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

AO-91 12-3-17
by Ted 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

21:30 pass comment: What a shame folks won't wait for a station to finish a qso before jamming..with your call And whoever was responsible for the rude profanity (either a rebroadcast or live) stay away As Damon used to say, "what a goat rope." 73, Ted K7TRK p.s. for the station perpetually calling 'CQ'..you don't need to do that.ever

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Re: [amsat-bb] AO-85 in GPredict
by Alan 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Mike, For reasons which have to do with AO-85 being launched on a NRO mission, there are permanent restrictions on the dissemination of its Keps. The only place you can download them is the AMSAT list. It is called nasabare.txt, though your program may call it something different such as "Amateur (amsat.org)." I don't use GPredict so can't give you details, but the issue exists no matter what program you are using. 73, Alan WA4SCA <-----Original Message----- <From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of <radiomb <Sent: Friday, December 01, 2017 21:55 PM <To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org <Subject: [amsat-bb] AO-85 in Gpredict < < <Hello, Seeing the posts I downloaded Gpredict to give it a try. I could not find <AO-85 (FOX-1A) in satellites listed. Even AO-91 is in the current list. Can it be <under some other name? I found a way to add a bird but looks like a pain to <update. Easy way? And if AO-91 is in the list why was AO-85 left out?TNX 73 <Mike K4MIA <_______________________________________________ <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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Great Group
by radiomb 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Thanks for all the information on Gpredict. This is a great group. This is my 50th year as a ham, started at age 15. Have done almost everything in ham radio except EME (maybe some day). Made a few contacts on AO-51 a few years back. But now want to set up a permanent station and do a lot more. Hope to have an auto tracking system by this time next year. It is a challenging, rewarding, and educational part of the hobby. Greg, I am using windows and will update with your information. I am sure I will have many more questions. Hope to see some of you at Orlando next year. TNX again.73 Mike K4MIA

