January 2018 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax
by Edward R Cole 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

Don is correct. In my former work I installed radio systems on boats and considered 5-years trouble-free operation "full life cycle". I sealed those cables with a layer of scotch-30 annealing tape with Scotch 33+ over that. The boats were in 27 to 45 foot class so subject to considerable saltwater spray. We also had two 200-foot oil well support vessels on Cook Inlet in Alaska. My Ham Radio use of LMR-400 gets about ten years life, even with super diligent sealing. The aluminum tape shield is subject to corrosion in presence of moisture. Using true hardline like LDF cables will outlast LMR cables. Why they are used in commercial radio sites. I live two miles from Cook Inlet. My main VHF/UHF transmission line is 120 foot of LDF7-50A which is 1-5/8 inch in diameter and cost me $1.00/foot new surplus (got a 160-foot remnant). It has about 0.27 dB/100 foot loss at 150-MHz. I get about 5w on 1296 with 15w input over a 170-foot combined run of LMR-600 & LDF7-50A. Coax does not live forever - unless used as a dummy load (LOL) 73, Ed - KL7UW 35-years experience in 2-way communications (FCC 2nd class with Marine Endorsement) From: Donald Olson <olsonda1(a)yahoo.com> To: "AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org" <AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax Message-ID: <171777450.344072.1516811270343(a)mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 This has been an interesting chain of posts and I have copied it for distribution at our club.? Thanks. I will continue to follow it. However, to those out there that think that you can eliminate water in coax with proper sealing, you are only delaying the inevitable, especially if you live in a humid climate like New Orleans 73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com Dubus-NA Business mail: dubususa(a)gmail.com

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FUNcube-1/AO73 Operations
by Graham Shirville 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

Hi All, As previously advised, AO73 will shortly be entering fullsun light and already the eclipse periods are only 11/12 minutes every orbit.Current predictions indicate that full sun will commence on Feb 6thand last through until March 14th. Our autonomous, on-board, scheduling system is based uponswitching modes when entering and leaving eclipses, was not designed for this situations and will therefore not besuitable for operations over the next few months. In line with the recently published plan, AO73 was switchedto continuous amateur mode earlier this morning and will stay in this modeuntil Sunday night or Monday morning. We expect that this schedule will continue until mid April. The next full sun periods are then expected to return again in late August Further info is available at https://funcube.org.uk/news/ 73FUNcube Operations

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-01-25 08:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-01-25 08:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: The English School, Nicosia, Cyprus, telebridge via W6SRJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact was successful: Wed 2018-01-24 10:35:45 UTC 56 deg (***) Watch for live stream at www.cyhams.org/ariss.html Central Magnet Math & Science ES/Batesville School District, Batesville, AR, telebridge, via IK1SLD (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Joe Acaba KE5DAR Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-01-31 16:42:05 UTC 89 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: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 128 Gaston ON4WF with 123 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 2018-01-25 08:00 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 1204. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1153. (***) 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 2018-01-25 08:00 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. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR Exp. 54 on orbit Scott Tingle KG5NZA Norishige Kanai Alexander Skvortsov **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Falcon Heavy Static Test Firing Successful
by B J 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

http://parabolicarc.com/2018/01/24/spacex-conducts-falcon-heavy-static-fire/ http://parabolicarc.com/2018/01/24/closeup-video-falcon-heavy-static-fire/ An actual launch is pending: http://parabolicarc.com/2018/01/24/musk-falcon-heavy-launch-week/ 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL

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Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax
by Rick 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

I keep seeing all these remarks referencing a "long run"... What is considered a long run above VHF? 50 feet, 100 feet, something in between? At what point should we be using 9913/LMR-400 coax or LDF4 hardline? Rick KE6LL

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Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax
by anderson9000 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

I've gotten lots of good information from the many kind replies. Thanks very much to taking the time! 73 Mark W9AT

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Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax
by Edward R Cole 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

Bob, Important to point out that the F7 variant of 9913 has no air dielectric which got the original 9913 into trouble. Also LMR cables use aluminum foil shield covered with wire braid shield. If exposed to water the aluminum corrodes and gets quite lossy. So wx sealing is still necessary (two wraps of good electrical tape at minimum). Good electrical tape = Scotch 33+ I also seal with heat shrink tubing but often cover that with electrical tape. LMR-400 is generally good to 432. It is not anymore flexible than Belden 9913. For better flex consider LMR-400UF (ultra-flex). Slightly higher loss but better to go around az-el joints. For long runs at 432-MHz one should consider LDF4-50 Heliax hardline (1/2-inch) or lLDF5-50 up to LDF7-50. Loss is higher at 1268. I have 15-foot run of LDF4-50 from my tower-mounted DEMI 144/1268 Tx converter. That gets the most power to the antenna and only needs 12vdc, PTT, and 144-MHz coax to input. Some archive photos: http://www.kl7uw.com/sat.htm Drawing shows current satellite antenna installation. 73, Ed - KL7uW From: Bob- W7LRD <w7lrd(a)comcast.net> To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org, anderson58625 <anderson58625(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Exciting Coax Message-ID: <992329878.579633.1516693575413(a)connect.xfinity.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 For 2 & 70cm I use LMR400. LMR is better (in my opinion), in that it's more flexable, 9913 can get water inside. Unless coax connectors are super sealed. 73 Bob W7LRD 73, Ed - KL7UW http://www.kl7uw.com Dubus-NA Business mail: dubususa(a)gmail.com

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senior moment
by Bob- W7LRD 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

I forget how to get into the keps file in satpc32. I have Win 10- from the digitally challenged 73 Bob W7LRD

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Exciting Coax
by anderson58625 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

Reading the subject line, I may have somehow mixed sarcasm with a potential pun (eye of the beholder!) <grin>. Sorry for that. I seek to avoid investing in a set of cable producing hardware (or assembled cables) which I will regret later. I am hoping to get some guidance regarding coax for: 1) IF patch between equipment (male-male BNC's) 2) 2m feedline (N-connectors) (<50') 3) 70cm feedline (N-connectors) (<50') 4) A later potential for feedline carrying microwave frequencies (>1GHz) The frequency & loss-rate charts for coax are informative, but I'm not sure I'm seeing which connectors will fit what cable brand/types. With the variables of loss, dimensions, flexibility, and potential proprietary crimping systems, etc., I don't have enough experience or information to confidently make an online materials order. Things were much easier down here with just HF frequencies, RG-213, and good quality (weather protected) PL-259's! <grin> For IF patch cables, I figure these are conveying HF so the cable type/loss at 1-3' isn't very important. But, there is also shielding: A consideration? . Any thoughts on IF cables? . Plus, I've never attached a BNC to a cable. Easy? Avoid it? . Plan on a new crimper/die? . Or, if premade would be cheaper (just a few IF patch cables), any quality sources to recommend? For the 2m & 70cm feedlines, I know flexibility may be a consideration on rotating/elevating masts. Of course, I'm sure a rigid feedline may be superior elsewhere, but I am not at that point yet. Still, advice on that subject is gratefully appreciated. I need to provide good questions to hope for good answers, so what feedline you would recommend for: . Reasonable flexibility/portability . 2m-23cm . Modest power . <50' . For use with n-connectors The benefit of you knowledge and experience is much appreciated. 73 Mark W9AT

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Re: [amsat-bb] fox 1b
by Roy Dean 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

"RadFxSat" -Roy K3RLD > I have downloaded fox telem however I can find the fox ib file I see 1 1c > and 1d file Suggestions?

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