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

EQUiSat Optical Beacon CubeSat
by Trevor . 17 Oct '18

17 Oct '18

Students at the Ivy League Brown University are developing an amateur radio satellite EQUiSat that will carry a Xenon Flash Tube (XFT) subsystem to act as an Optical Beacon that should be visible to the unaided eye of observers on Earth. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10635 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAK-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-10-26 23:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 22 Sep '17

22 Sep '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-10-26 23:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Possible Russian contact with Kursk Tue 2015-10-27 11:35 UTC Dearborn Public Schools, Dearborn, Michigan, USA, direct via K8UTT The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for Option #3: Tue 2015-10-27 16:01:59 UTC 57 deg Watch for a live video stream that should start about 15:00 UTC: (***) http://www.dearbornschools.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbhrQiZ62LE Daggett Montessori School K-8, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, direct via K5COW The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for Option #4: Thu 2015-10-29 14:12:56 UTC 31 deg **************************************************************************** ** Interested in hosting an ARISS contact? The window is now open from 2015-09-01 to 2015-11-01. These proposals will be for school contacts during the second half of 2016. Go to http://www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact or http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html for full details. To help organizations in preparing their proposals, the ARISS Program Coordinator will offer hour-long online information sessions. These are designed to provide more information regarding US ARISS contacts and the proposal process and offer an opportunity to ask questions. While attending an online information session is not required, it is strongly encouraged. These will be offered Thursday, September 17, at 2000 UTC; Tuesday, September 22, at 2000 UTC, and Wednesday, September 30, at 2300 UTC. Advance registration is necessary. Email ARISS (ariss(a)arrl.org) to sign up for an information session. **************************************************************************** ** >From 2015-12-20 to 2016-01-04, there will be no US Operational Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. **************************************************************************** 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 114 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 112 **************************************************************************** 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 2015-10-24 06:00 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 1001. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 966. (***) 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 2015-10-24 06:00 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. 44 on orbit Oleg Kononenko RN3DX Kimiya Yui KG5BPH Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Exp. 45 on orbit Sergey Volkov RU3DIS **************************************************************************** 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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Re: [amsat-bb] Free content from six satellites via Outernet (APRS?)
by Robert Bruninga 29 Oct '16

