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

Upcoming ARISS contact with Beenleigh State High School, Beenleigh, Queensland, Australia
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Beenleigh State High School, Beenleigh, Queensland, Australia on 11 Sept. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 12:58 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between NA1SS and K6DUE. The contact should be audible over the east coast of the U.S 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. Beenleigh State High School is located about 30 km south of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia and provides a broad-based education for local students. The school has a proud record of academic achievement in science, technology, coding and mathematics, and offers students the opportunity to complete university subjects in science. Beenleigh State High School runs specialized programs in Music, Agricultural Science and Rugby League based around our motto of Semper Altiora (Aim Higher). School facilities include a new eLearning centre, state-of-the-art science laboratories, purpose-built trade training centre (hospitality kitchen), modern special education unit and a fully operational farm. The school draws students from a diverse range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. As such, diversity is valued and celebrated at Beenleigh State High School. Our school population has: 12% Indigenous students, 20% Polynesian students and 5% students for whom English is a second language. The school has a very active Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander unit called "Mibunn Jinndi" meaning Eagle's Nest and also a strong culture group; both the groups participate in performances throughout the school year and in the community. Our school is located close to the Gold Coast Space Flight Academy located at Pimpama and our nomination for ARISS was facilitated by this growing Aerospace business. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. Living in low gravity can cause your muscles to deteriorate, so how do you keep fit to ensure you are still able to return to Earth's gravity without problems? 2. What are the future goals of the International Space Station? 3. What's your opinion on the settlement of Mars? Would you ever sign up for the colonization of Mars? 4. What kind of jobs involving Biology is there in the space industry? 5. What has been the most challenging experiment you have attempted so far? 6. How has your understanding of the universe changed since seeing the Earth from space? 7. What are your thoughts on other life forms existing on another planet or in another galaxy? 8. Will your blood flow or internal organs be affected by the low gravity on the ISS? 9. NASA has been working on a supersonic parachute which worked successfully when it went to Mars previously. NASA is still trying to make a bigger, better and stronger supersonic parachute that will go to Mars with astronauts. So my question is what type of material will be used to do this? 10. Do your energy requirements change in space? E.g. do you have to eat more or less food? 11. What kind of training do you do before you go to space? 12. How have you adapted to life on the International Space Station and how do you think you will adapt back to life on Earth? 13. How did you become an astronaut? 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): 1. Boston Red Sox Outreach to School Groups, Boston, MA, telebridge via W6SRJ. The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-09-14 15:03 UTC 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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Re: [amsat-bb] orb17251.2l.amsat
by Ray Hoad 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

Attention ALL. Don't update KEPs with 9/8/2017 (orb17251.2l.amsat email). It will mess up your SATPC32 program. I have just become aware of this issue. You are correct. There are duplicates in the KEP list that I sent out on 9/8/2017. I appears that the SpaceTrack website produced the duplicates for reasons unknown. (New problem!) SpaceTrack is not doing that now. I am going to send a new KEP distribution in a few minutes without duplicates. NOTE!!!! Do not update your PCSAT32 from the 9/8/2017 KEP data (orb17251.21.amsat email). Wait for my new KEP distribution that I am working on now. If you have already and your PCSAT32 is locked up, I think I have a fix. But I need to send out a good KEP file first. More later. Ray Hoad WA5QGD Orbital Elements Manager From: Monty Wilson [mailto:jwilson16@cableone.net] Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 22:40 To: Ray Hoad <ray.hoad(a)mypbmail.com> Subject: orb17251.2l.amsat Ray, This week's keps message has 5 duplicates with different elements. They are: AO-27 SO-50 HRBE SPROUT XW-2D Cheers Monty, NR0A jwilson16(a)cableone.net <mailto:jwilson16@cableone.net>

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SatPC Error Message when updating Keps
by Ken Alexander 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

I went to update the Keplerian files this evening and get the following error message after successfully downloading the keps. The error pops up when I click on the Quit button. SatPC is locked up solid. There's no way out except by rebooting. Any help would be gratefully received. Thanks and 73, Ken VE3HLS

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Error Message
by Ken Alexander 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

