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

Re: [amsat-bb] Anyone else not receive their BOD ballot for the election?
by Gabriel Zeifman 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

I never received mine. When I noted it to leadership I was told "sorry, nothing can be done, deal with it". 73, Gabe NJ7H/VE6NJH On Aug 8, 2017 12:31 PM, "Norm n3ykf" <normanlizeth(a)gmail.com> wrote: I'd have contacted our well paid staff. info(a)amsat.org bounces from the webpage. No ballot yet. Did receive the mag, so the database has the correct address. Don't want to miss my opportunity to exercise governance. Wonder why this happened. Spent 5 years as the Secretary Treasurer of a labor union. Teamsters sent me to school so that I might learn all about governing, governance and regulations. Elections can be nullified by irregularities. Loss of 501c3? Norm McSweyn n3ykf _______________________________________________ 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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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-08-08 14:30 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-08-08 14:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: YOTA, England, direct via GB4YOTA The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Contact is a go for: Tue 2017-08-08 18:38:37 UTC 82 deg (***) Watch for Ham TV (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 2017-08-08 14:30 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 1151. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1110. 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 2017-08-06 21:00 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. 50 on orbit Peggy Whitson Exp. 51 on orbit Jack Fischer K2FSH Fyodor Yurchikhin RN3FI **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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(no subject)
by Craig Kinsman 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Dear Sir I have been trying to set up a new account at issfanclub.com and I am asked what is the packet radio callsign. Please help me with this as I dont know it. Craig ZS6XKH

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AMSAT-UK Colloquium
by David G0MRF 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Hi. Can anyone confirm the hotel being used for the A-UK dinner on Sat 14th October? I can see it's a nearby Hilton, but there seem to be 2 in the area. - Don't want to book an overnight stay at the wrong one! Thanks David G0MRF

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ISS contact 1837 GMT today - Receive and Watch Worldwide
by M5AKA 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Space Station contact planned for YOTA 2017 UK at 1837 GMT Tuesday, August 8 https://amsat-uk.org/2017/08/03/ariss-contact-yota-2017/ Listen to the Space Station on 145.800 MHz FM You can use the SUWS Online Radio to listen from anywhere in the world http://websdr.suws.org.uk/ Watch live at https://ariss.batc.tv/ Don't forget to book for the International Space Colloquium, Milton Keynes, October 14-15Program schedule now available, see Colloquium 2017 Saturday Gala Dinner https://amsat-uk.org/2017/08/05/colloquium-2017-saturday-gala-dinner/ Trevor M5AKA ---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK YouTube https://youtube.com/AmsatUK ---- | | Virus-free. www.avg.com |

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Rocket Lab test flight analysis released
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Hello Launch watchers, The report on Rocket Lab’s first test flight is here: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/latest/rocket-lab-completes-post-flight-analys… Memo, turn ON the FEC before launch. 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. SPAMfighter has removed 306 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen

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Cleaning up the Global APRS Satellite ground station network?
by Robert Bruninga 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