29 Oct '16

Global Ham channel? We should find someone to work with the OUTERNET folks to add an amateur radio channel to their downlink. Their satellites could provide connectivity to 99% of amateur radio operators on earth. In addition, Ham Radio can bring to OUTERNET an uplink capability that they currently don't have. And the uplink can be from the same remote areas where there is no service... How? Like this. They simply take the APRS packet data stream from the global APRS Internet System (APRS-IS) and stream it in their downlink for hams. Then hams anywhere on earth can transmit traffic via HF back into the system. Since the APRS-IS is one of the world's largest HF receiver-diversity receiver networks in the world, then a packet transmitted from almost anywhere on earth has a reasonable chance of being heard at least once at least somewhere and interjected back into the network, where it gets to the OUTERNET and then in the downlink. The only question, is the atrophy of our HF IGates? Years ago, the HF channel on 10,147.2 MHz had receivers all over the world. I have not listened much recently, but maybe there is still a viable network there. And if not, maybe we could re-invigorate it if it meant global APRS connectivity for ham travelers and hams in remote areas. An HF packet transmitter can be as small as a cigar box and solar powered. Has anyone tuned in the OUTERNET downlink? I have heard anyone with OUTERNET's free ORxPi software and a Raspberry Pi can get the OUTERNET content when plugged into a DVB-S tuner. Then there is of course the arm-chair-lawyers concern of rebroadcast of amateur radio content on a non-ham network? Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Thane Richard Sent: Friday, November 13, 2015 1:22 PM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Free content from six satellites via Outernet Hello everyone, My name is Thane and I lead content and business development at Outernet. Some of you may be aware of us but I suspect most are not. I am writing this email to introduce Outernet to AMSAT. Outernet broadcasts a DVB-S signal <https://wiki.outernet.is/wiki/Coverage_and_transponder_settings> from six different satellites covering 99% of humans on Earth. We created this information service to reach the 4.3 billion people who do not have Internet access and designed it to overcome the problems the Internet presents, namely download speed and recurring cost. Our datacast is completely free to receive, our bitrate is 90 Kbps (~1 GB/day of content), and you can even build your own receiver with a Raspberry Pi <http://store.outernet.is/>. Right now, the content we send is curated by us and a group of editors but we are working on a Reddit/Wikipedia/YouTube mashup where the contents of our broadcast can be decided publicly. Currently, we broadcast Wikipedia, 30,000+ ebooks, PLOS One journal articles, Khan Academy, CK12 textbooks, music from SoundCloud, and more. I want to invite this community to be involved in Outernet and help us build this project. Our current focus is on developing channels to get devices into schools and generally into countries/areas where Internet penetration is very low. Our forum <http://discuss.outernet.is> is very active with users and Outernet staff. Please stop by! Avidly, Thane -- Thane Richard <https://twitter.com/thanerichard> Content and Business Development Lead Outernet <http://outernet.is/> *Outernet in the press:* WIRED <http://www.wired.com/2015/07/plan-beam-web-3-billion-unconnected-humans/> , Inc.com <http://www.inc.com/dev-aujla/a-library-for-all.html>, TechCrunch <http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/13/outernet-joins-the-space-race-for-intern et-accessibility/> , Gizmodo <http://gizmodo.com/what-is-the-outernet-and-is-it-the-future-of-the-inter n-1659647614> , BBC <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29593734>, CNN <http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/11/tech/internet-for-everyone/>, Fast Company <http://www.fastcolabs.com/3027663/all-about-google-loons-low-cost-space-b ased-competitor-outernet> , LA Times <http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-g-outernet-explained-201 40808-htmlstory.html> , Motherboard <http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-the-outernet-plans-to-broadcast-free -internet-from-space> Our receiver, Lighthouse, is now available! To show how revolutionary Lighthouse is, we installed one in a remote school in Uganda. Watch the video here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQFoGK1aWQ>. _______________________________________________ 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010
by Mark L. Hammond 01 Jul '16

01 Jul '16

Hi All, Here is a quick AO-16 update. On Sunday I turned AO-16 long enough to get some telemetry packets. The satellite would remain on for less than one minute after being commanded on. A quick test of the "bent pipe" voice mode repeater was successful. . The "hardware watchdog timer problem" is still evident; as expected, spacecraft temperatures are insufficient to keep the transmitter ON (needs to be above 15 deg C). Orbit projections suggest that satellite illumination conditions will not result in increased temperatures for nearly 10 years. Command stations do periodically turn AO-16 "ON" to check on its condition and see if the hardware timer problem has "automagically" fixed itself (which in not anticipated, but who knows...). AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010 1838 utc PACSAT MBL Telemetry Decoder Ver. 1.3 (c) Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN =============================================================================== (average values) +10V Battery Bus : 0.00 V Battery Charge Reg : 0.55 mA Base Temp : 9.07 °C PSK RF Out : 1.90 W +5V RX Bus : 4.87 V +8.5V RX Bus : 8.49 V +10V RX Bus : 11.24 V Here is another teaser :) Several months ago I commanded the AO-16 S-band transmitter ON; it too remains functional (albeit weak), and was received by me, Drew KO4MA, and Alan WA4SCA. 73, -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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Re: [amsat-bb] Polarization
by Doug Andrews 02 Jun '16

02 Jun '16

I too have wondered about this. I have not had much trouble hitting SO-50 and some success on AO-85 with a 5 watt handheld and arrow antenna without turning it. Worth a try. DougKG7UNU Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy® Note 4. -------- Original message -------- From: Ken Alexander <k.alexander(a)rogers.com> Date: 5/30/16 4:41 PM (GMT-08:00) To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Polarization I clipped this from another message because I didn't want to drag the discussion off course. It's a question I've been wondering about since getting into this a few short weeks ago. I've also read (but haven't tried yet) about the trick of rotating the antenna 90 degrees on transmit, once you've established the best receive orientation. 73 de Bill, KG5FQX So far, with SO-20 I have rotated my Arrow antenna for best reception of the downlink and don't think I've had too much trouble being heard. At the same time I have wondered whether I should twist the antenna when transmitting to orient the 2m elements to give the same polarization as in receive. I don't know if this is a good idea or not, and frankly I have enough trouble remembering calls and grids, tracking the satellite, adjusting frequency and switching back to the correct VFO to worry about one more thing. I've seen that some commercial OSCAR antennas use circular polarization. The antennas I see in the photos of satellites we work are whips. Is the polarization becoming "circularized" as it re-enters earth's atmosphere or something? Comments and observations would be most welcome! 73, Ken Alexander VE3HLS, FN03 _______________________________________________ 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Re: [amsat-bb] Polarization (attitude mostly)
by Robert Bruninga 01 Jun '16

