January 2017 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-10 04:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-10 04:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: World Genesis Foundation (WGF), Goodyear AZ, direct via W6FOG The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact is a go for: Wed 2017-01-11 16:10:15 UTC 46 deg Collège Saint-Guibert, Gembloux, Belgium and Euro Space Center, Transinne, Belgium; Combined telebridge via K6DUE The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact is a go for Option #5: Thu 2017-01-12 13:46:51 UTC 36 deg High School "Léon Blum", Le Creusot, France, telebridge via K6DUE (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact is a go for: Mon 2017-01-16 11:53:17 UTC 60 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 2017-01-10 04:30 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 1105. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1070. 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 2017-01-05 08:00 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. 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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Friendship 7 details?
by Robert Bruninga 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

After seeing the great movie “hidden figures” last night, I had lots of questions from my faded memory of the time (it was the same year I got my ham license and was 14 years old). This Wiki page has a lot… but the questions lingering in my mind were: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury 1) Was his mission planned at 3 orbits? (I thought it was more and then cut to three). 2) If #1, then they must have had to have recovery ships at a different spot for every potential orbit since he could not maneuver anything other than when to fire the retros. If it was 7 cut to three, then I guess they only needed two ship areas… 3) What frequency was CAPCOM? Was it the 108 MHz? I think the tracking stations all relayed the voice via HF? 4) Also related to #1, if something happened to the pilot, I assume ground control could fire the retros.

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Setting up SatPC32
by Ken Alexander 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

I'm trying to set up SatPC32 to run two FT-817s, one for transmit and one for receive. The instructions say "with the FT-817/857/897 set the CAT delay to 110" How? The Radio Setup dialog box has a small box where the following appears: COM-Port (0 - 99) CAT Delay A box to the right of that has: 10 20 and a box to the right of that simply has 10 What are those? COM Ports or CAT Delay numbers? I tried entering 110 (the CAT Delay for the FT-817) in the right-most box and got an error message. How do you tell it you want to enter the Com-Port, and then the CAT Delay? That's for Radio 1. There doesn't seem to be a way to specify the CAT Delay for Radio 2. What if it's a different radio? Finally, How do I tell SatPC32 I want to transmit on Radio 1 and receive on Radio 2, or vice versa? Any help would be gratefully accepted. Thanks and 73, Ken Alexander VE3HLS

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Re: [amsat-bb] Friendship 7 details?
by Daniel Schultz 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

Further research indicates that the "Go for at least seven orbits" line from capcom was to inform Glenn that the Atlas rocket had injected him into an orbit that would be stable for at least seven orbits, not that he was approved to stay up that long. This has led to an often repeated but historically inaccurate notion that Glenn's flight had been cut short by a problem, when in fact he was never intended to stay up for more than three orbits. The fact that Scott Carpenter's flight was also for only three orbits should indicate that the first two manned orbital flights were only intended to fly for three orbits, being our first initial baby steps into the cosmos. see http://www.thespacereview.com/article/550/1 and http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space-flight-history/our-spaceflight-heri… Dan Schultz N8FGV ------ Original Message ------ Received: Mon, 09 Jan 2017 06:30:09 PM EST > This leads to the interesting question of why > Glenn was told that he was "Go for at least seven orbits" by his capcom (page > 118) when there was absolutely no possibility of his flight lasting that long.

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Re: [amsat-bb] Friendship 7 details?
by Richard Tejera 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

