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

AO-92 Commissioning Update: HERCI Experiment and L-Band Downshifter Tested
by Paul Stoetzer 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

An update on the AO-92 commissioning process has been posted at: https://www.amsat.org/ao-92-commissioning-update-herci-experiment-and-l-ban… 73, Paul, N8HM

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Re: [amsat-bb] PicSat
by Jean-Pierre Godet 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

Hi David, all, I'm using gr-atellites, thanks to the great Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ who helps us and not for the first time. It works fine, gr-satellite is doing the job very smoothly. You have just to manage a quite accurate Doppler shift tracking and the couple GPredict/Gqrx from alexandru csete OZ9AEC on a Linux machine is perfect to do that. Our friend Sylvain F4GKR and his students from SupElec high school are working on a solution that soon will work on a Windows machine. Have a nice day, 73 ! Jean-Pierre F5YG On 22/01/2018 07:57, David Hopkins wrote: > Gentlemen, > Is there a software program to receive and process the telemetry from > Picsat? > > Looking for something similar to the provided software for the funcube > satellites. > > It would be useful for the unattended operations here. > > Thanks > > David > > ' > > > Definitely NOT sent from an iPhone. > > David G. Hopkins (VK4ZF) > CAPALABA QLD > AUSTRALIA > 27' 32" 23.03S 153' 12' 01.54E > QG62OL > Skype :- davhop _______________________________________________ > 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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PicSat
by David Hopkins 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

Gentlemen, Is there a software program to receive and process the telemetry from Picsat? Looking for something similar to the provided software for the funcube satellites. It would be useful for the unattended operations here. Thanks David ' Definitely NOT sent from an iPhone. David G. Hopkins (VK4ZF) CAPALABA QLD AUSTRALIA 27' 32" 23.03S 153' 12' 01.54E QG62OL Skype :- davhop

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L-Band Equipment List
by Robert Bankston 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

I am trying to compile a list of radios and transverters capable of operating L-band satellites (Fox-1D, Fox-1Cliff, and ESEO). A Google search revealed the following equipment. Those still in production are identifies as "(current)" If you know of any others, please pass along. Robert, KE4AL Base: Icom IC-910H Icom IC-9100 (current) Kenwood TS-790A Kenwood TS-2000X (current) Yaesu Ft-736R Mobile: Icom ID-1 Kenwood TM-751A Kenwood TM-741A/-941A Kenwood TM-742A/-942A HT: Alinco DJ-G7T (current) Icom IC-12GAT Icom IC-T81A Transverters: DEMI 1296-144 DEMI L23HP (current) Kuhne Electronics TR 1296 H 28/144 (current) Kuhne Elecronics MKU 13 G3 23cm SG Laboratory LTD 1296-144 (current)

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Upcoming ARISS contact with The English School, Nicosia, Cyprus
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at The English School, Nicosia, Cyprus on 24 Jan. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 10:35 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 W6SRJ. The contact should be audible over the west coast of the U.S. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. Watch for live stream at www.cyhams.org/ariss.html . The English School is a co-educational day school attended by students between the ages of 11 and 19. It is situated in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. The medium of instruction is English and entry to the school is highly competitive. The school was founded in 1900 and currently has around 1100 mainly Cypriot students who are a rich mixture of the many different ethnic communities on the island. The school prides itself on its dynamic student body and strong academic tradition. Students in the school are encouraged to become life-long learners with the ability to analyse, think critically, question, and be flexible in preparation for the challenges they will face. One of the School's strengths is its vast range of extracurricular activities and clubs which students are encouraged to join. Currently, there are over 70 clubs and societies. The Amateur Radio Club (5B4ES), is one of these active societies. 5B4ES has been operating for 47 years, has a strong membership, and is a licensed radio amateur member. The Amateur Radio Club, together with the Astronomy Club, has been core to the ARISS project. The English School, Nicosia is committed to the principle of equal opportunities for all and seeks to uphold the rights of every individual within the school community. It celebrates diversity, and its ethos is one of trust, mutual respect, and understanding of each other's culture, ethnicity, religion, gender, and individual needs. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What experiment are you currently working on? 2. How is the ISS protected from impact with space debris? 3. What are the contingency plans if there is a puncture in the hull? 4. How important is the presence of amateur radio equipment on the ISS? 5. What is your main role on the ISS? 6. Do you get criticized by people who believe in conspiracy theories? 7. How much free time do you have on a mission? 8. What is the most dangerous situation you have had to deal with on the ISS? 9. Are your dreams affected by being in space? 10. How long can the ISS maintain its orbit without a rocket boost? 11. What do you believe is the most important attribute needed to become an astronaut? 12. Do you get informed if you have a family emergency? 13. What does the ISS smell like? 14. What happens if you get sick or injured during your mission? 15. If we could send you something right now, what would it be? 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): TBD 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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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-01-22 04:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-01-22 04:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Naka Junior High School, Kakamigahara City, Japan, direct via 8J25D The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Mon 2018-01-22 10:23:21 UTC 53 deg 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 is a go for: Wed 2018-01-24 10:35:45 UTC 56 deg Watch for live stream at www.cyhams.org/ariss.html (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 127 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 2018-01-22 04:00 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 1202. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1151. 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 2018-01-20 01:00 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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Re: [amsat-bb] Mast Mounted GaAsFET low noise preamps
by Richard Lawn 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