01 Jun '16

Actually, I would tend to suggest the majority of polarization shift is simply due to the always changing attitude of the spacecraft with respect to the user. The fact that all TVRO Satellite dishes worked perfectly well when switching back and forth from horizontal to vertical polarization when changing channels and once the dish was initially aligned then those vertical and horizontal polarizations remained accurate across the entire sky and across the many dozens of satellites, then would suggest th contribution due to faraday rotation was small (at C band anyway)... Yes, there is some faraday rotations at HF and at extremely low elevations, but I think for one using an ARROW antenna, all of the polarity issues are simply due to the instantaneous orientation of the satellite. Not the ionosphere... But, just my humble opinion... Bob WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Bob Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 1:52 PM To: Doug Andrews Cc: AMSAT-BB Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Polarization "The antennas I see in the photos of satellites we work are whips. Is the polarization becoming "circularized" as it re-enters earth's atmosphere or something?" Yep, that is exactly what is happening. It is called Faraday Rotation, and as the signal from the satellite passes through the ionosphere, all sorts of polarity changes can and do happen. A linear polarized satellite antenna (horizontal or vertical) can appear to be the opposite or somewhere in between. That's why folks rotate their Arrow or Elk antennas -- trying to match the polarity. Using a circular polarized antenna helps a bunch -- it doesn't matter what the polarity of the linear satellite antenna happens to be at any moment in time. But there is no free lunch -- Even a circular polarized antenna might need to be switched from Right Hand Circular Polarization (the default) to LHCP from time to time depending on what nasty thing the ionosphere is doing at any given moment. Changing the polarity switch might bring a S0 signal up to S5, a 30 dB improvement. I had that happen to me during a recent ARISS contact. 73, Bob, WB4SON On Mon, May 30, 2016 at 8:25 PM, Doug Andrews <dougg27(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > I too have wondered about this. > I have not had much trouble hitting SO-50 and some success on AO-85 > with a > 5 watt handheld and arrow antenna without turning it. Worth a try. > DougKG7UNU > > > > Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy® Note 4. > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Ken Alexander <k.alexander(a)rogers.com> > Date: 5/30/16 4:41 PM (GMT-08:00) > To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Subject: [amsat-bb] Polarization > > I clipped this from another message because I didn't want to drag the > discussion off course. It's a question I've been wondering about > since getting into this a few short weeks ago. > > I've also read (but haven't tried yet) about the trick of rotating the > antenna 90 degrees on transmit, once you've established the best > receive orientation. > > 73 de Bill, KG5FQX > > So far, with SO-20 I have rotated my Arrow antenna for best reception > of the downlink and don't think I've had too much trouble being heard. > At the same time I have wondered whether I should twist the antenna > when transmitting to orient the 2m elements to give the same > polarization as in receive. I don't know if this is a good idea or > not, and frankly I have enough trouble remembering calls and grids, > tracking the satellite, adjusting frequency and switching back to the > correct VFO to worry about one more thing. > > I've seen that some commercial OSCAR antennas use circular polarization. > The antennas I see in the photos of satellites we work are whips. Is > the polarization becoming "circularized" as it re-enters earth's > atmosphere or something? > > Comments and observations would be most welcome! > > 73, > > Ken Alexander > VE3HLS, FN03 > > _______________________________________________ > 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ > 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Nusat 1/2
by PY5LF 31 May '16

31 May '16

Hi Telemetry signal of NUSAT over here ; https://youtu.be/m8I51eJTkg8 73 PY5LF

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Network Survey - Reminder and Thank You
by Brandon Shirley 31 May '16

