AMSAT-BB April 2017

123 participants
179 discussions

by Trevor .

Students at the Ivy League Brown University are developing an amateur radio satellite EQUiSat that will carry a Xenon Flash Tube (XFT) subsystem to act as an Optical Beacon that should be visible to the unaided eye of observers on Earth. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10635 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAK-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

3 years, 3 months

Using 1.2Ghz

by Todd

Thinking about adding the 1.2Ghz module for my 9100. Prices have dropped a little and units will start become harder to find once production ends. Anybody using this band? I read it's used as a uplink frequency for some satellites. Any input appreciated.ToddAL7PX

3 years, 9 months

Outernet L-Band now carries AMSAT and ARISS weekly bulletins

by Robert Bruninga

The Outernet L-band feed is now carrying a condensed version of the AMSAT and ARISS weekly news files. (Global Geosat coverage except for Northern Alaska)... Receivers are simple: http://aprs.org/outnet.html For ARISS, I manually added a 2 char grid square to each school listed in the school schedule and am asking the outernet folks to parse out that location info and plot a 1200 km footprint on their weather globe showing where people can tune in the ARISS contacts. Then their RTL-SDR dongle could then actually be retuned to hear the contact. Just an idea... Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dani EA4GPZ Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2016 7:36 AM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] New Outernet L-Band service... >> I hope someday a service like this will be available >> from an AMSAT geostationary service. > I'm pretty confident that the guys at AMSAT-DL are capable > of doing this much better on the upcoming EsHail'2 > than what Outernet is currently doing on Inmarsat... > They already have in mind a "DVB-S beacon"... broadcast > from the ground station at Qatar ... carrying videos > about Ham radio and Ham radio events on this signal. > What is more, if you have equipment to operate EsHail'2 on SSB, > it's more or less easy to use either the narrowband transponder > or the wideband transponder to transmit an Outernet-type signal > through EsHail'2, so anyone can have a go with this. > Outernet uses 4200baud BPSK and half of the bitrate is spent for FEC. > You can use a bit less bitrate to get a signal that will even pass > through a conventional 2.7kHz SSB filter and you can use less > bits for FEC to get increased data throughput (but more SNR required). > Dani EA4GPZ.

3 years, 10 months

AO-73/FUNcube Mode switch

by Jim Heck G3WGM

Hi Folks, This is to let you know that I have just switched AO-73/FUNcube into amateur mode, with transponder activated 24/7. Early this week due to ground station availability. As per normal, we will switch back to autonomous mode on Sunday pm UTC. 73s Jim G3WGM and the FUNcube Team ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FUNcube frequencies and other details ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AO-73 FUNcube-1 The transponder is normally operational only when the satellite is in eclipse, ie the solar panels are NOT being illuminated. During weekends (from pm Fridays UTC to PM Sundays UTC) the transponder is operational 24/7. When the transponder is switched off, the telemetry beacon is on full power, when the transponder is on the beacon it is on low power. During holidays, eg Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc, the transponder maybe activated for extended periods. Watch AMSAT-BB for announcements which are usually made on Friday evenings (UTC) The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.150 - 435.130 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.950 - 145.970 MHz USB Telemetry Tx: 145.935 MHz BPSK (The passband may be up to 15kHz higher depending on on-board temps. Low temperatures give higher freqs!) FUNcube-2 aka FUNcube on UKube The FUNcube-2 sub-system continues to operate autonomously and, almost continuously, in amateur mode. The transponder is operational and the telemetry downlink is functioning with about 70mW output. The FUNcube-1 Dashboard does not correctly display the telemetry but it does correctly decode the data and uploads it to the FUNcube Data Warehouse from where it can be examined. Most of the real time data channels are operational and these include battery voltages, temperatures and ADCS data coming via the main On Board Computer (OBC). The transponder is interrupted for a few seconds every 2 minutes when the other transmitter sends its CW beacon and, occasionally, for a few seconds when the main OBC reboots (approx seven times each orbit). The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.080 - 435.060 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.930 - 145.950 MHz USB Telemetry Tx: 145.915 MHz BPSK (The passband may be up to 10kHz higher depending on on-board temps. Low temperatures give higher freqs!) EO79 FUNcube-3 Due to power budget constraints the transponder cannot be operational 24/7 and an orbit specific schedule has been developed. The transponder will commence operation 27 minutes after the spacecraft enters sunlight and will stay on for a period of 25 minutes. This schedule may be modified in future months as a result of experience. The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.0723-435.0473 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.946-145.971 MHz USB Further detailed info on EO79 transponder frequencies is at: https://amsat-uk.org/2016/11/10/eo79-funcube-3-transponder-commences-regula… Nayif-1 FUNcube-5EO88 is presently operating in autonomous mode. The transponder isoperational when the satellite is in eclipse, ie the solar panels are NOTbeing illuminated.When the transponder is switched off, the telemetry beacon is on full power,when the transponder is on the beacon it is on low power.The transponder frequencies are:Uplink: 435.045 – 435.015 MHz LSB (inverting)Downlink: 145.960-145.990 MHz USBTelemetry Tx: 145.940MHzAll FUNcube transponders are sponsored by AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL. We are verygrateful for the assistance given by Innovative Solution In Space Bv, TheNetherlands. _______________________________________________ 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

