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

IC910H High Stability Crystal
by Mvivona 24 Dec '16

24 Dec '16

If any of you in the U.S. are looking for a high stability crystal for your iCom 910H, I just put one up for bid on eBay. I was having issues where my frequencies would drift slightly after saving them and inadvertently ordered 2 of the CR-293 modules. It definitely did the job, it's rock solid now, but need to sell the second one. Michael KC4ZVA

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South Florida QRM to FO-29 satellite
by Andrew Glasbrenner 24 Dec '16

24 Dec '16

Is there anyone down that way that could listen on a 2m frequency for a errant IRLP type node causing QRM to FO-29? We have several recordings, including CW IDs, but the owner of the call is not cooperating so far. Here is a recording from tonight: https://www.dropbox.com/s/shuci1f9qb7p56m/24dec16%200355%20FO29%20Winsystem% 20QRM.mp3?dl=0 The ID is very plain at about 10:50. About the time the signal became unreadable, FO-29 was far enough south that only Florida was left from the US in the footprint. The uplink/node frequency is about 145.990 or .995. The audio is very interesting. Also looking for any OOs that would like to help. 73, Drew KO4MA

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STARC CW Possible Capture
by Pedro Converso 24 Dec '16

24 Dec '16

On Orbit 28, Dec-23 at 22:27 UTC over Buenos Aires Think STARC-Mother CW had been received, partial decode: 2F28 Recorded audio at http://amsat.org.ar/starc3.wav Frequency was about 1.5 Khz higher than calculated. Using http://amsat.org.ar/pass.htm selecting STARC 73, lu7abf, Pedro

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Questions On Balloons With Amateur Packages
by Dave Marthouse 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

I have seen posts from time to time on the BB about balloons with amateur radio payloads on them. I've got a question regarding the missions that carry payloads around the world. What stops the balloons from going up until they explode do to the high altitude. How are the packages kept from doing this to achieve such long distance flights? -- Dave Marthouse N2AAM dmarthouse(a)gmail.com

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EN74/75 line on December 23rd
by Paul Stoetzer 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

Good evening, I will work the following passes from the EN74/75 line near Gaylord, MI tomorrow December 23rd. FO-29 - 1643 UTC SO-50 - 2019 UTC SO-50 - 2159 UTC Other passes will be from EN74 only. Look for a few passes from EN84/85 at some point over the next week as well. 73, Paul, N8HM

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Winter Wonderland Grid Expedition Schedule
by Ken Alexander 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