31 May '16

Dear AMSAT community members, This is the final reminder email for the Network Survey. I will close the survey tomorrow night (23:59 MST on Wednesday). If you were planning on participating, but have not, then please try to get it done before then. I am very grateful to all those who have participated in this survey and all the surveys to this point. Thank you. I will notify the winners of this survey's $25 gift card and the overall survey set's $200 gift cards in the next couple of days, so please watch your email if you are interested in the gift cards. The gift cards for the other surveys have already been awarded. You can still take it in stages if you want. To do this you must resume or visit the link in the same browser on the same computer and have cookies turned on as this survey tracks your session: no other identifying information is collected or stored. You can you use the link below to access the Network Survey. https://usu.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3jAwt3PdKrcSEx7 What follows is more information about the survey and is largely the same as what you have seen before. There is a chance to win some gift cards. Please see below for more information. The survey should take about 15 minutes. Thanks. Please note that the link is anonymous, so you are getting this reminder even if you have already taken the survey. I would like to thank everyone that has participated thus far, I really appreciate it, I know it is an inconvenience and that everyone is really busy. The second part of the survey has background questions that will give context to your answers. Try to fill the background out the same way if you take more than one of the surveys. Answer as many of the questions as you want and as much of each question as you want, partial surveys may still be very helpful. At the end of this survey, you will be redirected to a webpage that asks for an email address. You must enter a valid email address to be considered for survey drawings or the overall survey set drawing. We are currently on the last survey, Network Survey. V/R, Brandon Shirley mailto:b.l.s@aggiemail.usu.edu Please see the http://brandon.bluezone.usu.edu/Files/LOISpaceSoftwareAttitudes_Final.pdf that explains your role as a participant should you choose to participate. This is a legitimate request for you participation, if you have any questions about the validity of this email you may refer to the Letter of Intent, contact Brandon Shirley via email at mailto:b.l.s@aggiemail.usu.edu, or contact Utah State University's Internal Review Board administrator at (435) 797 - 0567 or email mailto:irb@usu.edu.

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Re: [amsat-bb] Gesamtschule Leverkusen Schlebusch, Leverkusen, Germany,
by Daniel Cussen 31 May '16

31 May '16

I found an additional video(s) online from this contact last February. It shows hamtv also. https://youtu.be/u9QPr6bsiSM Translation of the additional information: On 29.02.2016, the students of the Secondary School Schlebusch could successfully produce a ISS school contact together with a team from the German Amateur Radio Club, Ortsverband Leverkusen G11. It all 20 questions have been answered, which is certainly not self-evident. We also had a live picture of the astronauts Timothy Peake (HamTV Streamed through the Internet from Cork in Ireland). Our thanks to the school is who has supported us actively and promptly, the numerous media representatives, the YL and OM have sacrificed much free time and of course the students who have made contact with a very successful event. The video is very improvised, actually it should be only an audio replay ;-) We still look forward to your comments, so skin in the keys! Media coverage: Newspaper articles: http://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/schueler-funken-zur-iss100.html http://www.koelner-wochenspiegel.de/rag-kws/docs/1277884/nrwaktuell http://www.lokale-informationen.de/rag-lag/docs/1277881/leverkusen http://www.ksta.de/region/leverkusen/stadt-leverkusen/liveuebertragung-in-d… http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/leverkusen/leverkusen-ruft-iss-gesamtsc… http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/february/ariss_event_2902.htm#.VtWFk_… http://www.leverkusen.com/presse/db/presse.php?view=00033909&stadtteil=&kat= TV: RTL West: http://www.rtl-west.de/livestream/sendung/2016-02-29/PGM2902/ WDR: http://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/lokalzeit-koeln/video-schueler… Radio: http://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/wdr5/wdr5-westblick/audio-wdr--westblick… Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9QPr6bsiSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbAqrpEFM5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkPbHo8mrwk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWKXP64VIy4 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1704760526434985&id=16856… On 29/02/2016, Daniel Cussen <dan(a)post.com> wrote: > Gesamtschule Leverkusen Schlebusch, Leverkusen, Germany, direct via DLØIL > The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS > The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI > Contact is a go for: Mon 2016-02-29 12:05:58 UTC 78 deg

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