I think we should better organize our autmoatied automatic APRS satelite ground stations. We found about 330 unique IGATES feeding the APRS-IS and the two APRS satellite networks: http://pcsat.findu.com and http://ariss.net For decades a hot topic at SmalSat conferences has been remote ground station networks. Some costing $100,000 or more but with only a half dozen other stations that seem to always be just one more software, and one more receiver upgrade to actualy be operating. Meantime, APRS has had global ground stations by the hundreds. They all work fine for APRS donwlinks on 145.825. I am not really interested (for now) in diluting this always-listening network by spinnning off stations that can be remotely tuned to go listend to the other hundreds of small sats and their UHF downlinks which require tracking AND Doppler tuning, For now, I'd rather encourage more AMSATS to use our network and provide more APRS transponders! In addition, I'd like to at least see about making this ground station netwrok to be TWO_WAY just like APRS was designed, so that small satellite control operators with satellites on 145.825 can send APRS message back to their spacecraft for control anywhere anytime. The inherent protocol does this already (once a fground station has heard the satelite at least once on that pass). I do think this transmit path might need to be available only to valid control operators, though,,, Remember, with this many stations I have not encouraged AZ/EL active trackign but just omni receivers. After seeign all the problems when Yaesu rotators are run full time, I do not think that is a strong idea for hams at home... But maybe universities who have budgets to replace warn out equipment? So here are just some initial thoughts about this network we already have: PHASE 1: Lets choose a unique set of APRS symbols to clearly identify this network. In 2008 we expanded the APRS symbol set. FOr example the \& gateway symbol has plenty of vacancies we can use for this purpose. Here are the existing Gateway overlays: /& = HF Gateway <= the original primary table definition I& = Igate Generic (please use more specific overlay) R& = Receive only IGate (do not send msgs back to RF) P& = PSKmail node T& = TX igate with path set to 1 hop only) W& = WIRES-X as opposed to W0 for WiresII 2& = TX igate with path set to 2 hops (not generally good idea) We could; define additional overlays for this Satellite ground station network: A& for Omni "AMSAT" ground station (2-way, 50W radio) L& for Omni "AMSAT" low power or other wise less than optimum sky view O& for Omni receive Only H& for HFSAT (that will be our next one in a few years) Y& for Yaggi oscar class (Gernerallyh tracks APRS sats of current interest) U& for UHF downlinks chanel (TBD) S& for Schools and University class (always on and can track on demand?) and can QSY when we figure out how we want to do this... (and can afford to wear out their stuff) V& for Various? Since APRS has a FREUENCY SPEC already, we can assume that all stations using these symbols are on 145.825, UNLESS they include a different frequency in their STATUS text. A V station might be VARIOUS and that indicates that it is auto tracking and auto tuning any satellite in view and is beaconing that frequency in its status each time it changes frequency. THen lets come up with some well defined way to categorize capablities so that it all fits in the station's STATUS packet in a consistent way. I know there are LOTS of ideas of all kinds of automated linked ground stations. I am not trying to disrupt all those ideas, but simple clean up what I think is what APRS already has? Does this seem like a plan? Bob, WB4apr

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Cleaning up the Global APRS Satellite ground station network?
by Dave Ryan 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Hi Bob I run an RX only i-gate in the UK MB7UEI-6. Currently it uses AZ/EL active tracking antennas, VHF and UHF wimo Xquads, the system runs 24/7 and also tracks the 3 Funcube sats, I have plans to expand this further and include the station on WEBSDR, I would be interested to participate. Regards Dave EI4HT / M0GIW

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YOTA ARISS Contact Tuesday 8th August
by Graham Shirville 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Hi all, Just to confirm that all the plans have now been finalised for tomorrow's ARISS contact with the ISS from the YOTA 2017 event at Gilwell Park near London The FM audio downlink will be on 145.800 MHz as usual and the HAMtv system has been switched back on today and is expected to be used by Paolo Nespoli for the contact. Full details about the contact, scheduled to start at 18:38utc, including guidance about how to watch the event live on the batc webstreams, can be found at https://amsat-uk.org/2017/08/03/ariss-contact-yota-2017/ 73 Graham G3VZV

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Yaesu G-5500 az issue
by Jeff Griffin 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

I removed the rotor from the tower today and started working on the azimuth rotor. When power is applied via left or right control the motor is running. I carefully split the case and everything appears intact. Grease is still good, no missing gear teeth, no metal shavings in bottom of housing. So the problem is somewhere in the gearing, or mechanical control. I would like to proceed further but have no exploded view of the inside of the rotor. I wouldn't want to proceed without some kind of service manual part description view. Does anyone have anything that might help? Does anyone have a clue, maybe had this same problem and fixed it?I already have the useless Yaesu user manual.. 73 Jeff kb2m

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