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

ILLW / NPOTA this weekend
by Nestor Punales 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

Hello everyone, I just wanted to let everyone know that I be activating/participating on the International Lighthouse Lightships Weekend from the *Old Point Loma Lighthouse US0067 *and for The National Parks on The Air would be *Cabrillo National Monument MN09*. We would be active on HF and all satellite passes that I can get from that location from 10:00 am- 4:00 pm (local time) Saturday and Sunday. This would be my first time operating from that location and it's some military radio equipment on that location that I hope would not cause interference with the down link (fingers crossed). We will be using the special event callsign* W6L* you can look us up on QRZ.com. I hope to hear you and the bird... PS. It's anyone else going to be participating on this event from any other Lighthouse this weekend? Nestor, K6JTT, DM12.

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Any recommendations on a good dual band HT whip??
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

I need to find a good 2M/70cm dual band HT whip currently on the market. All the ones I've analyzed appear to be off frequency. Any suggestions are appreciated. Dave, AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Re: [amsat-bb] Satellite Operation - Nash Point - wales -UK
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Reference my posting to the amsat -bbs and details about satellite and HF operation from NASH -Point, South Wales -UK. by the Barry Amateur Radio Society. Apologies I made a an error with one of the stated call signs. The correct call signs for the operation are " GC4BRS " and "GC6BRC". All of the other information is correct and as stated in posting to the bbs. Once again my apologies. Ken Eaton GW1FKY

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Re: [amsat-bb] AO-73/FUNcube
by Jim Heck G3WGM 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Hi Folks I have just switched AO-73/FUNcube into full time transponder mode (Amateur Mode). As normal, plan to switch back to education mode on Sunday PM UTC See www.funcube.org.uk for details of the satellite. Have FUN! 73s Jim G3WGM

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Re: [amsat-bb] Intermittent loss of full-duplex with Arrow, built-in-duplexer and TH-D72a
by John Brier 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

I may have found the cause of the distortion, and another bit of helpful info: I got a copy of the audio of the pass from someone else and I'm comparing it to mine. When I am transmitting there are at least three places where I can hear other transmissions, clearly different FM transmissions of other people talking. At one point I even hear a roger beep like sound followed by another voice. That could just be a symptom of whatever is causing the desense though. Regarding this: On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 2:12 PM, James Duffey <jamesduffey(a)comcast.net> wrote: > If I had to guess, I would say that you have a feed line problem, either a short or open. > > Another option may be a poor connection or a short in the diplexer. - Duffey KK6MC > I have suspected the duplexer myself. There is only one connection from it to the radio. No adapters. The feedline from the duplexer has an SMA connector and screws right onto the SMA on the Kenwood TH-D72a. Still it could be the BNC connectors that go to the antenna. I asked the owner of Arrow antenna about the possibility of this issue being caused by the duplexer and he was not aware of that ever happening before. :-/ On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 2:12 PM, James Duffey <jamesduffey(a)comcast.net> wrote: > If I had to guess, I would say that you have a feed line problem, either a short or open. > > Another option may be a poor connection or a short in the diplexer. - Duffey KK6MC > > On Aug 19, 2016, at 11:48 AM, John Brier <johnbrier(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> For the third time I've lost the ability to hear myself on the >> downlink of SO-50 using this setup. This was on today's 1521 UTC SO-50 >> pass. >> >> In the past I had what appeared to be very similar behavior with a >> different arrow antenna, no duplexer and two radios. I troubleshot >> that issue to the screw in the gamma match coming lose which caused >> high SWR. >> >> In this case I tested the SWR with my MFJ-259B SWR analyzer and it was >> 1.1:1 and X=45-55 across almost the entire band. >> >> I actually was able to hear myself in the beginning of the pass and >> then it got worse until the point where I could not hear myself for >> the rest of the pass. >> >> Actually, in this case, unlike the other two times where I wasn't able >> to hear myself on the downlink I had another unusual behavior which >> was I *WAS* able to hear myself but it was extremely loud and >> distorted. This happened maybe twice in the middle of the pass and >> then after that I just couldn't hear myself when I transmitted. >> >> When I was able to hear myself very loud and distorted I felt it >> wasn't how I was getting into the bird, but somehow my radio was >> demodulating my 2 meter transmission. I confirmed with W4FS who was >> also on this pass that my audio never sounded odd. >> >> Very annoying and my only guess as to what could be causing this is >> some sort of external interference occasionally getting into my radio. >> >> Any ideas? >> >> 73, John Brier KG4AKV >> _______________________________________________ >> 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] Intermittent loss of full-duplex with Arrow, built-in-duplexer and TH-D72a
by John Brier 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

