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

SSTV via AO-85 on Experimenter's Wednesday
by Paul Stoetzer 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

A reminder that Experimenter's Wednesday begins at 0000 UTC. Stations are encouraged to exchange Robot36 SSTV images via AO-85. See https://www.amsat.org/return-of-experimenters-wednesday-to-ao-85/ for guidelines. 73, Paul, N8HM

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best tripod for the arrow II handheld antenna
by Laura Tunnell 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

What is best tripod for the arrow II handheld antenna ?

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Re: [amsat-bb] best tripod for the arrow II handheld antenna
by Doug Andrews 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

The one time I used a tripod it collapsed causing the coax to act like a whip launching the radio to the ground. That said, a regular camera tripod should work. 73 .- ..-. --... --.. --.- -------- Original message -------- From: Laura Tunnell <drlnt(a)cox.net> Date: 8/14/17 1:55 PM (GMT-08:00) To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] best tripod for the arrow II handheld antenna What is best tripod for the arrow II handheld antenna ? _______________________________________________ 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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Re: [amsat-bb] Modulation levels on AO-85
by Tom Schuessler 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

The issue with quieting vs. Modulation level is that if a station has enough power to do full quieting FM into the AO-85 bent pipe, than even if he is a weak talker, or his radio has low modulation gain, he will be heard because the background noise is minimal. Having enough power to get to that point is a good thing, but there are many stations, like myself sometimes, that are using HTs for uplink and downlink. 5 watts, not the right transmit polarization and a slightly deaf RX on AO-85 due to an antenna not quite what it should've been (Documented shortly after AO-85 launch) and you have a number of things lined up against you. This presents a situation where this combination results with a station barely coming through the noise and thus being hard to hear. Again remember that AO-85 is a bent pipe after it is tuned on via hearing a station transmitting a 67 Hz tone so that is why you can hear FM noise through it when no RX of uplink signal is present. It has no squelch to prevent weak signals from getting through. I have a little Chinese radio that definitely even on "Wide" mode, is quieter than another radio I own. Most HT's give no option to adjust this value. Yelling into these radios does not help as they seem to have some level of high signal limiting or compression, as simple as plane old peak clipping. I know that Yaesu does allow for mic gain adjustments on some of their Fusion radios but most FM only handhelds have no option for fine tuning. My suggestion to little pistols like myself (When learning to work FM satellites like AO-85), is to just not try during a busy pass but wait for a lesser trafficked pass so you can learn how best to manipulate your transmitting circumstances to hear yourself and be heard. Jerry Buxton, the Fox series daddy, assures us that the newer iterations of the AMSAT Fox birds will have a little better ears and hopefully that will help immensely. Have patience with the little guys. You probably were one once yourself. Tom Schuessler n5hyp(a)arrl.net ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:27:29 +0200 (CEST) From: jerry.tuyls(a)telenet.be To: amsat-bb <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Modulation levels on AO-85 Message-ID: <1165542169.90891698.1502731649191.JavaMail.zimbra(a)telenet.be> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Spending some time here by telling several times on AO-85 passes about bad modulation to the same stations, but they DON'T listen. Just ignoring them, because i cannot understand them on my TS-790/FT-847.No narrow FM and no PL tone. Never got a problem. And please...why do some stations upload logs with DWNlink freq on sat qso's instead of the UPlink freq? Always having some rejected qsl's because qso's don't match due to wrong band. I log with VQlog, uplink and dwnlink freq etc, so i think the TX-freq is most important for logging sat'qso's and not the RX-freq? 73's Jerry,ON4CJQ

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Modulation levels on AO-85
by Ronald G. Parsons 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

I’ve noticed lately that many stations on AO-85 have barely audible modulation. Yet other stations have clear audio with good quieting. I have heard the some manufacturers of hand-held and mobile rigs are setting their maximum deviation to 5 kHz or even less. I have noticed the same effect on local repeaters. Has anyone done any tests of the deviation required for reasonable quieting on AO-85? Or are more stations using lower power than in the past? Ron W5RKN

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Total Eclipse of the Sun Stamps
by Tom Deeble - KA6SIP 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

Greetings, This is a little off-subject but might be of interest to some. I just found out about these stamps by accident. The Total Eclipse of the Sun stamp is the first U.S. stamp to use thermochromic ink, which reacts to the heat of your touch. Placing your finger over the black disc on the stamp causes the ink to change from black to clear to reveal an underlying image of the moon. The image reverts back to the black disc once it cools. These stamps are really cool and I think may be a collectors item. They are forever stamps and cost the standard 49 cents. There is also a special sleeve available for 25 cents. Hopefully everyone has clear weather for the eclipse - in just one week! 73 - Tom Tom Deeble - KA6SIP, ka6sip(a)aol.com Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club Membership Chairman MDARC, PO Box 23222, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523-0222 PACIFICON - Oct 20-22, 2017, San Ramon

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Re: [amsat-bb] Best SDR for satellite reception
by Rick Walter 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

Great response Patrick. We all know you get what you pay for. Please continue telling us about your evaluations and experiences. I highly value your opinion and observations. I have a FCD Pro +, a SDR Play as well as the special dongle to receive the Outernet from the geosynchronous bird, and another dongle I currently use to send realtime Flight Aware data from my location. Keep up the good work. Please continue to share your valuable information, Patrick. 73, Rick - WB3CSY Sent from Rick's iPhone 6S "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" - Albert Einstein "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke "Klaatu Barada Nikto" - The Day the Earth Stood Still >

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Sat Reporter Upgrade added NO44 NO84
by Andrew Rich 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

Hello Added in NO-44 and NO-88 Cheers http://59.167.159.165 <http://59.167.159.165/>

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Using DCI filters narrowband vs broadband
by Robert Bruninga 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

Many people on AMSAT use DCI brand passband filters at their antennas to cut down on front end overload and splatter from other services. These multi-resonator filters typically cover several MHz of bandwidth to cover entire sections of the Amateur Bands and block things out of band.. When I asked if they could be tuned narrower with all resonators favoring the same single frequency, their answer kept coming back YES, the bandwidth is 500 kHz. But they did not define what the “bandwidth” meant. Today, they sent me a revised spec sheet for their two meter filter when tuned to a single frequency. Now they fully specify what the bandwidth is. Here are the numbers: - 3 dB is 0.5 MHz -20 dB is 1.25 MHz -40 dB is 2.3 MHz -60 dB is 4 MHz This is useful information for those needing a single frequency filter. Bob, WB4APR

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Icom combined RF gain and squelch knob
by Peter Pauly 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

The Icom 910H and 9100 radios have a combined RF gain and squelch knob. The choice of settings are: 1. "rF/SqL" RF gain and squelch controls are combined for SSB/CW mode. Acts as squelch control for FM mode. 2. "Auto" Acts as a gain control in SSB/CW mode and a Squelch control in FM mode. 3. "SQL" Acts as squelch control for all modes. RF gain is set to maximum level in this setting. I'm tempted to choose the last option which sets the RF gain at maximum. The default is number 1. I'd like to find something that works without adjustment when switching back and forth between FM and SSB satellites. What option are you using?

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