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

EO91 Schedule for Saturday Sept 24th
by Ken Alexander 24 Sep '16

24 Sep '16

Saturday's fun filled schedule in EO91 looks like this: Times in UTC. 1510 - FO29, 1654 - FO29, 1843 - FO29, 1946 - SO50, 2146 - SO50, 2224 - XW2A, 2305 - SO50, 2355 - XW2A, 0048 - SO50 73, Ken VE3HLS

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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS ping box (now PBBS)
by Ross Whenmouth 24 Sep '16

24 Sep '16

On 23/09/16 23:50, amsat-bb-request(a)amsat.org wrote: > Packet BBS operation via space was proved to be entirely inoperable, > impossible total congestion,, inefficient, impractical, wasteful and > discunctional use of packet via satllites 20 years ago. Yes, connected AX.25 is the wrong protocol for a PBBS on the ISS, and CSMA simply WILL NOT WORK when most user nodes can't hear each other (aka Hidden Transmitter Syndrome). My understanding of PBBS operation is that the vast majority of users "download" far more data than they "upload", and that most of what is downloaded is bulletins (think - large numbers of hams downloading the same content as each other). Unlike 20 years ago, broadband receivers (and sufficient computing power for demodulation in software) are now affordable - a cheap RTL-2832 DVB-T USB dongle (plus preamp, filter, and antenna), can receive a 2.4 MHz wide chunk of spectrum on 6m, 2m, 70cm, or 23cm and your PC is probably already fast enough to keep up. So, I think that a usable ISS-PBBS would be cross-band full-duplex (up on 2m, down on 70cm or 23cm etc), with asymmetrical bit rates - slow uplink(s) which are compatible with ham's existing transmitters (1200 AFSK, 9600 K9NG/G3RUH, or maybe even n-QAM or OFDM via SSB?) and a fast (broadband) downlink that can be received with cheap equipment (RTL-SDR, Airspy, etc). Of course, data compression (LZW, LZMA, Brotli, etc) and Forward Error Correction would be used. Yes, a high speed broadband TX will require more power than a NBFM TX, but presumably an ISS-PBBS would have a far more generous power budget than a cube-sat. "Spare" bandwidth on the broadband downlink would be used to constantly stream PBBS bulletins (and maybe even personal messages when the ISS-PBBS knows that the recipient is within radio range - see below re grid squares), so that to get the latest messages, all you have to do is listen (no ground station transmission required). Thus, most users would only need to transmit when they have a bulletin or personal message to upload. I would have the ISS-PBBS co-ordinate channel access - ie ground stations only transmit when the ISS-PBBS tells them that they can (TDMA). The ISS-PBBS would have to reserve some of the uplink time for connection requests, and there would of course be contention and collisions between ground stations (which can not hear each other) attempting to connect. To alleviate this, when the ISS-PBBS hears a collision in the "connect request" time slot, it could perform a binary search of the callsign space (as is done with some RFID systems - this how they cope with multiple RFID tags within range of the reader at the same time). I think that it would make sense for a ground station's connect request packet to include their grid square (Maidenhead locator), so that the ISS-PBBS (which knows where it is on orbit) knows when that ground station is out of radio range so that it can abandon attempting to communicate with it. A simple enforcement mechanism (ground station sends incorrect grid square) is that the ISS-PBBS would refuse to communicate with ground stations declaring a grid square which is not within what the ISS-PBBS considers to be radio range. In areas of high amateur density, it will probably be more efficient (and cheaper) to equip the local terrestrial PBBS with equipment to talk to the ISS-PBBS, and then have the hams within the coverage area of the terrestrial PBBS use that instead of the ISS-PBBS (this would reduce contention for on the "connect request" timeslot of the ISS-PBBS, and it will be more efficient for one PBBS to upload say ten messages to the ISS-PBBS in one go than it would be for ten different hams to each upload one messsage each to the ISS-PBBS). This would give us global message forwarding that is not reliant on the internet. 73 ZL2WRW Ross Whenmouth