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ANS-337 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletin
by Lee McLamb 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-337 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * ISS Global Testing SSTV December 5-6 Prior to MAI-75 Over Moscow * Soyuz Launch Anomaly Results in Loss of D-Star ONE Cubesat * AMSAT-SM Supports ARISS With New Donationn * IARU Frequency Coordination for China's Juvenile 3U Cubesats * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-337.01 ANS-337 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 337.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE December 3, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-337.01 ISS Global Testing SSTV December 5-6 Prior to MAI-75 Over Moscow http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/ published an update to the December MAI-75 SSTV testing schedule: **UPDATE - Nov 28** Seems the system will be put through some extended testing from December 5 starting around 15:00 UTC and running until 09:00 UTC on December 6. Test images will be used during this period. This will provide near global coverage if all works well. The MAI-75 schedule over Moscow remains unchanged at this point. The times correlate to a small number of passes each day in range of Moscow. Dec 6, 2017 Setup and power on – 13:40-14:20 UTC Power off – 17:05-17:15 UTC Dec 7, 2017 Power on – 13:45-13:55 UTC Power off – 17:30-17:40 UTC Dec 8, 2017 Power on – 14:05-14:15 UTC Power off and stow – 17:00-17:10 UTC [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Soyuz Launch Anomaly Results in Loss of D-Star ONE Cubesat A new Russian weather observatory and the first prototype for Telesat’s planned network of 100-plus broadband communications satellites in low Earth orbit were among 19 spacecraft lost after a Fregat rocket stage ran into trouble soon after liftoff aboard a Soyuz booster Tuesday. The Fregat rocket pack was supposed to place the 19 satellites into four different orbits Tuesday in a four-hour flight sequence following launch on a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a new spaceport in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East. A report published by Russia’s Interfax news agency Tuesday quoted a Russian space industry source who attributed the apparent failure to human error. The source said a mistake uploaded to the Fregat’s flight computer caused the upper stage to be in the wrong orientation for the main engine’s first burn, which was scheduled to last 77 seconds to reach a temporary parking orbit a few hundred miles above Earth. Billed as the first German commercial CubeSat, the D-Star One spacecraft had four communications modules on-board, two of which were to be used by the amateur radio community. Developed by German Orbital Systems in Berlin in cooperation with the Czech company iSky Technology, officials hope to build follow-on satellites to construct a low Earth orbit communications network. [ANS thanks SpaceFlightNow for the above information --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-SM Supports ARISS With New Donation AMSAT-SM is proud to announce a donation to ARISS (via AMSAT-NA) of $285. We hope that this small donation will help ARISS further work with amateur radio from ISS. AMSAT-SM is the Swedish section of AMSAT with approximately 220 members. One of their objectives is to inform Swedish hams about the fun with amateur satellites! Not many SM hams are active via satellite at the moment. With the help from our Swedish webpage and HF-net we hope that more Swedish hams should be using amateur satellites. The AMSAT-SM annual meeting is held every spring. Some weeks on Sundays we have a HF-net on 80 meters with lots of news about satellites and space. [ANS thanks AMSAT-SM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- IARU Frequency Coordination for China's Juvenile 3U Cubesats The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status pages, hosted by AMSAT-UK as a service to the world wide Amateur Satel- lite Community, report on an updated coordination for the Juvenile project from China. Juvenile is a 3U CubeSat project led by China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Culture Center for school education and amateur radio. The amateur radio station onboard will provide telecommand, tele- metry and FM repeater functions: 1. A VHF uplink and UHF downlink data control board with loop back function, which can act as an FM repeater. 2. A VHF uplink and UHF downlink 9k6 BPSK data control back up board, with a trigger to take a photo from a camera, and transmit SSTV image through NBFM modulation. 3. A 2.4 GHz band with 2 MHZ bandwidth multiple frequency up and down link communication experiment. Planning a launch from Jiuquan Space Center into a 500km Sun Synchronous Orbit. The IARU reports a November 30 revised coordination has been provided. Frequency coordination for Juvenile 1B, 1D and 1F Uplink 435.290 MHz FM Downlink 145.840 MHz FM Telemetry 145.930 MHz 9K6 BPSK Frequency coordination for Juvenile 1A, 1C, 1E and 1G Uplink 145.965 MHz FM Downlink 436.250 MHz FM Telemetry 437.475 MHz 9K6 BPSK Source: http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/ (frequencies which have been coordinated) [ANS thanks the IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, HC8. A group of operators are QRV as HC8LUT from San Cristobal Island, IOTA SA-004, until December 8. Activity is on 160 to 10 meters using all modes and satellites. QSL via IK2DUW. (via ARLD048 DX News) + Year-Long NASA On The Air Event Kicks off on December 11 The Amateur Radio clubs at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) centers around the US have invited the Amateur Radio community to join the NASA On The Air (NOTA) special event. NOTA gets under way in December 2017 and continues through December 2018. https://nasaontheair.wordpress.com/ + Astronaut Joe Acaba made an historic contact with the Maria Montessori Institute Educational Unit in San Cristobal, Venezuela: the first-ever educational ham radio contact in that country’s history. Video posted at: https://twitter.com/ISS_Research/status/935901182811238400 (via ARISS) + Hackaday article shows how AMSAT teamed up with students from Rochester Institute of Technology to create a Maximum Power Point Tracker, attached to a Fox-1B CubeSat. https://hackaday.com/2017/11/27/amsat-mppt-goes-to-infinity-and-beyond/ /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KT4TZ kt4tz at amsat dot org

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-03 03:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-03 03:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), Castelldefels, Spain, direct via EG3UPC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Mon 2017-12-04 15:10:12 UTC 43 deg Watch for live stream at http://tv.upc.edu/continguts/els-astronautes-de-estacio-espacial-internacio… (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 124 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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 2017-12-03 03:30 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 1195. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1144. 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 2017-12-01 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. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Help with Yaesu FT-736r
by KD4ZGW 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Can anyone help me get my Yaesu FT-736R to run on SatPC32? I bought a cable that will link the radio to the pc (via USB). But all it does is automatically puts the radio in "CAT mode" and doesn't change frequencies, when I shut it down, my radio is locked up and have to power cycle to get it out of CAT mode. What settings do I need to change in SatPC32? I have been working on this for months to figure it out, I want to get back on birds. I am getting a little frustrated with this radio. Thanks for any advice 73 de Rob KD4ZGW