A friend forwarded a recent post regarding preamps. I noticed that the data on the one study was from 2010. It also didn’t mention two very fine preamps -those made by SSB Electronics and the extraordinary 2meter preamp made by WA2ODO that many EME operators use. They post the lowest noise levels and highest gains I’ve ever seen, but they do not have relays so they cannot pass rf and relays are therefore required. They are also inexpensive. 73 Rick, W2JAZ -- Sent from Gmail Mobile

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PicSat Requests Amateur Radio Assistance to Capture/Upload Telemetry
by JoAnne K9JKM 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

[ANS Ed. Note] - The PicSat team is active on Twitter with status updates, mission information, and a request, received today, for amateur radio assistance to capture telemetry and upload the data. We'll repeat this request in the next AMSAT News Service Bulletins - but that is next weekend - so here is a copy to the amsat-bb in case anyone can help them out sooner ... --- PicSat Requests Amateur Radio Assistance to Capture/Upload Telemetry Cubesat PicSat was launched on the same PSLV-C40 flight from India that delivered AO-92 to orbit. PicSat is a nano-satellite aimed at observing the transit of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris b in front of its bright and equally young star Beta Pictoris, and at demonstrating an innovative technological concept to use optical fibres for astronomical observations from Space. The cubesat contains an embedded FM transponder. It will be avail- able when possible during the mission. Frequency information: Uplink FM 145.910 MHz 1750 Hz tone when in amateur mode Downlink FM 435.525 MHz 9k6 BPSK AX25 Data and FM voice when in amateur mode A description of the telemetry and related information are available on https://picsat.obspm.fr/data/telemetries?locale=en. This week the PicSat team requested amateur radio assistance to capture and upload telemetry packets from the satellite. Beacons received from all over the world are especially useful to monitor the status of satellite along its orbit (and not just when it is above our own station). Science data are obviously useful for the science mission. And all other packets, even when they do not look like much, can be of great importance! For example, we often receive satellite acknowledgements to our commands from ground station in France or Europe which are listening at the same time as us. It may look useless, but it is not. We regularly miss those packets our- selves, so it is good to have other people receiving them and sending them to us. There are three ways to send your data. The options for your upload will become available on your profile tab after registration at their website: https://picsat.obspm.fr/connexion?locale=en. Full details of the packet uploading procedure are posted at: https://picsat.obspm.fr/contributing/send-packets?locale=en + Fast upload beacon: mainly intended as a way to directly upload a beacon by copy/paste when you receive, and to get an immediate overview of the satellite status. When you are a new user, this is also the only way you can upload a packet. Upload one beacon successfully, and you will have access to the other methods! This page accepts a hexadecimal string, like "0123456789ABCDEF" in which whitespaces and upper/lower case are ignored ("01 23 45 67 89 ab cd ef", or even something like "0 1 234 56789 aBc dEf" will be accepted). The hexadecimal string must represent the AX.25 packet (without flags), possibly KISS encapsulated (starting with "C0 00" and ending with "C0") + Upload data: this can be used to upload files containing multiple packets at once. The files are stored on our servers, and processed daily. + SiDS requests: This will be implemented in the near future. PicSat shares a similar orbit with AO-91 since they were both deployed at approximately the same time. PicSat has been included in the 2 line Keplerian Elements distributions. On-line orbit predications for PicSat can be found at: https://picsat.obspm.fr/operations/orbital-map?locale=en. [ANS thanks the PicSat Team for the above information]

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Re: [amsat-bb] AO-92 Commissioning Update: HERCI Experiment and L-Band Downshifter Tested
by Mark L. Hammond 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

Very nicely done, Paul! Thanks. mark At 10:48 AM 1/21/2018 -0500, Paul Stoetzer wrote: >An update on the AO-92 commissioning process has been posted at: > >https://www.amsat.org/ao-92-commissioning-update-herci-experiment-and-l-ban… > >73, > >Paul, N8HM >_______________________________________________ >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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Argentina PicoBallon over South Africa
by Pedro Converso 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

As part of celebration of LUSAT 28th aniversary, on 01/19, LU1ESY PicoBalloon was launched from V.Gessell, Argentina, now after 3 days flying over South Africa at 12Km height and hopefully heading to Australia and New Zealand. Thanks! for all stations reporting on http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map . Is transmitting on 14075.6 KHz WSPR, 25 mW, 25 grams payload using a WB8ELK tracker. See tracking from http://lu7aa.org/wspr.asp , pictures at http://amsat.org.ar/globo09.htm 73, LU7AA, Amsat Argentina

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