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

CAS-5A/6A
by Pedro Converso 11 Oct '18

11 Oct '18

It seems new HF Chinese satellites are in orbit, wonder if active. http://amsat.org.ar/pass?satx=cas5a,cas5b,cas6a 73, LU7ABF, Pedro

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Re: [amsat-bb] SO-50
by Roy Dean 11 Oct '18

11 Oct '18

I caught an exchange between K3RRR and N2F at about 20:50 on my satnogs station: https://network.satnogs.org/observations/280230/ Not sure if there was a pass after that, though. If there was, it was too low for my stations. -Roy K3RLD This last pass of SO-50 , The transponder turned on and I gave my call > sign. Thereafter the transponder was intermittent . I heard partial > callsigns but for the most part all that was present was the normal noise > level. I tried several times to get into the transponder with negative > results. I tried several times to turn the transponder on with the pl tone > but no luck. This happened during the complete pass of which I had a > maximum elevation of 42degrees. Did anyone else experience the same > condition ?? Thanks JACK KC7MG

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SO-50
by alex weimer 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

This last pass of SO-50 , The transponder turned on and I gave my call sign. Thereafter the transponder was intermittent . I heard partial callsigns but for the most part all that was present was the normal noise level. I tried several times to get into the transponder with negative results. I tried several times to turn the transponder on with the pl tone but no luck. This happened during the complete pass of which I had a maximum elevation of 42degrees. Did anyone else experience the same condition ?? Thanks JACK KC7MG

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STARS-Me Mother identified
by Nico Janssen 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

All, Detailed doppler measurements show that STARS-Me Mother is object 43640 (1998-067PQ). STARS-Me Daughter has not yet separated from STARS-Me Mother and is not yet transmitting. Unfortunately RSP 00 is not transmitting any downlink signals. 73, Nico PA0DLO

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9.6k woes and FoxTelem
by Kevin Zari 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

I’m pulling out what little hair I have left. I have borrowed a friend’s IC-910, and want to feed the output of the radio to both a signalink USB and also to the direct Line-in of the laptop to receive the 9600 bps signal off of the 9600 pin 4 of the Data mini DIN. So here is what I did: First, I took a cable that was straight through all 6 pins and added a RJ-45 connector on the end, in such a way that pin 1 of the mini DIN was pin 1 of the RJ45 connector, pin 2 was pin 2, ... pin 6 to pin 6, etc... I created a patch panel with two patches, one that is straight through, and one that crosses pins 4 and 5. More about that in a bit. The signalink was wired in such a way that it is expecting the input on pin 5, and ground on pin 2. So in this case when I connect up the cable to the signalink with a straight through cat 5e cable, it gets the audio out of the rig at 1200 bps (pin 5). When I want to use the 9600 bps out, I unplug the cable from the patch panel and connect it up to the other patch, where it takes pin 4 (9600 bps) and throws it on pin 5 of the patch panel output. I then have a cable that takes pin 5 and brings it to the tip of a TS 3.5mm mono cable. Pin 2 (GND) goes to the sleeve. I then plug this into the mic input of an older Apple MacBook Pro. I remembered to set the IC-910 to 9600 mode. I start FoxTelem and set the input to the Mac’s wired mic input, but I never decode anything. One thing that is odd to me is that when I toggle the 9600 mode on the IC-910, I do not see / hear a difference. I would imagine it should toggle some signal on and off the pin 4. Any ideas would be highly appreciated. I have also just tried a simple cable with pin 4 to the tip and pin 2 to the sleeve, and have seen similar results. I appreciate any ideas, criticism, etc... -Kevin (KK4YEL) ----- The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

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Re: [amsat-bb] 9.6k woes and FoxTelem
by Kevin Zari 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

OK, I will try all of the suggestions when I am back at the house with a nice pass. Thank you all -Kevin (KK4YEL) ----- The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. > On Oct 10, 2018, at 10:52, KERRY LA*DUKE <kladuke1144(a)msn.com> wrote: > > Try setting levels much lower. Start at 0 and bring up until oval apears. > > wc7v

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Delayed Telemetry Decoding
by Loren M. Lang 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

Normally, I decode telemetry live from the satellite and upload it immediately. I have an RTL-SDR attached to my Android phone and use SDRTouch to demodulate the FM signal feeding the headphone out to my laptop running FoxTelem to decode the frames and upload it through my home's Wi-Fi. However, with the weather turning and the difficultly of getting everything set up, I was wondering if there are any issues with recording the audio or IQ signal on my phone during the pass and feeding it into FoxTelem from my phone later. Does it use my computer's local time or expected to be the live stream, or does it just rely on the time stamp in the decoded packets for ordering the telemetry data whenever it's received? And on that, if I can decode later, is there a time limit I should follow for decoding older data? If I captured a satellite pass in the morning before leaving for work, but didn't feed it into FoxTelem for decode until the evening when I get back home? And lastly, I know it's a different group operating it, but I'm curious if it's a similar policy for AO-73, the first FUNcube sat for decoding packets delayed from their capture time. Thanks for the info! 73s, Loren AG7NC

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6-arm Lindenblad?
by Ed Krome 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

The normal Lindenblad omnidirectional circularly polarized antenna has 4 canted dipoles in a circle. If made from 300 ohm twin lead, it has a feed impedance of 75 ohms. Has anybody built/modeled or seen one made with 6 dipoles? 6 would give a 50 ohm feed and maybe more gain. Ideas? Ed Krome K9EK Sent from my iPhone

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AO-92 Ops this week
by Andrew Glasbrenner 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

Good Afternoon all, This week we will be doing some a few things with AO-92 out of the ordinary. First, we will again attempt to image a hurricane (Michael this time) with the Virginia Tech camera onboard AO-92. This will take place Wednesday and Thursday mornings on the passes over the Gulf of Mexico. When you hear me announce the mode change or the command signals on the repeater, please stand by. All stations are encouraged to set up FoxTelem to copy the high speed data during these passes. Second, at the request of the folks at Microwave Update, we will switch to L/v Thursday night for 24 hours. It is my understanding there will be some testing of new antennas for the L band uplink at their antenna range onsite. I don't anticipate to run L/v on Sunday as normal. All this is assuming Hurricane Michael stays on track and doesn't swerve east and rearrange or force me to lower my antennas. 73, Drew KO4MA

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Tomorrow's ARISS contact with Ashford School cancelled
by David Jordan 10 Oct '18

10 Oct '18

PLEASE MAKE NOTE! The Wednesday Oct. 10 ARISS contact with Ashford School in Ashford, CT has been cancelled for tomorrow. Attempts are underway to reschedule as soon as possible. Dave, AA4KN ARISS PR Get Outlook for Android

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