I'm only running 5 watts. Just using my Kenwood TH-D72a HT. 73, John Brier KG4AKV On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 2:05 PM, R.T.Liddy <k8bl(a)ameritech.net> wrote: > John, > > How much power are you running? Are you overheating > the duplexer? > > GL/73, Bob K8BL > > > ________________________________ > From: John Brier <johnbrier(a)gmail.com> > To: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2016 1:48 PM > Subject: [amsat-bb] Intermittent loss of full-duplex with Arrow, > built-in-duplexer and TH-D72a > > For the third time I've lost the ability to hear myself on the > downlink of SO-50 using this setup. This was on today's 1521 UTC SO-50 > pass. > > In the past I had what appeared to be very similar behavior with a > different arrow antenna, no duplexer and two radios. I troubleshot > that issue to the screw in the gamma match coming lose which caused > high SWR. > > In this case I tested the SWR with my MFJ-259B SWR analyzer and it was > 1.1:1 and X=45-55 across almost the entire band. > > I actually was able to hear myself in the beginning of the pass and > then it got worse until the point where I could not hear myself for > the rest of the pass. > > Actually, in this case, unlike the other two times where I wasn't able > to hear myself on the downlink I had another unusual behavior which > was I *WAS* able to hear myself but it was extremely loud and > distorted. This happened maybe twice in the middle of the pass and > then after that I just couldn't hear myself when I transmitted. > > When I was able to hear myself very loud and distorted I felt it > wasn't how I was getting into the bird, but somehow my radio was > demodulating my 2 meter transmission. I confirmed with W4FS who was > also on this pass that my audio never sounded odd. > > Very annoying and my only guess as to what could be causing this is > some sort of external interference occasionally getting into my radio. > > Any ideas? > > 73, John Brier KG4AKV > _______________________________________________ > 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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Intermittent loss of full-duplex with Arrow, built-in-duplexer and TH-D72a
by John Brier 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

For the third time I've lost the ability to hear myself on the downlink of SO-50 using this setup. This was on today's 1521 UTC SO-50 pass. In the past I had what appeared to be very similar behavior with a different arrow antenna, no duplexer and two radios. I troubleshot that issue to the screw in the gamma match coming lose which caused high SWR. In this case I tested the SWR with my MFJ-259B SWR analyzer and it was 1.1:1 and X=45-55 across almost the entire band. I actually was able to hear myself in the beginning of the pass and then it got worse until the point where I could not hear myself for the rest of the pass. Actually, in this case, unlike the other two times where I wasn't able to hear myself on the downlink I had another unusual behavior which was I *WAS* able to hear myself but it was extremely loud and distorted. This happened maybe twice in the middle of the pass and then after that I just couldn't hear myself when I transmitted. When I was able to hear myself very loud and distorted I felt it wasn't how I was getting into the bird, but somehow my radio was demodulating my 2 meter transmission. I confirmed with W4FS who was also on this pass that my audio never sounded odd. Very annoying and my only guess as to what could be causing this is some sort of external interference occasionally getting into my radio. Any ideas? 73, John Brier KG4AKV

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Re: [amsat-bb] RHCP/LHCP
by Larry Koziel 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Jerry, There are, unfortunately, two conventions for specifying the handedness of circular polarity. See the "Left/right handedness conventions" section of the Wikipedia article on Circular polarization at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_polarization#Left.2Fright_handedness…. I would certainly agree with you that in the context of radio antennas, that SV1BSX got it wrong and should have used the other other convention. Regards, Larry K8MU

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keps ftp?
by Mike Seguin 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Anyone else having problems downloading keps from within SATPC32 from the Amsat ftp site? I'm getting a download failure. Celestrak is fine. Mike -- 73, Mike, N1JEZ "A closed mouth gathers no feet"

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RHCP/LHCP
by on4cjq＠telenet.be 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Hello I came up on this two sites with the same pictures of feeding a cross yagi, but one says RHCP and the other one says LHCP: http://www.qsl.net/sv1bsx/antenna-pol/polarization.html : on the end off the page there are to pictures from a cross yagi, the last one LHCP and the previous one above it RHCP. The center conductor (+) is connected to the upperside at the rear dipole and on the left side at the front dipole. it is CCW when you look from behind, and the autor says RHCP. Now look at this one: http://www.dg7ybn.de/Building/xpol.htm : look at picture (2) by left hand circ pol. Assume you turn the antenna 45° clockwise and you will get the same picture as the one mentioned above(SV1BSX). This one also looks CCW from behind and the autor says LHCP. It is confusing when building home made antennas. I think both are LHCP... Best 73's Jerry,ON4CJQ

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