IIIRC, it was planned for 6 orbits. But when telemetry showed the landing bag deployed, it was cut to 3. Flight Director Kris Kraft was convinced,, based on report from controllers and the spacecraft that it was a faulty indication and wanted to go the full six. He was overruled by upper management. During t-shirt they told Glenn to keep the retro package on during re-entry, the idea being the straps would keep the heat shield attached and thus the landing bag stowed. After the flight, Kraft lobbied for and got the rule added to tall mission profiles the "The Flight Director shall have the final authority for call decisions pertaining to completion of mission objectives and crew safety", essentially preventing management from interfering again. Also IIRC there were two landing zones. In the event of an abort or, in this case, a shortening of the mission, retro fire would be planned for one of those. Now much after 6orbits, the rotation of earth, put the ground track out of range of groundbreaking station s for extended times. They had tracking stations on the Canadiens, Zanzibar Canberra, Hawaii & Goldstein, can (there may more,but those come to mind right now), so even under optimal conditions they were in direct contact with the spacecraft for about 10 minutes at a time maybe 4 or 5 times per orbit. During Gemini VIII, when the spacecraft almost spun out of control due to a stuck thruster, they had to abort since Armstrong had used their reentry thrusters to recover. All that happened out of communication range. When they came back in range the abort was called at the first opportunity. This put them well away from the recovery area. The crew had to wait several hours before recovery teams got to them not being a boat, the capsule bombed around a lot. armstrong, being a Navy man rode it out, but Scott, who was Air force, spent the time puking his guts out. Rick Tejera K7TEJ Saguaro Astronomy Club www.SaguaroAstro.org Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club www.w7tbc.org On January 9, 2017, at 14:02, B J <va6bmj(a)gmail.com> wrote: On 1/9/17, Robert Bruninga <bruninga(a)usna.edu> wrote: > After seeing the great movie “hidden figures” last night, I had lots of > questions from my faded memory of the time (it was the same year I got my > ham license and was 14 years old). This Wiki page has a lot… but the > questions lingering in my mind were: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury > > > > 1) Was his mission planned at 3 orbits? (I thought it was more and > then cut to three). The comment by the capcom was that he was "good for 7 orbits", but the plan was for only 3. > > 2) If #1, then they must have had to have recovery ships at a > different spot for every potential orbit since he could not maneuver > anything other than when to fire the retros. If it was 7 cut to three, > then I guess they only needed two ship areas… There were several potential landing sites during a mission in case something went wrong. Gemini VIII, with Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott, had to be cut short after a few orbits because of the problem with one of the spacecraft's manoeuvring thrusters. It splashed down in one of the auxiliary recovery zones in the South China Sea and they were picked up by a USN destroyer. That didn't always work as NASA found out during the next Mercury mission, Aurora 7. Carpenter apparently fired his retro thrusters a bit late and landed some 400 km away from he was supposed to. > > 3) What frequency was CAPCOM? Was it the 108 MHz? I think the > tracking stations all relayed the voice via HF? I don't believe so. I think the ground stations might have connected by telephone lines to Mission Control. The only signal fading would be when the spacecraft was out of range of a tracking station. > > 4) Also related to #1, if something happened to the pilot, I assume > ground control could fire the retros. If I remember correctly, the spacecraft was entirely under control of the pilot. During Shepard's mission, Freedom 7, the retros didn't fire automatically so he had to light them manually. <snip> 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL _______________________________________________ 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] Friendship 7 details?
by Daniel Schultz 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

Bob, According to my coffee table book "The History of Manned Space Flight" by David Baker (1982), the Mercury capsule was initially designed to support only a three orbit mission, and both John Glenn and Scott Carpenter's flights were planned to last only that long. Page 137 of this book describes extensive modifications that were made to Wally Schirra's Sigma-7 spacecraft to allow it to fly a six orbit mission. This leads to the interesting question of why Glenn was told that he was "Go for at least seven orbits" by his capcom (page 118) when there was absolutely no possibility of his flight lasting that long. The Navy had 24 ships including three aircraft carriers spread out across the Atlantic to cover possible launch aborts and reentry after one, two or three orbits (page 113). There was no mention of any recovery plans for more than three orbits. The book also describes the flight of Enos the Chimp (page 105) in which ground control was responsible for firing the retros (since the chimp had not been trained on retrofire procedures). I don't know if that remote firing capability was also carried on the manned flights. During Enos' flight the telephone line between mission control at the Cape and the Point Arguello tracking station was cut when a farmer in Arizona plowed up a telephone cable, but Chis Kraft was able to reestablish voice contact to order Point Arguello to transmit the retrofire command just seconds before the deadline. This very excellent book is marred only by the fact that it describes rocket thrust in kilograms (one of my pet peeves), no doubt caused by English majors in the publisher's editorial department who never took a physics course. Dan Schultz N8FGV -------Original Message------- Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2017 15:24:51 -0500 From: Robert Bruninga <bruninga(a)usna.edu> Subject: [amsat-bb] Friendship 7 details? After seeing the great movie ?hidden figures? last night, I had lots of questions from my faded memory of the time (it was the same year I got my ham license and was 14 years old). This Wiki page has a lot? but the questions lingering in my mind were: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury 1) Was his mission planned at 3 orbits? (I thought it was more and then cut to three). 2) If #1, then they must have had to have recovery ships at a different spot for every potential orbit since he could not maneuver anything other than when to fire the retros. If it was 7 cut to three, then I guess they only needed two ship areas? 3) What frequency was CAPCOM? Was it the 108 MHz? I think the tracking stations all relayed the voice via HF? 4) Also related to #1, if something happened to the pilot, I assume ground control could fire the retros.

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Icom AND HAM RADIO DELUXE-Sat Control
by Ted 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