4 years, 2 months

Alert! AO-40 is working again!

by Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL

April Fools.

4 years, 3 months

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-10-26 23:00 UTC

by AJ9N＠aol.com

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2015-10-26 23:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Possible Russian contact with Kursk Tue 2015-10-27 11:35 UTC Dearborn Public Schools, Dearborn, Michigan, USA, direct via K8UTT The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for Option #3: Tue 2015-10-27 16:01:59 UTC 57 deg Watch for a live video stream that should start about 15:00 UTC: (***) http://www.dearbornschools.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbhrQiZ62LE Daggett Montessori School K-8, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, direct via K5COW The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Contact is a go for Option #4: Thu 2015-10-29 14:12:56 UTC 31 deg **************************************************************************** ** Interested in hosting an ARISS contact? The window is now open from 2015-09-01 to 2015-11-01. These proposals will be for school contacts during the second half of 2016. Go to http://www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact or http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html for full details. To help organizations in preparing their proposals, the ARISS Program Coordinator will offer hour-long online information sessions. These are designed to provide more information regarding US ARISS contacts and the proposal process and offer an opportunity to ask questions. While attending an online information session is not required, it is strongly encouraged. These will be offered Thursday, September 17, at 2000 UTC; Tuesday, September 22, at 2000 UTC, and Wednesday, September 30, at 2300 UTC. Advance registration is necessary. Email ARISS (ariss(a)arrl.org) to sign up for an information session. **************************************************************************** ** >From 2015-12-20 to 2016-01-04, there will be no US Operational Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. **************************************************************************** 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. **************************************************************************** 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 Francesco IKØWGF with 114 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 112 **************************************************************************** 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 8061 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2015-10-24 06:00 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 1001. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 966. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46. 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, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, 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 2015-10-24 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. 43/44 on orbit Scott Kelly Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF Exp. 44 on orbit Oleg Kononenko RN3DX Kimiya Yui KG5BPH Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS Exp. 45 on orbit Sergey Volkov RU3DIS **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

4 years, 4 months

share a room Dayton

by Nick Pugh

Hello Amsat-ers I got the last reservation for 2 queen beds at the Fairborn motel and would like to split the room expenses. Please reply if you are interested Thanks nick Office 337 593 8700 Cell 337 258 2527 Helping UL become a world Class Engineering and Educational School

4 years, 8 months

AO-85 Question

by R.T.Liddy

I've seen some commentary about the best freqs to use for AO-85. What should I program for UP & Down for that Satellite? TNX, Bob K8BL

