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

BY70-1 not heard
by PY5LF 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

Hi Some reports of "not heard' to BY70 on the recent passes at *AMSAT Live OSCAR Satellite Status Page* ... So , the bird already burn ? :-( 73

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BY-70-1 Data Transmissions
by Stewart Todd Morgan 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

For the following BY-70-1 pass (per Orbitron and Celestrack data acquired just before the pass): Location : Boone,NC (81.7083° W, 36.2292° N) Time zone : UTC Search period : 2017-01-05 16:18:00 - 7 days 2017-01-12 16:18:00 Conditions : Maximum sun elevation = None Minimum sat elevation = 0 deg Illumination NOT required Time Satellite Azm Elv Mag Range S.Azm S.Elv -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2017-01-05 16:29:09 BY70-1 7.2 0.0 ? 2569 163.2 29.4 2017-01-05 16:34:52 BY70-1 284.4 59.1 ? 565 164.7 29.7 2017-01-05 16:40:40 BY70-1 200.8 0.0 ? 2602 166.2 30.0 Using an Alinco DJ-X11T receiver in SDR mode and a handheld Arrow antenna, Doppler-shifted data transmissions were noted at the following UTC times in the waterfall centered on 436.2 MHz: 16:34:10 16:34:40 16:35:10 16:35:40 16:36:10 Transmissions were approximately 1 second in duration and 10 kHz in bandwidth. I assume these transmissions are the 9600bps BPSK (haven't tried to decode). I saw no evidence of voice or other activity during the pass. Todd AL0I

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BY70-1 last night pass NA/Caribbean.
by Pavel Milanes Costa 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

Hi, I was listening last night in the pass over NA and Caribbean (I'm in FL11/Cuba) and get a great signal of the packet downlink on the repeater output in 70cm but no audio... I tried to get into the sat repeater with no joy, is the repeater turned on full time or it has a schedule or other trick beside the PL tone? Gear here: * 70cm: 1 turn QFHA + LNA + 10m AH LDF4 +Vcc Tap for LNA with HPF + RTL-SDR (CAT controlled via GQRX in linux) * 2m: 1 turn QFHA or J-pole + 20m AH LDF4 + Alinco DR-130 (5W) / Baofeng (2.5 Khz step 5W) Note: with this setup I'm able to work SO-50 successfully (QSO with HP2BWY) just minutes before this pass of BY70-1, so the hardware is working great. -- 73 Pavel CO7WT.

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-05 08:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-05 08:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Collège Mathilde Marthe Faucher, Allassac, France, direct via F1IMF The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be FXØISS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact was successful: Wed 2017-01-04 11:16:26 UTC 30 deg (***) Rainbow Middle School, Rainbow City, AL, direct via K4JMC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact was successful: Wed 2017-01-04 17:29:40 UTC 80 deg (***) 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 **************************************************************************** ** 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 2017-01-05 08:00 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 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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Re: [amsat-bb] Rainbow Middle School Successful
by AJ9N＠aol.com 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

Congrats John but I think there were a tad more than 000 students. 73, Charlie In a message dated 1/4/2017 10:01:40 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, johnnykludt(a)earthlink.net writes: All, Rainbow Middle School was successful. Three schools were present for a total of approximately 000 students involved. There were three TV stations in attendance as well as two newspapers. The station operator was a student so a total of 19 students were directly involved with all questions answered. The control operator asked an additional question for a total of 19 questions, A very successful contact indeed. John K4SQC

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BY70-1 Observations
by John Papay 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