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-09-23 22:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-09-23 22:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Yamanashi Gakuin J. H. School, Kofu, Japan, direct via 8J1YGJH The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Takuya Onishi KF5LKS Contact is a go for: Sat 2016-10-01 08:11:36 UTC 31 deg ************************************************* ***************************** Call for Proposals Proposal Window September 1 – November 1, 2016 The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. The deadline to submit a proposal is November 1, 2016. Proposal information and documents can be found at www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact. **************************************************************************** ** 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 Ericsson 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: Gaston ON4WF with 121 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 121 Francesco IKØWGF with 118 **************************************************************************** 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 2016-09-23 22:00 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 1084. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1049. 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 2016-09-16 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. 47 on orbit Jeff Williams KD5TVQ Oleg Skripochka RN3FU Aleksey Ovchinin Exp. 48 on orbit Anatoly Ivanishin Kate Rubins KG5FYJ Takuya Onishi KF5LKS **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Oscar-7 Mode A
by Joe 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

Someone the other day was gonna make up a schedule of expected times when Oscar-7 will be in Mode A. Did this ever happen? Joe WB9SBD -- Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com

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EO91 Schedule for Friday Sept 23
by k.alexander 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

Just arrived in Moosonee! I worked this out on yhe way up and think it will work without venturing too far. This is what I hope to do but at the same time you should consider it tentative. Some time in there I have to go buy grocrries and make myself some dinner! Times are UTC: 2016 - AO7, 2059 - SO50, 2212 - AO7, 2227 - XW-2C, 2240 - SO502256 - XW-2A, 0003 - XW-2C, 0022 - SO50, I have included as many SO50 passes as I can. Don't want the FM guys to feel left out! Note I have never worked through AO7 before. Consider these passes to be experimental. 73, Ken Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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Multiple grids in N3FJP
by Matthew Stevens 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

I know this has been addressed in the past. I just wondered if there had been any further developments in dealing with multi-grid QSOs in N3FJP? If not, any suggestions on keeping track of the gridlines you've worked? - Matthew KK4FEM Sent from my iPhone

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Re: [amsat-bb] Satellite tracking in MAC OS X
by Dino Papas 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

Andrew - for WX Sats check out: http://www.wxtoimg.com I’ve been using it for many years and it works very well with the LEO birds. 73 - Dino KL0S > On Sep232016, at 1238 PM, Andrew Rich <vk4tec(a)tech-software.net> wrote: > > Yes I have a few dependencies missing for GPredict > > I tried to compile and then got MacDoppler > > Looking how to decode Weather Satellites on my Mac NOAA 19 is full scale > > Andrew > > ------------------------------------------ > Andrew Rich VK4TEC > w www.tech-software.net > m vk4tec(a)tech-software.net > >> On 24 Sep 2016, at 2:26 AM, PE0SAT | Amateur Radio <pe0sat(a)vgnet.nl> wrote: >> >> >> Hi Andrew, >> >> You can also look at GPredict and combine it with GQRX to control your SDR. >> >> 73 Jan >> >> >> On 23-09-2016 18:12, Andrew Rich wrote: >>> The only suggestion I would make is >>> + Add a daily schedule of satellite passes that can be emailed or >>> saved to a .html file available via a web server >>> I see UDP output which I will investigate >>> Loving the interface very good >>> Can MacDoppler drive my SDR Dongle on freq ? >>> Andrew >>> ------------------------------------------ >>> Andrew Rich VK4TEC >>> w www.tech-software.net >>> m vk4tec(a)tech-software.net >>>> On 24 Sep 2016, at 2:02 AM, Bryan KL7CN <bryan(a)kl7cn.net> wrote: >>>> Allow me to amend: MacDoppler and Dog Park are excellent Mac developers and their software is impressive and well-supported. >>>> Bryan KL7CN/W6 >>>> bryan(a)kl7cn.net >>>> CM98, usually >>>> On Sep 23, 2016, at 08:28, Bryan KL7CN <bryan(a)kl7cn.net> wrote: >>>> Andrew, I use VMware Fusion and Windows on my Mac. The Mac software is OK, but Amateur Radio is mostly Windows as you've seen. >>>> Bryan KL7CN/W6 >>>> bryan(a)kl7cn.net >>>> CM98, usually >>>> On Sep 23, 2016, at 07:59, Andrew Rich <vk4tec(a)tech-software.net> wrote: >>>> Hello >>>> Can you tell me the preferred satellite tracking program that runs on a MAC ? >>>> Andrew >>>> ------------------------------------------ >>>> Andrew Rich VK4TEC >>>> w www.tech-software.net >>>> m vk4tec(a)tech-software.net >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> 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 >> >> -- >> With regards PE0SAT >> Internet web-page http://www.pe0sat.vgnet.nl/ >> DK3WN SatBlog http://www.dk3wn.info/p/ >> irc://chat.freenode.net #Cubesat - Twitter @pe0sat >> _______________________________________________ >> 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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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS ping box (now PBBS)
by Robert Bruninga 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

