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

Kenwood TH D72A and packet TNC
by ingejack＠cox.net 04 May '16

04 May '16

I am trying to set my internal packet tnc in my Kenwood TH D72A to contact ARISS to no avail !! I have tried AGWPE and UISS to work with the radio but no luck. I was wondering if anyone out there has been able to contact ARISS with The TH D72A TNC ?? If so, how are you hooking up the radio to the computer to work ?? I am about to order the Siganlink Usb that comes with the cables set up for this radio but hesitate to do so if the built in TNC can work!! Any help will be appreciated Thank You JACK-KC7MG

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Jetstream and TYT UHF rigs
by John Geiger 04 May '16

04 May '16

Has anyone used the UHF side of the Jetstream dualband mobile on the FM satellites? If so, how does it work? Is it pretty sensitive? How about the TYT UHF mobile rig? These seem to go for pretty good prices. 73 John AF5CC

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ISS packet
by skristof＠etczone.com 04 May '16

04 May '16

Thank you to Jack, K5UBQ, for the full QSO via ISS packet this morning (1203UTC). It can be done! Steve AI9IN

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AMSAT at Sierra Vista (Arizona) hamfest on Saturday, 7 May 2016
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 04 May '16

04 May '16

Hi! Even after last weekend in Las Vegas, I have another event I will attend this Saturday, 7 May 2016. I will have an AMSAT booth at the Cochise Amateur Radio Association's annual May hamfest in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The hamfest starts at 7am (1400 UTC), and should run through 12 noon (1900 UTC). The hamfest is located at the club's Green Acres site on Moson Road, south of AZ-90 and east of the Fort Huachuca army base, in Sierra Vista. More information about the hamfest is available at: http://www.k7rdg.org/CARA%20Hamfest%20Flyer%202016.pdf The club's web site is at: http://www.k7rdg.org/ During the hamfest, weather permitting, I will have on-air demonstrations of satellite operating from my booth. If you hear WD9EWK on the satellites Saturday morning, please call me and be a part of the demonstrations. The hamfest site is in grid DM41. All QSOs made during these demonstrations will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, and I will be happy to send QSL cards to anyone who works WD9EWK at the hamfest. Please e-mail me the QSO details, and I will check those details against my log. If you're in the log, I will send a QSL card. No SASE required. Thanks, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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WD9EWK from southern Nevada & northwestern Arizona, last weekend - report (long)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 04 May '16