I had a chance to run some tests on BY70-1 this evening from my Arizona Station since there was no one on the pass. It was only a 15 degree pass for me but the satellite did very well. BY70-1 is much stronger than SO-50. The morning passes are around 500KM and the evening passes are only 250KM. But the signal is quite strong on both. If you are having trouble hearing SO-50, try BY70-1. You should hear it much better. At first I thought the sensitivity might not be very good, but upon further testing it was possible to hold the satellite at 1 watt provided that you were on the right polarity at the moment. I was changing between horizontal and vertical frequently. The wrong polarity produced noise, but a switch to the opposite polarity yielded a full quieting signal consistently. Many have experienced dropout when attempting to talk through the satellite. Sometimes it is due to the many signals present on the input frequency including those that are not coming from satellite users. It's the same situation on SO-50. But there are also dropouts that occur when there is no one else on the input. It seems that if you are fairly wide in deviation, certain speech will cause the satellite to stop transmitting. This may be a receiver bandwidth issue or perhaps the PL decoder responding to voice frequencies etc. At any rate I think the dropouts are due to the PL decoder not decoding the PL tone for the above reasons. BY70-1 seems to be less sensitive to dropouts if you use narrow band FM on the transmit. I found very little difference in the repeated audio level when using wide or narrow. So there is signal processing in play which keeps the audio output level constant. AO-85 audio levels do change quite a bit between wideband and narrow. So do use narrow FM on this bird for best results. The signal processing also apparently causes a significant delay in the repeated audio. It can cause some discomfort but keep the rx level low so you are able to ignore the delay and converse normally. Audio quality is quite good. Some have thought there is some sort of VOX on the bird but a dead carrier seems to hold the transmitter keyed with no audio present. Again, the PL Decoder is likely responsible for the dropouts. Be sure to download the latest keps from Celestrak or apace-track. The keps on the amsat site may not always be current. The orbit is changing daily so get the new keps every 24 hours. The catalog number is 41909. http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt The amsat nasa.all file can be edited with Wordpad and the new keps can replace the ones in the file if different. Set your PL to 67Hz just like SO-50. doppler.sqf: BY70-1,436200,145920,FM,FM,NOR,0,0,FM Voice BY70-1,436200,145920,FM,FMN,NOR,0,0,Narrow FM Voice The coordinated frequencies seen to be close enough. I have asked KX9X to facilitate adding BY70-1 to the list of satellites in LOTW. Don't be reluctant to try this satellite. You will find it much easier to access than SO-50 or AO-85. It does have a short window but you can hear it down low if you don't have any obstructions. 73, John K8YSE/7 --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Area Coordinators
by Gary "Joe" Mayfield 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

Greetings, I would like to update my location on the Area Coordinator page as I now live in Blue Springs, MO - who is the best person to contact for this. Thanks and 73, Joe kk0sd

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-04 08:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-01-04 08:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Collège Mathilde Marthe Faucher, Allassac, France, direct via F1IMF The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be FXØISS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact is a go for: Wed 2017-01-04 11:16:26 UTC 30 deg Rainbow Middle School, Rainbow City, AL, direct via K4JMC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact is a go for: Wed 2017-01-04 17:29:40 UTC 80 deg 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 (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 2017-01-04 08:30 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 1103. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1068. 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 2017-01-01 04:00 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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Re: [amsat-bb] Kenwood D710 firmware ?
by PA3GUO 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Dave (W8AAS) and Arno (PE1RDP) gave some valuable suggestions.... which made me check the procedures again. ... where I found out you actually have to push the READ button twice (!) before the MCP software starts reading from the radio :-) Solved ! Henk - PA3GUO .. I am a bit in trouble :-) For APRS (ISS, PSAT, ..) I have recently put a Kenwood D710 in my car. Worked fine. I used the MCP2 program to program memories & settings. Until I decided today to update the firmware: from 2.01 --> 2.10. After that I could not use the MCP2 software anymore. Doesn't read any data from the radio any longer, it sticks at 0%. Re-did the firmware update, same result, still doesn't read. Doesn't write either btw. ('model / market code does not match') Tried to also update the Panel Firmware (maybe this was a combo ?). Doesn't work either: says cannot find Panel. ..but the panel is connected and works fine ! Cannot find anything on Google reporting the same (apart from G4ILO, but the poor man is SK). Any clue anyone - there must be plenty of D710's installed for satellite operations. Or else: does someone have a previous version of the firmware, such that I can try if a downgrade would work ? Thanks Henk Pa3GUO

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BY70-1 Observation & Question
by Scott 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Happy New Year to everyone. So for the second evening in a row, as I monitored BY70-1 for telemetry packets, I noticed performance on the FM voice transponder that prompts me to ask a question. Specifically, I hear K8YSE getting into the satellite with a crystal clearness that you would expect from a simplex QSO with someone in your front yard. Unfortunately, he’s been by himself for the most part... a station or two might try to get in but you just get fragments or a lot of static. As a novice, should that make me think that this satellite requires a lot of ERP to get into cleanly? Or maybe with the TLE’s changing so rapidly, is this sat just more difficult to track than the others? One other variable tonight is the weather; I suppose anyone using a hand-held antenna who normally works outside might be off the air because of all the rain in parts of the country right now. Maybe it’s just a lot of football on TV! I know that any answer might be speculation, but when I hear something happen on the air repeatedly it makes me want to see if I can learn the cause (or possible causes). Thanks! -Scott, K4KDR Montpelier, VA twitter: @scott23192

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