> Andrew, What you should be doing is try using the onboard packet BBS. WHAT?!!! NO!!! Packet BBS operation via space was proved to be entirely inoperable, impossible total congestion,, inefficient, impractical, wasteful and discunctional use of packet via satllites 20 years ago. That is why all operation now uses single packet exchanges using UNPROTO or UI packets and why UI messaging was invented. All it takes is one person to try to log on, and then the ENTIRE PASS is lost to retries and retries and retries. Nothing is accomplished, and rarely if ever does anyone even get logged on. It is an abomination to even think about using the ISS BBS. > That way people could read and send you messages. > As you're in a low use ISS area this would be ideal for > you and other ISS users... Oops... nevermind... I see you are on an island thousands of miles from any Ham Radio density... But again, this will ONLY work over Hawaii, or Australia, or South Africa or other areas where packet ISS usage is so low as to be non-existant. In those places, yes, it would be a fun experiment. BUT ONLY UNTIL others heard about it. Then it would be the same ole' "tradgedy of the commons"... (google it)... Everybody tries and it fails for everyone.... And a disaster if anyone tried it over the USA or Europe. Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- > If you're the only station out there, then what's the point of transmitting at all?

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Re: [amsat-bb] Satellite tracking in MAC OS X
by dtabor＠estesvalley.net 23 Sep '16

23 Sep '16

If you have to Windows on a Mac, there are 2 ways I like to go. If it's just for running apps, I use VirtualBox which is free and gets regular communal updates. Haven't had any application not run on VB (yet). If I need heavy duty I/O (as for PowerSDR and the Flex-5000 line), I'll use Bootcamp from Apple - allows for partitioning of disk for a Windows install, Windows drivers customized for Mac hardware and then boot into Windows. That way I get close to full bandwidth Firewire access when needed. Was very impressed with MacDoppler, but using a Flex, I run Bootcamp. Doug, N6UA

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Use of DR-735T for satellite
by Edward R Cole 22 Sep '16

22 Sep '16

Just reading the mail on HT's that are usable for sat. I have a Baofeng UV-5RA and std Arrow. I am installing a brand new Alinco model DR-735T which is capable of cross-band operation (has two receivers and internal diplexer). Haven't begun looking into operating details, as yet, but hope it is satellite usable. It is a 50w-30w(adj)-5w dual-band radio with packet capability (1200baud only). Its being installed in my new Ford F250 truck (diesel) for mobile while on extended trips towing a 5th wheel trailer (beginning in 2017). I'm also wondering how well a dual-band Comet whip will do thru the satellites? Also have a Par-Angle 2m Horz loop. We should be traveling thru many rare grids in our travels to/from AK. We will beacon 144.390 APRS on the road with 100-Hz PL for calling us. Project: http://www.kl7uw.com/Mobile.htm 73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com "Kits made by KL7UW" Dubus Mag business: dubususa(a)gmail.com

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