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VUCC Awards/Endorsements for November 2017
by John Papay 03 Dec '17

03 Dec '17

Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period November 1, 2017 through December 1, 2017. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! CALL 1Nov17 1Dec17 WC7V 1157 1158 N8HM 980 1000 K4FEG 818 841 KG5CCI 616 777 N4UFO 675 700 N9IP 542 574 W5RKN 511 554 NJ4Y 516 550 W7QL 252 275 KA9P 175 212 VE7CEW 127 200 KE4AL 100 175 N4YHC 100 175 G0ABI 105 115 HP2VX 108 (NEW VUCC) KB2ESY 101 (NEW VUCC) PT9BM, who was at 100 grids on November 1, 2017, was not on the list dated December 1, 2017. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for November 1st and December 1st, 2017. It's a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apologies if your call was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are roving to grids that are rarely on the birds. They are doing most of the work! 73, John K8YSE --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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5K0T logged sat times
by Kevin M 02 Dec '17

02 Dec '17

I have checked the 5K0T clublog and see that I have 2 QSOs there (wasn't sure he got my call on the first pass, was at LOS), but when I go to enter the times to make a QSL request, it says the times are not correct. So I e-mailed the QSL manager and he sent me back the log entries from Ham Radio Deluxe. He shows the times exactly two hours ahead of what I have. So I have checked my tracking programs and I show no passes at the times his logs show, rather my times show as correct. Has anyone else that made a QSO with 5K0T tried to enter their times in Clublog to see if they are correct?? If you were successful, which pass was it? My passes were 2017-11-22 2029 and 2055z. So I e-mailed him back to tell him I think maybe there is a problem with either the computer that the log was recorded on or with the HRD program, etc., and his reply was simply, 'I use UTC times'. I made up some screen shots of my Orbitron for both his times and my times and sent them to him, but whether he will get the attachments is yet to be seen. It would just be good to know (for confidence level) if anyone else encounters the same problem. (Or am I just royally messed up and not seeing it.) Thanks in advance, feel free to reply on or off list. 73, Kevin N4UFO ------------------------------------------------------------------"Control is the need of the fearful mind. Trust is the need of the courageous heart."

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AO73 mode change
by Graham Shirville 02 Dec '17

02 Dec '17

Hi All, Just to confirm that AO73/FUNcube-1 is now in transponder mode for the weekend! Sorry for the delay.... 73 Graham G3VZV

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Upcoming ARISS contact with School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), Castelldefels, Spain
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 02 Dec '17

02 Dec '17

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), Castelldefels, Spain on 04 Dec. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:10 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and EG3UPC. The contact should be audible over Spain and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. The School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC) is a higher education school of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - Barcelona TECH that offers Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees and several Doctoral programs in the fields of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering. The School is renowned for its strong commitment with educational innovation and quality. This commitment is strengthened through a wide research activity strongly related with the industry, aiming at transferring the results to our Society. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. Why isn't the ISS farther away from Earth? 2. Is there a protocol that must be followed in case of finding extra- terrestrial life? 3. How do you measure your weight in the space? 4. Did you watch "The Martian" movie starred by Matt Damon? If it's so, do you think the story might be true in Mars in the distant future? 5. How long does it take to put on the spacesuit? 6. How much energy do you produce with the solar panels and how do you use that energy? 7. How and how often do you receive supplies from the Earth? 8. Do you think that in the near future ordinary citizens will be able to travel to space? 9. Do you think nowadays, women have the same possibilities as men in the space explorer? 10. Is up there anyone playing any music nowadays? Or just Chris Hadfield used to do that? 11. What time zone do you use in the ISS? 12. How did you feel the first time you slept on the ISS? 13. How do you feel about the image of astronauts shown on TV or cinema compared to your real life? 14. Which was your reaction when you were selected? 15. Can you explain any funny situation that happened there? 16. What are the skills that you need to be there? 17. After several time in the space, do you have another perspective of the life? 18. Is your hair growing as much as it does on Earth? 19. Do you have to sleep fewer hours if you are in space? Why? 20. Could you tell us if you would have accepted to do a space trip with the technology that had been used on the first moon landing? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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