It would help if I attached the screenshot, wouldn't it? Ken

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Kenwood TS2000X HF/VHF/UHF/1.2ghz satellite radio for sale
by John Geiger 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

I have for sale a Kenwood TS2000X, which does 100 watts on HF/6/m/2m, 50 watts on 70cm and 10 watts on 1.2ghz. It has a built in antenna tuner, memory keyer, TCXO, AM/FM subreceiver, and does full duplex for the satellites. It has 10 dedicated satellite memories, and will do normal and reverse tracking. You can add a voice keyer chip to it which makes it a very versatile all band radio for satellite work, HF contesting, and VHF contesting. It has IF-DSP for noise reduction and narrow filters. It is a 2012 model and in very good condition. I have done very limited testing on 1.2ghz with it as I don't have any test equipment for that band, but if it doesn't work right there I will refund your money. It comes with the power cord, hand mic, and manual. I am asking $1050 shipped. I would consider trading it for a TS2000 (without 1.2ghz) and cash. I can take paypal/cash/MO/check. 73 John AF5CC

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Making the linear satellites more accessible
by Mac A. Cody 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

First, thanks to those that replied to my question about the level of activity on the linear transponder satellites. What was saidwaspretty much what I suspected. I was just looking for some verification from others before expressing some thoughts about making the linear satellites more accessible to amateur radio operators. I apologize up front for this lengthy posting. Please accept it in the spirit of experimentation, reducing the level of congestion on a few satellites, and possibly increasing the ranks of the amateur satellite community. I'm sure that there will be those ready to step forward and correct me on any of the assumptions or statements that I make. Please be understanding. There are currently two FM repeater satellites (three, counting the sporadicly active LilacSat2). SO-50 and AO-85 are heavily used, with frequent congestion. Meanwhile, there are a dozen linear transponder satellites that are relatively lightly used with bandwidth for multiple simultaneous channels. I understand that it makes sense to launch linear transponders, rather than FM repeaters, due to the better utilization of resources. In my estimation, the relative lack of utilization of the linear birds, compared to the FM birds, is the cost barrier for the radio equipment required to be able to work them. The added challenges of finding other stations in the band and stricter Doppler accommodation also exist, but can be mastered with practice. Allow me, though, to confine my comparison to voice-mode communication only, for reasons I'll explain shortly. A pair of inexpensive hand-held FM transceivers and a pair of Yagi antennas (or an Arrow or Elk antenna) are all that is needed to successfully work the FM birds. In fact, that is what I'm using right now. An expenditure of about $200 is needed, possibly less. On the other hand, to properly work the linear birds using voice requires an SSB transceiver (if capable of full duplex operation), or that and another SSB receiver, otherwise. The attendant expense appears to approach $1000, possibly more. One suggestion is to work the linear satellites using CW mode. While this could definitely be less expensive, it exchanges one barrier for two others. The first is the need to know Morse code. The second is the apparent lack of regard that many in the satellite operator community appear to exhibit for CW operations on the satellites. The cause appears to be a lack of discipline by some CW operators in both power management (signals hogging the transponder power or 'flipping the bird') and signal frequency management (failing to properly compensate for Doppler shift, thereby encroaching on other QSOs). Both of these discipline problems occur at the expense of the SSB operators resulting a lot of public ire towards CW ops - Ironically, I also hear that such discipline problems also occur with some SSB ops, too. Consequently, I don't see CW ops as a particularly viable solution to lowering the barrier to using the linear birds. I also don't see allowing other digital modes on the linear birds to be a viable solution either. Most digital modes are propagated via SSB transceivers. This raises the cost bar once again, which doesn't solve the problem. There are a few digital modes, such as Hellschreiber, that don't ride on SSB, but they are not popular and would exclude QSOs with voice-mode operators. The closest may be the successful use of OpenDV and an appropriate digital modulation scheme. That is all still very experimental. What I propose, then, is the use of well-disciplined DSB (double sideband) modulation as a means of lowering the cost bar while providing interoperability with SSB voice stations that are working the satellites. What I mean by 'well-disciplined' DSB is as follows: 1) Baseband audio bandwidth sharply limited to 2.5 KHz, resulting in RF bandwidth or 5 KHz. This would realistically enable three to fifteen simultaneous 'channels' depending upon the linear bird being used. 2) Power output would be limited to just a couple of Watts. This is all that is really necessary to access the linear birds in most situations. It would reduce the possibility of signal interference. The cost of the PA would be relatively low. 3) The RF oscillator would be accurate and computer controlled (e.g. Silicon Labs Si570), which would enable active Doppler compensation via software with CAT control (e.g. gpredict). Current SDR technologies already enable inexpensive, multi-band receiver solutions. The desired sensitivity and selectivity of the SDR receiver ultimately drives the receiver cost. The performance of the receiver, then depends upon the budget of the station builder. Solutions for every budget are now available, ranging from dirt cheap hardware derived from RTL-SDR dongles to more capable devices (e.g. SDRplay, AirSpy, FunCube Dongle). At the sacrifice of some bandwidth, the following advantages can be had with using DSB modulation: 1) DSB modulation is relatively easy to achieve. The band-limited audio is fed into a double-balanced mixer, bandpass filtered for harmonics, and fed into a PA for transmission. The resulting hardware is comparatively inexpensive to construct and to tune. 2) Sideband inversion caused by some linear birds is no longer an issue. Having both sidebands present in DSB modulation means that the correct sideband will always be available for reception. 3) Interoperability with SSB stations would be maintained, as DSB modulation is a superset of SSB modulation. Thanks again, for reading this long posting. I'm sure that there will be those that will consider my suggestions to ill-advised, or even outright heresy! 73, Mac Cody / AE5PH

