his private email, but is interested in skeds with North American stations who are in range. If you are interested in setting up a sked, please look up your mutual windows and email me. I will contact Conrad with a list of operators and mutual windows. He will try to be active on CW near 145.930 on AO-7 and 435.830 on FO-29 during the afternoons, but may also be available on late night / early morning passes for skeds. Conrad is using a Yaesu FT-736R and an Elk antenna mounted up 5 meter above ground. He does occasionally lose power, so keep this in mind if you do not hear him on a particular pass. QSL only via the DARC bureau to his home call, DF7OL. He may also return to Senegal from November 2016 - February 2017. [ANS thanks Paul, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Paper: APRS Harmonization and removal of OSCAR sub-band IARU Region 1 has released the papers for the Interim Meeting to be held in Vienna April 15-17, 2016. Among the papers for the C5 VHF/UHF/Microwave Committee is one on harmonizing APRS. VIE16_C5_41_1.pdf – 144 /435 MHz APRS Harmonisation The paper covers global band planning considerations and among the recommendations says: Emphasise that spaceborne APRS must be confined to globally coordinated amateur satellite sub bands. Therefore items that are ambiguous and generate confusion in national band plans such as ‘Space communications’ and ‘New Oscar Sub band’ should be removed as soon as possible in all Regions in accordance with IARU-AC and Satellite Coordination guidance It is believed that ‘New Oscar Sub band’ refers to the USA’s ARRL 144 MHz band plan and ‘Space communications’ to the Australian WIA 144 MHz band plan. These band plans, as well as those for some other countries, show 144.300 – 144.500 MHz as being for Amateur Satellite use. Direct link for C5 VHF/UHF/Microwave Papers http://tinyurl.com/ANS031-Microwave Links for all committee papers and email addresses of Committee Chairs are at http://tinyurl.com/ANS031-IARU ARRL 144 MHz Band Plan http://www.arrl.org/band-plan WIA 144 MHz Band Plan http://tinyurl.com/ANS031-APRS [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISS Orbit Boosted Ahead of March Crew Swap - Check Your Elements The International Space Station raised its orbit Wednesday afternoon before a pair of crews swap places and a cargo ship arrives in March. One-year crew members Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos are set to return home March 1 along with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov. Then, Expedition 47 will begin and three new crew members will arrive March 19. New supplies are scheduled to be delivered to the crew March 31 aboard a Progress 63 cargo craft. The orbiting Expedition 46 crew was back at work Tuesday on a series of life science and physics experiments to benefit life on Earth and crews living in space. Commander Scott Kelly explored maximizing the effects of exercise in space while British astronaut Tim Peake studied how living in space affects using touch-based technologies, repairing sensitive equipment and a variety of other tasks. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra researched how materials burn in space. Two cosmonauts resized their Russian Orlan spacesuits today, checked them for leaks and set up hardware before next week’s maintenance spacewalk. Flight Engineers Sergey Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko will work outside Feb. 3 in their Orlan suits to install hardware and science experiments on the orbital lab’s Russian segment. [ANS thanks blogs.nasa,gov for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between Brihaspati Vidyasadan, Kathmandu, Nepal and Astronaut Timothy Peake KG5BVI using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2016-01-20 08:37 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was telebridge via VK5ZAI. ARISS Mentor was 7M3TJZ. This event represents the 984th ARISS contact. A YouTube video of the evnt can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25gCS1JTPxA Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-01-27 Christ The King School, Rutland, Vermont, telebridge via VK4KHZ) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS. The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN Contact is a go for: Thu 2016-02-04 18:28:16 UTC "Gesmundo Moro Fiore" Secondary School, Terlizzi, Italy, telebridge via LU1CGB. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS. The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI. Contact is a go for: Sat 2016-02-06 09:09:01 UTC [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Congrats to Steve Kristoff, AI9IN, for having worked 5 hams in the EM55 grid. To earn 5 in EM55 award #59, please check out http://www.starcommgroup.org for the awards offered. [ANS thanks Damon Runion, WA4HFN, for the above information] + The Colorado Amateur Satellite Net is held 7PM mountain time on Thursdays 6PM Pacific. 7PM Mountain, 8PM Central, 9PM Eastern For more information visit http://www.amsatnet.info/ [ANS thanks Skyler KD0WHB for the above information] + The Jan/Feb issue of The AMSAT Journal is off to the printer. [ANS thanks Joseph KB6IGK 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, EMike McCardel, AA8EM (former KC8YLD) kc8yld at amsat dot org