4 years, 8 months

Receiving with an rtl-sdr, desense on transmit

by Koos van den Hout

I am trying to go full duplex 'on the cheap' by using an rtl-sdr on the receiving side, keeping an ear on the downlink while transmitting. Software wise this all seems to work. I use a linux setup, with gpredict to track the satellites and calculate doppler shift. The gqrx sdr software can act like a radio that gpredict can control so the receiving frequency is correct. It controls both gqrx as receiver and my ft-857 as transmitter. Hardware wise I bought an rtl-sdr with a small preamp and built the pre-amp into a metal case. This works up to the level where I received AO-73 and received a weak Fox-1A and recorded the pass. But when I pressed the transmit button on the FT-857 (tuned to the 70cm uplink frequency) the receiver (tuned to the 2m downlink frequency) went deaf. Some testing with the arrow antenna and transmitting on 70cm shows the preamp turns deaf on 2 meter. Even without the preamp but with the internal amplifier of the rtl-sdr this happens. Setting the gain to 'automatic' causes a huge drop in signal and takes time to recover. Complete details, experiences, pictures of my setup and details I left out start at https://idefix.net/~koos/newsitem.cgi/1490542545 - has anybody done anything with an rtl-sdr as the receiving side, how do you setup the gain? Is there a solution to fix this? - specific to fox-1a: I am reading somewhat different reports of the downlink and uplink frequencies when I search with google. I hope http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=4690 is right. I did notice the signal is weak even with an amplifier. Thanks for any insights and tips, Koos PE4KH -- Koos van den Hout PGP keyid 0x5BA9368BE6F334E4 via keyservers IPv6: Think ::/0, act ::1. http://idefix.net/ Are you ready to start supporting IPv6?

4 years, 8 months

SatPC32 on Ubuntu Mate/Wine

by Rolf Krogstad

I am playing with Ubuntu Mate in hopes of replacing the aged PC I use for satellite work. I have installed Wine 1.8.7 and SatPC32 v12.8c. I can't get my COM ports working The problem I am having is getting the Radio Setup of SatPC32 to work. Note: I have radio control working with this same USB-COM device (with two com ports) on the old Windows XP system which I am hoping to replace. Same Radios and Same USB-COM devices work on Windows XP. The only variable here is Ubuntu Mate Operating System. I have verified that the FTDI USB-COM is shown as /dev/ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1. I run dmesg and it gives me the following: [ 7162.258726] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6010 [ 7162.258736] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 7162.258744] usb 3-1: Product: USB FAST SERIAL ADAPTER [ 7162.258750] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: FTDI [ 7162.258757] usb 3-1: SerialNumber: FT5V2HZV [ 7162.269942] ftdi_sio 3-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected [ 7162.270131] usb 3-1: Detected FT2232C [ 7162.273835] usb 3-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0 [ 7162.277760] ftdi_sio 3-1:1.1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected [ 7162.277816] usb 3-1: Detected FT2232C [ 7162.281895] usb 3-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB1 I then went to /home/rolf/.wine/dosdevices and created symbolic links to com3 and com4. I also tried com1 and com2. lrwxrwxrwx 1 rolf rolf 12 Apr 28 20:37 com3 -> /dev/ttyUSB0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 rolf rolf 12 Apr 28 20:39 com4 -> /dev/ttyUSB1 Then I go into radio control in SatPC32 and define the proper com ports for radio 1 and radio two. I exit SatPC32 and then reopen. As SatPC32 opens I get two error messages, one for each com port defined in radio control: "Could not open COM3 for Radio 1. Check whether COM3 is available on your system..." I get the corresponding error message for COM4 on Radio 2. Any linux experts who can help me with ideas on how to get the USB-COM devices recognized in Wine? Thanks Rolf NR0T EN34

4 years, 8 months

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AMSAT-BB April 2017