The Winter Wonderland Grid Expedition (FN16, FN17, FN26 & FN27) will run from December 26th to December 29th. A few notes: The majority of the passes are higher than 20 degrees at my location. Generally, I have found that lower passes get lost in the trees and rocks and have not yielded good results. However, if you need one of these grids and the passes I have posted don’t work for you then let me know and we will try to work something out. I will do some nighttime passes from FN15 on the evening of the 26th and the evening of the 29th. I have a lot of driving to do on those days and will be tired. Therefore, if activity drops off after the first few passes then I will call it an early night and let everyone know via Twitter. You can find me on the following frequencies on the linear satellites, plus or minus QRM: FO-29, TX on 145.920 AO-07, RX on 145.960 XW-2A, RX on 145.680 XW-2B, RX on 145.745 XW-2C, RX on 145.810 XW-2D, RX on 145.875 XW-2F, RX on 145.995 AO-73, RX on 145.965 UKube-1, RX on 145.945 EO-79, RX on 145.955 Transmit/receive accordingly to meet me on these frequencies. Finally, once you work me, please stand aside on subsequent passes so that others can work a new grid. These passes are only a few minutes long and it's not fair to others if I have to spend precious time on QSOs with people I already worked. I don't mind if you want an insurance QSO, and if you want to work me on every satellite pass from a given grid that's fine too...but be mindful that you may be making it difficult for someone to work me for the first time. Please be considerate and wait until things die down before calling for that additional contact. December 26th evening in FN15 26.12.2016 XW-2C 22:01 26.12.2016 XW-2F 22:29 26.12.2016 XW-2D 23:27 27.12.2016 XW-2A 00:03 27.12.2016 AO-73 00:53 27.12.2016 AO-85 01:41 December 27th in FN16/FN17 27.12.2016 AO-73 14:14 27.12.2016 FO-29 14:50 27.12.2016 EO-79 15:32 27.12.2016 FO-29 16:36 27.12.2016 EO-79 17:10 27.12.2016 AO-07 17:38 27.12.2016 SO-50 18:44 27.12.2016 AO-07 19:28 27.12.2016 SO-50 20:23 27.12.2016 AO-07 21:24 27.12.2016 XW-2D 21:41 27.12.2016 XW-2B 21:44 27.12.2016 XW-2C 21:49 27.12.2016 SO-50 22:06 27.12.2016 XW-2F 22:17 December 28th in FN26/FN27 28.12.2016 AO-73 14:33 28.12.2016 FO-29 15:40 28.12.2016 EO-79 15:44 28.12.2016 AO-07 16:41 28.12.2016 EO-79 17:23 28.12.2016 AO-07 18:29 28.12.2016 SO-50 19:08 28.12.2016 AO-07 20:22 28.12.2016 SO-50 20:50 December 28th Evening in FN15 29.12.2016 AO-85 00:51 29.12.2016 AO-73 01:30 29.12.2016 SO-50 01:57 29.12.2016 AO-85 02:32 29.12.2016 SO-50 03:37 As always, follow @ve3hls on Twitter for updates, reports and general silliness. Happy Holidays and hope to work you next week! 73, Ken Alexander VE3HLS

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-12-22 15:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-12-22 15:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Ecole Communale de Saint Sylvestre, Saint Sylvestre, France, direct via IK1SLD (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact was successful: Wed 2016-12-21 13:46:38 UTC 29 deg (***) Primary School Georges Wallers, Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (59), France, Direct via F4KJV The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be FXØISS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG (***) Contact is a go for: Sat 2016-12-31 11:31:12 UTC 44 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. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. **************************************************************************** *** All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. **************************************************************************** *** 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: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 123 Gaston ON4WF with 121 Francesco IKØWGF with 119 **************************************************************************** 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 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2016-12-22 15:30 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 http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1102. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1067. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. 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, South Dakota, 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 2016-12-22 15:30 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. 49 on orbit Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Andrei Borisenko Sergey Ryzhikov Exp. 50 on orbit Peggy Whitson Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Oleg Novitskiy **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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LVB Tracker USB serial port driver for Windows 7 x64?
by Bill Bordy, NJ1H 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Has anyone located a driver for the LVB Tracker internal USB to serial port adapter on Windows 7 x64? If not, has anyone reverted to the serial port connection on LVB Tracker and used an external USB to serial port adapter successfully with SatPC32 on Windows 7 x64? I have an Edgeport multiple USB to serial port that has drivers for Windows 7 x64 that I will use if I have to. I would prefer using the LVB Tracker with its USB to serial adapter if someone has another solution. 73, Bill NJ1H

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Full Duplex with Fldigi?
by Alan 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Morning, Both DM780 and MixW support full duplex, and I have both, but I am looking for a freeware program to recommend to people who ask. I have been looking at the Fldigi software, and am wondering if anyone has experience using it full duplex? Being a very capable, free suite of programs, there is a large user base. I did RTFM, or more accurately did a lot of searching for terms, but didn't find anything. A query to the support group only came back with the recommendation that "I think you can run two versions simultaneously, and that might help." 73s, Alan WA4SCA

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Pratham copied in Buenos Aires
by Pedro Converso 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Nice CW copy of Pratham, orb.1268 Dec-22 01:19 UTC 145.976 KHz. VU2BUG PRATHAM IIT BOMBAY STUDENT SATELLITE Audio at http://amsat.org.ar/prath1612220119.wav decoded with CWGET Conditions Ft-736 + 5 elem. horiz. yagi pointing to sat, no pre. 73, lu7abf, Pedro

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