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elev rotor
by Bob- W7LRD 09 Sep '17

09 Sep '17

hello my g5500 works only manually az & el no meter indication on elev no computer control using Satpc32 ideas? 73 Bob W7LRD

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-09-09 03:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 08 Sep '17

08 Sep '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-09-09 03:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Meadows Elementary School, Manhattan Beach, CA, direct via KM6BWB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Contact was successful: Fri 2017-09-08 17:05:30 UTC 67 deg (***) Live streamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRsKV6gBmGU Beenleigh State High School, Beenleigh, Queensland, Australia, telebridge via K6DUE The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Contact is a go for: Mon 2017-09-11 12:58:34 UTC 77 deg Boston Red Sox Outreach to School Groups, Boston, MA, telebridge via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-09-14 15:03:58 UTC 56 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. 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 124 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Francesco IKØWGF with 119 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 2017-09-09 03:00 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 1157. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1116. (***) 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 2017-09-09 03:00 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 **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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VUCC Awards/Endorsements for August 2017
by John Papay 08 Sep '17

08 Sep '17

The VUCC Standings list for 8 September 2017 is now sorted by rank rather than by callsign. However, there are problems with the list. This information has been forwarded to the Awards Manager at the ARRL for resolution. Callsigns missing: AI6GS (230) K7TAB (100) Callsigns with totals that went DOWN: KO4MA 1564 -> 1562 AC0RA 1143 -> 1142 K8TL 974 -> 973 AA5PK 876 -> 875 W6ZQ 561 -> 560 K4XP 102 -> 101 Callsigns with totals that only went UP by a few: K6FW 603 -> 606 KK4FEM 476 -> 480 KL7CN/W6 249 -> 250 KX9X 158 -> 159 AK4WQ(EN34) 106 -> 107 VA3NNA 100 -> 102 (The above callsigns could be legitimate endorsements.) Here are the apparent endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period August 1, 2017 through September 8, 2017. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! CALL GRIDS WA4NVM 1450 W5RKN 511 N6UK 475 AF5CC 314 K8BL 252 KA9P 175 CU3EQ 154 FG8OJ 130 G7SVF 109 (NEW VUCC) PY2RN 101 (NEW VUCC) VE1QX 100 (NEW VUCC) XE2JA 100 (NEW VUCC) This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for August 1st and September 8th, 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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solar radio astronomy?
by skristof＠etczone.com 08 Sep '17

08 Sep '17

Does anybody on this list monitor solar activity at 20.1 MHz? If so, please contact me off-list. I'm just starting and I'd like to compare some data I have with data from someone who actually knows what they're doing. Thanks! Steve AI9IN

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