This information was just posted on the IC-9100 Group. I thought it might be useful for anyone here struggling with an ICOM (other than an IC-9100) and HRD. Apparently, the IC-9100 does not have any problem with SatPC32 73, Ted K7TRK From: ic9100(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:ic9100@yahoogroups.com] Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2017 6:09 AM To: ic9100(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [ic9100] Re: IC 9100 AND HAM RADIO DELUXE Ron, Last year I had the same problem! Look for the HRD answer: " Dear Julio, With RX and TX checked, the frequencies for uplink and downlink should be adjusted for Doppler effect, however, with the Icom radios there is a major issue which is due to the design of the radio itself. All rigs use a set of commands to control their functions. The command set is usually included in the operating manual for the rig. Any software needs to use these commands to control the various functions of your rig. Icom, has elected NOT to include commands in all their rigs to directly address VFO B or the Sub VFO. This makes it difficult to impossible to display or control VFO B. Some software authors have decided to use a kluge of sorts to work around this issue. They do this by sending the command to swap VFO's - that is, the frequency in VFO A becomes the frequency in VFO B and vice versa. The rig control program then reads the data from VFO A and stores it as VFO B. It then swaps the VFOs back to the initial frequencies. This takes a few microsecond to seconds depending on your Rig/Computer/Link speed and what data is being shared on the control bus (remember Icom CI-V is a shared serial data bus). This is an important consideration as it will interrupt the signal being received on VFO A for that period of time it is swapping back and forth as well as getting the data from the rig. It would make copying data or CW signals impossible as they would be constantly interrupted for an update of the frequency in VFO B. While that update may be a very short period of time, it would not be consistent or predictable. HRD has elected NOT to place this kludge in it's software because of this reason with the exception of the IC-9100. The IC-9100 in Satellite Mode (ONLY) will perform this swapping of VFOs as it is necessary for satellite work and the IC-9100 has individual audio outputs for the two VFOs. It's important to realize this is a shortcoming on the part of Icom by not including these commands. All attempts to work with Icom to address the issue have met with denial of a problem from Icom. The system no longer accepts replies to emails. Please click here <http://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30719821/tickets.hrdsoftwarellc.com?p=ey…> to view or update the status of your ticket. NOTE: Our support staff is available to respond Monday through Friday 6am to 5pm EST. Support Staff HRD Software, LLC

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IC 910H issues
by James Brown 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

Hello All I recently swapped from FT847 to IC910H. I am using SAT 32 with little success. Some of the issues are: It appears that after a bit of idle monitoring( waiting for the next sat pass) the 910 looses communications with SAT 32. When a sat pass is activated the uplink and downlink and associated modes are reversed from what is displayed in SAT 32. can anyone relay their settings for sat 32 and the 910. maybe I can find what is configured incorrectly! ThanksJim KI6WJ DM09

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AO-85
by skristof＠etczone.com 09 Jan '17

09 Jan '17

I just tried to get telemetry from AO-85. The pass had max elevation of 76 degrees here. In the past I would get lots of data on a pass like this, but lately I've been getting nothing. I can see the signal on the "waterfall" (using SDR#) but the signal is too weak to decode. Is anyone else having this problem? Is the signal normally low when the northern hemisphere is dark? What's happening? I've asked this before and didn't get any responses. Please send a couple of responses so I have some idea if there is some problem in my set up here. Thanks! Steve AI9IN

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: Re: BY70-1 not heard
by N6RFM1 gmail 08 Jan '17

08 Jan '17

Hi Paul and AMSAT friends, It's really great to hear BY70-1 getting lots of use. Lots of familiar calls and some new ones. Perfect. Indeed, Scott K4KDR and I have recently made several coordinated attempts to collect BY70-1 telemetry and camera pictures. This would not have been even possible without the support of Mingchuan BG2BHC (as a project team representative, for GNU radio support and example wav format command files), Dani EA4GPZ (for authoring open source GNU radio blocks, and hosting a fantastic blog which describes how much of this works), and the BY70-1 project team. We have made several attempts over the past few days during favorable passes for us. So far, we have received some good telemetry, been able to command the satellite to take a picture and then download a few pieces of the JPG. Unfortunately, so far we have only fragments of JPG data. If more than a few packets in the JPG file data stream are lost, the JPG image cannot be reconstructed. For reasons we do not understand, either the downlink data stream stops, is disrupted or BY70-1 resets. It may even be our ground station hardware limitations. We don't quite know. We do hope however that some of our experiences will guide future developments. For example, as Dani suggests SSDV which has error detection and correction capability. For those interested and key point, BY70-1 will only accept a camera command after 30 seconds of transponder non-use. Given the popularity of BY70-1, which is great and what we all want, Scott and I have had a few chances to send camera commands during such "quiet times" or > 30 periods on non-use. But again, we are delighted BY70-1 is popular and being used. What you may have heard was the satellite re-transmitting my request to "take and send" a picture. These uplink commands are in FM and last a few seconds. If successful, the satellite switches modes and starts picture transmissions in SSB mode on the downlink. These last for ~10 - 15 seconds. Then we hear the transponder come right back on. You might not even notice between sips of coffee (or whatever!) Once a related camera mode has been activated, there is a 10 minute countdown before another such request will be accepted. As a practical matter, with the 10 minute camera watchdog, those interested in getting a picture really have one shot/pass and only if the transponder is quiet for the >30 second period. It's really great to hear everyone using BY70-1. That's what it's all about. And thanks to Scott K4KDR for being a great partner on this little project! Of course, I've made few Qs myself! I must say the audio quality is amazing to my ears. One last thing Paul. I need to work you on BY70-1! :-) 73, Bob

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