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-01-31 04:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-01-31 04:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: PSU. Wittayanusorn School, Kho Hong District, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand, direct via E29AJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI Contact was successful: Sat 2016-01-30 11:06:23 UTC 63 deg (***) Christ The King School, Rutland, Vermont, telebridge via VK4KHZ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN Contact is a go for: Thu 2016-02-04 18:28:16 UTC 88 deg "Gesmundo Moro Fiore" Secondary School, Terlizzi, Italy, telebridge via LU1CGB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI Contact is a go for: Sat 2016-02-06 09:09:01 UTC 40 deg **************************************************************************** ** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. **************************************************************************** Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Gaston ON4WF with 121 Francesco IKØWGF with 115 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 116 (***) **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8061 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2016-01-31 04:30 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1020. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 985. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2016-01-31 04:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 43/44 on orbit Scott Kelly Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF Exp. 45 on orbit Sergey Volkov RU3DIS Exp. 46 on orbit Tim Kopra KE5UDN Timothy Peake KG5BVI Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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XE2AT from DL52/DL53, SO-50 @ 0035 UTC Sunday (1935 EST/1635 PST today!)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

Hi! Thanks to Omar XE1AO for the news that Alvaro XE2AT, a long- time roving satellite operator in Mexico, will be on from the DL52/DL53 grid boundary in Baja California Sur (southern part of Baja California peninsula) for the 0035 UTC SO-50 pass this afternon/evening. Omar did not mention any other details. Good luck, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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Video: My First SO-50 Contact in Months, From North Carolina to Arizona with NP4JV, Celebrating his VUCC Award Application
by John Brier 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

My First SO-50 Contact in Months, From North Carolina to Arizona with NP4JV, Celebrating his VUCC Award Application https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sODDuXNZ-k If you liked this video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, Space Comms: https://youtube.com/c/SpaceComms1 73, John KG4AKV, in Raleigh North Carolina FM05

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6W8CK on Satellite
by Paul Stoetzer 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

Good afternoon, Conrad, 6W8CK, will be active on satellites from IK14 near Mbour, Senegal until mid-February. He does not wish to publish his private email, but is interested in skeds with North American stations who are in range. If you are interested in setting up a sked, please look up your mutual windows and email me. I will contact Conrad with a list of operators and mutual windows. He will try to be active on CW near 145.930 on AO-7 and 435.830 on FO-29 during the afternoons, but may also be available on late night / early morning passes for skeds. Conrad is using a Yaesu FT-736R and an Elk antenna mounted up 5 meter above ground. He does occasionally lose power, so keep this in mind if you do not hear him on a particular pass. QSL only via the DARC bureau to his home call, DF7OL. He may also return to Senegal from November 2016 - February 2017. 73, Paul, N8HM

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18.00 UTC today 30/01/16, nice pass Brazil-Caribean-East USA and Spain
by Juan Antonio 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

I will have 6 deg elevation, if the OM AO-07 is in mode B, I will be there to do new and old stations. Juan Antonio EA4CYQ --- El software de antivirus Avast ha analizado este correo electrónico en busca de virus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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CQ FO-29 and AO-7
by Eduardo Erlemann 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

Good passes today between South America - C&CA - US East on FO-29 and AO-7I will be QRV on both. FO-29 center of transponder, AO-7 around 145.955 73 Ed, PY2RNGG66LW

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