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

Train to Dayton (almost)
by Robert Bruninga 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Amtrak 1 way ticket to Cincinatti from Wash DC is only $75 (but only 2 seats left. THen it goes up to $95 or so. Or over $400 for a sleeper Too bad Hamvention is in Dayton and not in Cincinattti, and I cant get the window open for my Arrow either. ;-) Bob

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Antenna switching
by Rolf Krogstad 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

In the shack I am finally starting to use my Funcube Dongle Pro Plus with SDR-Console 3 and really am liking the combo, especially for the linear birds. The one downside is having to manually unscrew coax connectors to swap the antennas from receiver to transmitter and vice versa when going from V/U to U/V and U/V to V/U. I don't want to use multiple antenna switches because if I or a guest op doesn't set them properly I could blow the front end of the receiver. Does anyone have an idiot-proof solution for throwing one switch and having the two antennas swapped between rcvr and xmtr? Tnx es 73 Rolf NR0T EN34it

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WD9EWK @ DM54/DM55 on Saturday (14 April)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Hi! On Saturday, 14 April 2018, I will drive out to the DM54/DM55 grid boundary in eastern Arizona for the afternoon (more or less). I plan to leave Phoenix in the morning, and the drive out there should take about 3.5 hours. I do not plan on working passes in the morning on my way out to DM54/DM55, trying to make the drive so I can spend more time out there before driving home at or just after sunset. This is a day-trip, and I will not be able to make drives to other nearby grids or over to the New Mexico state line. The spot I will use for the DM54/DM55 grid boundary is east of I-40 exit 303, along the frontage road on the south side of I-40 in Navajo County - a spot I have visited a few times in the past several years. I plan on working FM, SSB, and FalconSat-3 passes. Maybe NO-84, if passes line up with the afternoon and the 145.825 MHz digipeater is operational. If AO-92 goes into L/V mode Saturday evening, I will try to stop and work passes from somewhere in northern or central Arizona during my drive home. During my drive, I will have a radio squawking to the APRS network as WD9EWK-9. You should be able to follow my travels at: http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9 Updates on Saturday will be posted to my @WD9EWK Twitter account. If you do not use Twitter, you can still view my tweets by visiting: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK My DM54/DM55 QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World in the couple of days after I return home. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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FUNcube-1 operations update
by Graham Shirville 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Hi All, FUNcube-1 is now in continuous amateur mode for the weekend - until Monday morning UTC 73 Graham G3VZV

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SATELLITE operation
by Alexandre Pereira 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Gentlemen, On 04, 05 and 06 May, we will be on a hill at 1500m altitude, for SSB and FM satellites, in GRID: GH54mw It is a great place to operate the SATs, with excellent opportunities for North America, Europe and Africa ... We will cover great distances ... Let's break the records of distances ...? We will update the information on Twitter (@pt2ap) and available for SKED, and can be scheduled by email: pt2ap(a)yahoo.com.br 73 of PT2APAlexandre Pereira

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THIN-sat projects?
by Robert Bruninga 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Anyone in AMSAT working on a THIN-sat (the Wallops Island NASA student launch program)? Bob, WB4aPR

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Working satellites with Morse
by Marshall R. Toburen 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

Mike, I've had similar experience, very few stations appear to operate CW. I've only had 3 CW QSOs, one which was cross mode. My SatPC32 does not provide good enough Doppler correction for CW. I operate split and adjust TX to remain on "fixed" RX frequency.. If I hear a CW signal, I'll definitely make a call. Marshall, AA0FO

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SatPC32 - setting up satellite groups
by Ken Alexander 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

I created a new satellite group in SatPC32 just for FM satellites and named it FMSats. I added SO-50, AO-85, AO-91 and AO-92 to the group and saved it under the new name. When I run WinAOS the new group does not appear in the list of satellite groups, only the groups that were already there. I can't see where I missed any important steps. What am I missing? Thanks for any assistance, Ken AlexanderVE3HLS

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Yaesu FT2D?
by Eli Caul 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

Hi folks - New to satellite, just trying to figure the process out. This list has been very helpful! I see a lot of talk about full duplex handhelds and I want to be sure I understand. Does that mean that the HT is able to transmit on one band and simultaneously receive on the other at the same time? I have a Yaesu FT2D I'd love to use, but unless there's a setting I'm not aware of it stops receiving when you transmit. Any advice appreciated! - Eli Caul Director of Customer Care Sonic 707-237-6201 Direct 707-521-0131 Faxline

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hearing SSB on my FM HT
by Mr B r a d 26 Apr '18

26 Apr '18

Funny story I just got my first hand held sat antenna last week , the ELKand I'm out in the yard trying to get the hang of using itwith my cheap btec x3 FM HT , no FM birds are upso I am punching in cw beacons of the birds in viewand having pretty good luck detecting the CW pulsing swish-swish sound in the FM receiver and getting the feel foraiming the antenna while watching the tiny screen on my smart phone for aiming data.... then FO29comes in view , A sat I have a really hard time hearingon my little home station yagi , so im able to just detect fo-29 beacon , just bearly on on my FM HT , and as the sat get in close ( overhead )I can start to hear some voice signals decoding ??since thats a SSB bird , i guess the ht's wide 20kc 'IF' signalsare mixing with the CW carrier and sort of mixing upand giving me a poor mans SSB audio decode ...this made me think back to my early days as a kid when iwould use a old rf-generator on the bench to beat acarrier up on HF SSB signals to get them to decodeon a old AM only shortwave radio I had ....If the HT could run in AM mode it might work even better.so if folks worked SSB near the low end of the transponder voices might mix with the beacon and decode for the ht's? BradKo6kL

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