04 May '16

Hi! In addition to attending the ARRL Nevada State Convention ("NVCON") in Las Vegas last weekend, I did a fair amount of operating from two locations around Las Vegas, plus another location in northwestern Arizona. I worked from 3 different grid locators in the two states, and also operated from the Lake Mead National Recreation Area - a site operated by the National Park Service, and my first activation of a National Park Service site for the ARRL's National Parks on the Air activity in 2016. On my way to Las Vegas on Friday (29 April), I stopped at a spot in Kingman, Arizona, so I could park on 114 degrees West - the line between grids DM25 and DM35. The spot I use is in a field west of old US-66, which is now an Arizona state highway, and north of the I-40 freeway. At the time I reached Kingman, there were AO-85 and FO-29 passes around midday, and I wanted to work both passes to put these grid locators on the air. Kingman is about 200 miles northwest of Phoenix, 100 miles southeast of Las Vegas, and it was a nice stopping point to get out of my car and play some radio. I worked 9 stations on the AO-85 pass, followed by 5 QSOs on the FO-29 pass, before I got back in the car for the 90-minute drive up to Las Vegas and the convention. Later Friday evening, I planned to make a drive to one of two spots in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area where I could work some passes on AO-73 and AO-85. I settled on a location just inside the park boundary at the end of Lake Mead Parkway, which connects the I-215/I-515 interchange in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson with a entrance to the park. There is a parking lot just inside the park boundary at a trailhead, before a toll booth, and that parking lot was actually a nice spot to work lower passes. I worked two pairs of passes on those two satellites - one pair to the east (this included a 5-degree AO-85 pass), and a pair to the west. Three stations on the AO-73 pass, and Paul N8HM on the low AO-85 pass, made a good start toward my goal of working 10 different stations to make this effort qualify as a National Parks on the Air activation. The later pair of passes were more productive - 3 QSOs on AO-73, followed by 5 more on AO-85, and the 4th of those 5 AO-85 QSOs represented the 10th unique station I worked from the lake. This meant my evening at the lake qualified as an activation of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (site RC13) for NPOTA. Saturday (30 April) started out with a big rainstorm. Between the rain, lots of road construction around Las Vegas, and some unfortunate highway accidents, it made for a tough time getting around. I started the day at a spot I know very well for satellite operation - the DM25/DM26 grid boundary in the south end of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, east of Las Vegas Boulevard and the I-15 freeway. I had an SO-50 pass around 7am (1400 UTC) that covered most of the continental USA, and stood outside to work this pass. In the span of 10 minutes, 10 stations went in the log. Then I went back in my car, making what should have been a 20 minute drive to the convention in about 45 minutes. After the convention ended Saturday evening, I made a return trip to Lake Mead. I stopped at the same parking lot just inside the park boundary, this time to work one pass each on AO-73 and AO-85. I had already made the required number of contacts to be considered an official activation under the ARRL's NPOTA rules, so these passes were to get this location into more logs. Being a Saturday evening, not many were on. I worked 2 stations on AO-73, and 3 on AO-85. Not bad for just the pair of passes to the east. Sunday (1 May) morning started out like Saturday morning, but without the rain. I drove to the DM25/DM26 grid boundary once again for an SO-50 pass starting around 7.15am (1415 UTC). Eight stations went in the log this time. Then the drive to the convention, which took about 20 minutes. Once the convention wrapped up late Sunday morning, I made two stops for working passes before driving home. I worked FO-29 and AO-85 from Lake Mead around midday (1900 UTC), followed by an SO-50 pass in Kingman on the DM25/DM35 grid boundary just before 4pm (2300 UTC). Four FO-29 QSOs and 8 AO-85 QSOs were logged from the lake, before driving around to the visitor center between Boulder City and Hoover Dam, on the way to Kingman. At the visitor center, I was able to get the National Park Service passport stamps for Lake Mead and the National Park Service centennial, along with some photos of the lake, before driving to Kingman to work the SO-50 pass. At Kingman, during a busy SO-50 pass, I was able to make 12 QSOs with stations across the continental USA, western Canada, and WA7HQD/MM sailing off the California coast. A comment... with WA7HQD/MM popping up on that pass, it became very busy quickly. I wasn't at home, yet after hearing many stations unsuccessfully trying to get through and work Doc, I made a call. There's no rule that says I can only work the rare ones when I'm at home, or in the area covered by a satellite VUCC award. I believe I was the first station to successfully work WA7HQD/MM on that pass. After my QSO, several others were able to make their QSOs with him. Even though I normally welcome stations working me on any pass they hear me on, I appreciate that several stations who were on that SO-50 pass, but worked me either on Friday afternoon or other times in the past at the DM25/DM35 boundary, did not call me on that busy pass Sunday afternoon. That is smart operating, what W1PA recently called on Twitter "situational awareness". I did not know Doc was planning to work that SO-50 pass, but know that several were able to work both Doc and me for some rarely-heard grids on the satellites. It was fun to get on the air from those grids in northwestern Arizona and southern Nevada. I have been thinking about visiting National Park Service sites here in Arizona to activate them on the satellites, like Fernando NP4JV has been doing a lot, and it was a twist that the first time I activated a site in the NPOTA activity came outside of Arizona. :-) To satisfy the ARRL's rules for NPOTA, I documented my presence at Lake Mead as I would operating from a grid boundary under the VUCC rules - photos of my GPS receiver and my station, along with screenshots of my mobile phone showing my location on the http://aprs.fi web site. And the stamps from the Lake Mead visitor center on my way out of Las Vegas, too. I tweeted some of these photos and screenshots while I was up there. All of these QSOs have been uploaded to Logbook of the World. Participation in the ARRL's National Parks on the Air event is done using LOTW, although I will also send QSL cards out to anyone who worked me and wants to receive a QSL card (including the NPOTA site code, RC13, listed on the cards for the Lake Mead QSOs). Please e-mail me directly with the QSO details, so I can check my log for the QSO(s). There's no need to first send me a card or SASE to get mine in return. Thanks again, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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AMSAT at ARRL Nevada State Convention last weekend - report
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 May '16

