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

Office Closed
by Martha 02 Mar '17

02 Mar '17

The AMSAT office will be closed on Friday, March 3rd and Monday, March 6th. I will be back on Tuesday. -- 73- Martha

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APRStk ? Or other?
by Dave 02 Mar '17

02 Mar '17

Hi All I'm setting up an autonomous sat gate using a spare Kenwood TMD700. I seem to remember that once upon a time there was a DOS program called APRStk that could Doppler correct the TMD700. Does anyone know of a more up to date alternative that would run on a Pi or Pi Zero? Regards Dave EI4HT / M0GIW Sent from my iPhone

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Nayif-1
by Red Willoughby 02 Mar '17

02 Mar '17

I see it listed at the top of the colorful matrix on amsat.org/status, but it does not seem to appear in the Select Satellite dropdown box for posting reports. Am I just missing it or does it have another name?

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-03-02 07:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 02 Mar '17

02 Mar '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-03-02 07:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Ecole Albert Camus, Rueil-Malmaison, France, College Marcel Pagnol, Rueil-Malmaison, France, and Ecole “Robespierre B.”, Rueil-Malmaison, France, direct via F6KFA The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be FXØISS The scheduled astronaut is Thomas Pesquet KG5FYG Contact was successful: Wed 2017-03-01 08:04:44 UTC 77 deg (***) Student Space Technology Association, Knoxville, TN, direct via AA4UT The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact postponed (***) Blair Pointe Upper Elementary School, Peru, IN, direct via WD9GIU The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-03-09 15:21:33 UTC 80 deg 3rd Junior High School, Komotini, Greece, direct via SV7APQ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Shane Kimbrough KE5HOD Contact is a go for: Fri 2017-03-10 08:20:46 UTC 28 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. **************************************************************************** *** Message to US Educators Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Contact Opportunity Call for Proposals Proposal Window February 15 – April 15, 2017 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 January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018. 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 April 15, 2017. Proposal information and documents can be found at www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact. The Opportunity Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session. An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact. Amateur Radio organizations around the world, NASA, and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe sponsor this educational opportunity by providing the equipment and operational support to enable direct communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world via Amateur Radio. In the US, the program is managed by AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) and ARRL (American Radio Relay League) in partnership with NASA and CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space). More Information Interested parties can find more information about the program at www.ariss.org and www.arrl.org/ARISS. For proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Sessions go to http://www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact. Please direct any questions to ariss(a)arrl.org. ******************************************** *********************************** 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 123 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 2017-03-02 07:00 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 1123. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1084. (***) 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 2017-03-02 07:00 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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TS-2000 Strange behavior
by Kevin M 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

Hi Mike, I don't believe there is anything wrong with your receive... the 'static' you hear IS the AO-85 downlink. The transmitter is on and transmitting and the signal strength is going up and down due to 'tumbling', ploarity shifting, etc. The reason you hear static is that it's not like SO-50; instead of squelching when there is no signal, AO-85 simply rebroadcasts what it hears... which at the moment is 'nothing', SO it is passing the white noise from it's UHF receiver straight to the 2m transmitter. Eventually you heard a voice there at the end, so yes, you ARE hearing it. If I read the TS-2000 manual correctly, your problem is that you have the PL tone set on the receive band... not the transmit band. The 'T' should be above the sub band display in other words. So since you are not transmitting the proper PL tone of 67.0 Hz, you are not able to hear yourself come through the transponder. See about fixing that and give it another try. And from experience, I'll suggest to double check that even after you get the 'T' on the correct band, verify that it's 67.0 Hz. =^) 73, Kevin N4UFO

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EL39 3/2
by R.T.Liddy 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

I've had several requests for EL39 before I skiptown. So, it'll be tomorrow on FO29 1600Z pass.Look 10-15 KHz above center.CUL, Bob K8BL

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AO-73 is ROCKING
by Mark Lunday 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

Wow, 0200 UTC pass over east central US. I heard my downlink CW CQ throughout the pass, very strong! Too bad no one else was on that I could hear. Right on alignment: center of passband up = center of passband down. Fabulous. Mark Lunday, WD4ELG Greensboro, NC FM06be wd4elg(a)arrl.net http://wd4elg.blogspot.com SKCC #16439 FISTS #17972

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Re: [amsat-bb] Solid State conversion (tube equivalents)? END
by Robert Bruninga 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

Here is the conclusion to this thread with great feedback from James Duffey and Diane Bruce... > I picked up an old boatanchor LM-21 Frequency Meter at a Hamfest over the weekend. I original asked people here about converting the 3 tubes to solid state. But they said, why bother. Just use it with the tubes... and were curious how well it was calibrated now compared to its 85 year old design age (1930's)? So today I just powered it up with the tubes and it was within 150 Hz at 2 MHz after not being used since 1976. Not bad. In fact when I first compared it to the modern sig gen, I thought it wasn't even working because the 150 Hz was so close to zero beat I didn't hear it at first until I dithered the dial! I have no idea why I am doing this, but it sure brings back the good ole days... Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: James Duffey [mailto:jamesduffey@comcast.net] ... why bother converting to solid state? The LM/BC-221 frequency meters are, as you note, very nice frequency meters/sources. They don't drift when warmed up and are very solid mechanically. They age well and you are likely to have performance now very close to what they were new. If you insist on converting it to solid state, here is one article describing how: < http://www.hanssummers.com/images/stories/bc221t/bc221.pdf > < http://hanssummers.com/bc221t.html > including schematics and the manual. But I doubt performance will be substantially better, if any, than the tube unit you start out with. Enjoy it. Technologically it is a wonderful thing to have just the way it is. It is still a very useful laboratory quality instrument. - Duffey KK6MC

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BY70-1
by PY5LF 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

Hi We had a low pass over here minutes ago and i felt the keps BY70-1 are wrong . I start to hear 25 seconds before . Does anyone feels the same ? 73

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ISS Boosting It's Orbit
by JoAnne K9JKM 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

Update your ISS keps: The International Space Station will boost its orbit Wednesday night to get ready for a crew swap next month. Three Expedition 50 crew members will complete their mission and a new two-person crew will launch to the station in April. https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/03/01/station-boosting-orbit-for-a… Watch the line wrap ... the -bb kills long URLs. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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