03 May '16

Hi! Last weekend's ARRL Nevada State Convention, or "NVCON", in Las Vegas was a great way to spend a weekend. A ham convention, located in a hotel/casino, with lots of activities available to visitors in southern Nevada. Despite a heavy rainstorm on Saturday, which wiped out my chances for satellite demonstrations at the convention, it was a great weekend for AMSAT to talk about amateur satellites. AMSAT's long-time Area Coordinator in southern Nevada, Frank Kostelac N7ZEV, along with his wife Linda KC7IIT, usually have a booth at these events in Las Vegas and other locations in Nevada. With Linda working in a variety of roles at the convention, Frank and I took care of the AMSAT booth. Frank also had other convention-related tasks, and he was definitely busy throughout the weekend. When I arrived at the convention Friday afternoon, Frank had the booth ready to go. I set out some flyers, some equipment, and spent most of the weekend around the booth. The day before I arrived in Las Vegas, the region had a big rainstorm. Another storm blew through southern Nevada on Saturday morning, which made travel around Las Vegas a mess, and washed out my plans for demonstrations at the convention. Instead of being outside in the rain, I had set up a couple of tablets to run videos of past demonstrations, show off SatPC32, and show what software-defined receivers can do. Frank and I talked almost non-stop for the weekend. I posted photos from the convention throughout the weekend on my @WD9EWK Twitter feed. If you want to see those photos, but don't do Twitter, you can get to the photos with a web browser at: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK/media Just because there was rain that washed out the demonstrations I planned to do at the convention, that didn't ruin plans for me to work satellites from Nevada. I'll post a separate message describing my operating from around Las Vegas and while driving to and from Las Vegas. I have to thank Frank and Linda for letting me help with the AMSAT booth over the weekend. I had asked Frank about this convention a while back, and I am glad I made the trip. The NVCON organizers were all friendly, and the crowds were good, despite the Saturday rain. There were a bunch of people who came over from California, and a few from Arizona that I also saw. I will seriously consider heading back to Las Vegas the next time this event takes place up there. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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ARRL on 432-438 satellite radar
by M5AKA 03 May '16

03 May '16

ARRL have issued a post about 432-438 MHz P-Band SAR allocation. Oddly they say: "ARRL Chief Technology Officer Brennan Price, N4QX, said SAR activity has not been found to be a significant problem to Amateur Radio activity on the 70 centimeter band." But there have not been any SAR satellites operating in 432-438 MHz so given the complete absence of any transmissions it is not surprising that there have been no significant problems. The first SAR satellite in this band is AIST-2D which was launched a few days ago on April 28, 2016. See http://www.arrl.org/news/view/no-need-for-panic-regarding-synthetic-apertur… In 2002 the ARRL reported the FCC's WRC-03 Advisory Committee and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Radiocommunications Conference Subcommittee determined that SAR transmissions could periodically impact amateur reception and even held "the potential for significant interference." 73 Trevor M5AKA

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APRS Satellite DTMF uplink - Voice downink
by Robert Bruninga 03 May '16

03 May '16

Next APRS satellite has APRStt (DTMF and Voice) too: Launch maybe this summer: http://aprs.org/qikcom-2.html Here are some recordings of our next QIKCOM-2 satellite which in addition to APRS on 145.825 digipeating also lets any user with a DTMF keypad to uplink his GRID, QSL’s and other messages on a different VHF uplink. It gets converted to voice for the DTMF listeners and to APRS on the APRS downlink so it gets into the global APRS system on http://pcsat.findu.com Grid: http://aprs.org/QIKcom/voice/Grid-FM19.wma Then the manual entry of the contact number: http://aprs.org/QIKcom/voice/QSL-fast.wma Then an example of a message: http://aprs.org/QIKcom/voice/message-73.wma The voice sucks, but our next satellite http://aprs.org/psat-2.html after this one uses a better synthesizer. Bob, WB4APR

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Re: [amsat-bb] Amsat Radio Log
by Rupert Hamblin 03 May '16

03 May '16

Thanks guys - really appreciate the updates here ! :-) Regards RH / G0TKZ On 03/05/2016 21:09, W2JV wrote: > Hello, > I'm using Logic9, http://www.hosenose.com/logic/, it was recommended > to me and I'm very pleased with the program, the support is outstanding. > 73 Peter > W2JV

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Amsat Radio Log
by Rupert Hamblin 03 May '16

03 May '16

Hi Guys, Now that I have a few successful Sat QSO completed, was wondering if anyone could recommend a log program / tool that's designed for use with Sats..? Cheers for help here..! 73 G0TKZ

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