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

Help for "Moon Day"
by tjschuessler＠verizon.net 02 Jul '18

02 Jul '18

I am looking to recruit additional volunteers from the AMSAT community in North Texas, Central Texas or elsewhere, to help promote "Amateur Radio in Space" to a large public STEM event. "Moon Day" at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas Texas on July 21, 2018 is the largest space themed STEM event in Texas. Last year saw 1500 people attend the 6 hour event. https://www.flightmuseum.com/moon-day/ Again this year, I am heading an exhibit and satellite demos for AMSAT. We have a table inside the Museum, (Alongside the Dallas Amateur Radio Club Table), and a demonstration area outside. I will be setting up the outside activities and hope to work as many satellite passes as possible during the 10A-4P run of the show. I am looking for AMSAT people to both help with the inside table and also with the outside demonstrations. Joe Spier has promised me that he will send me the FOX "Engineering Model" but I am looking for additional demonstration aids to illustrate satellite orbits and other aspects of space communications like various types of antennas. Being a STEM event, there will be many young people in attendance, (General public as well as Boy and Girl Scouts), and they get a chance to earn a STEM patch by answering questions from exhibitors like US. Each year I do this, I am also surprised by ho many Hams I talk to at the event who are either inactive or have never experienced Amateur Satellites. We really need people and content for Moon Day so please consider spending Saturday, July 21 with us. Contact me off list for more information. N5hyp(a)arrl.net Oh by the way, next year, 2019, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The Moon Day event is planning a big splash then and it would be really interesting to see a portable EME station as part of the mix. That would generate a lot of interest I would suspect. My looking at moon phase predictions for next year showed that I think they would be favorable. Keep that in the back of your mind and I will bring it up next year. Hope to see you at Moon Day, 2018. Tom Schuessler, N5HYP EM12ms

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Portable operation from FN-21
by Richard Lawn 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

Thanks again to those who helped me to sort out my 5400B rotor issues. Today I got the station up and running from Lakeville, Pa, FN21. I’ve already made a number of contacts that verified everything is finally working as it should. I’m using computer control of a single Arrow antenna with a 9100. I hope to work as many of the 13 colonies as possible. 73 and happy 4th Rick, W2JAZ -- Sent from Gmail Mobile

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ANS-185 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Chris Bradley (AA0CB) 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-182 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * Digital Communications Conference (DCC) Call for Papers * Invitation to the 2018 NASA AAQ Workshop - September 7, 2018 * China Microsatellite Symposium 2018 * K4R Dry Tortugas EL84 Roving Trip on Schedule for July 6 * Upcoming ARISS contacts * AMSAT Rover Award Updates * VUCC Awards-Endorsements for June 2018 * WMPLOTA 7/2 EN74 EN75 EN84 EN85 Rove * AMSAT-NA President to attend AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2018 * AMSAT BOD Nominees * Satellite Shorts SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-182.01 ANS-182 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 182.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE JULY 1, 2018 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-185.01 Digital Communications Conference (DCC) Call for Papers Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC) and publication in the Conference Proceedings. Annual conference proceedings are published by the ARRL. Presentation at the conference is not required for publication. Submission of papers are due by July 31st, 2018 and should be submitted to Maty Weinberg, ARRL 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 or via the Internet to maty at arrl.org The ARRL and TAPR DCC is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and techniques. This year, the DCC is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 14- 16. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications. Topics include, but are not limited to: • Software Defined Radio (SDR) • Digital voice (D-Star, P25, WinDRM, FDMDV, DRMDV, G4GUO) • Digital satellite communications • Global position system • Precise Timing • Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) • Short messaging (a mode of APRS) • Digital Signal Processing (DSP) • HF digital modes • Internet interoperability with Amateur Radio networks • Spread spectrum • IEEE 802.11 and other Part 15 license-exempt systems adaptable for A mateur Radio • Using TCP/IP networking over Amateur Radio • Mesh and peer to peer wireless networking • Emergency and Homeland Defense backup digital communications in Amateur Radio • Updates on AX.25 and other wireless networking protocols • Topics that advanced the Amateur Radio art Go to https://tinyurl.com/y7wgm6vh to view the guidelines for paper submissions [ANS thanks the TAPR PSR for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Invitation to the 2018 NASA AAQ Workshop - September 7, 2018 You are invited to participate in the 2018 NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality {AAQ) Workshop. This event will take place at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio on Friday, September 7 from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. The event targets academics (faculty, researchers, students) involved with space related activities such as cube sat, small sat, high altitude balloon, rocket and more. It is also designed for those wishing to be involved with NASA space related projects. The event will feature speakers and a poster session. Travel stipends from NASA are available to attendees on a limited basis and will favor those giving a presentation or poster. There is no registration charge for attending the event but registration in advance is required. Please register at the link below by July 31. http://spider2.eng.auburn.edu/AAQ/registration.html The NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality is an open access virtual academy of educational modules, lessons learned, standards, case studies and more related to quality assurance for space related projects, especially those from academic based teams. The website is: http://aaq.auburn.edu Links to the agenda and materials from previous NASA AAQ Workshops can be found at the link below: http://aaq.eng.auburn.edu/events [ANS thanks Alice Smith and Jeff Smith for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- China Microsatellite Symposium 2018 The China Microsatellite Symposium(CMS2018), (www.microsatsymp.com) will be held at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an China on 18th - 20th November 2018. The symposium includes keynote presentations and several sessions which will focus on the design experience, scientific missions, launch opportunities and all new technologies about microsatellites. In addition, another import session, International CubeSat and Mission Contest will be held on 20th November 2018, after which a free launch opportunity of 3U CubeSat or 1U payload capacity will be awarded to the winner of the first prize. Participants can get information and submit the works through the official website of our contest: www.cubesatcontest.org. The submission deadlines for the abstract of CMS2018 and work of CubeSat contest are both August 31, 2018. You could submit abstract and get information on the website www.microsatsymp.com Along with the symposium, there will also be a related exhibition, during which you can find the updated progress of CubeSat, launchers and other related technology. For exhibitors, you could also get information about booth on the website. The event is supported by China National Space Administration, International Astronautical Federation, Chinese Society of Astronautics and Chinese Institute of Command and Control. If you have any questions, please contact service at microsatsymp.com. [ANS thanks Ray Nugent for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- K4R Dry Tortugas EL84 Roving Trip on Schedule for July 6 Robert KE4AL, Rich N4ESS, and Matthew, NJ4Y will be arriving on Garden Key, EL84np in the Dry Tortugas mid-day on Friday July 6, staying all day Saturday, and then leaving Sunday morning July 8. The team will be using the callsign K4R, and all logs will be uploaded to LOTW after the trip. Paper cards will be available on request via NJ4Y. They will also be able to tweet via a satellite messenger from the island, to our public twitter account at twitter.com/k4r_EL84 The K4R QRZ page is up to date with our info, as well as k4r2018.com. Their goal is to work anyone within ~7500km who needs EL84 on satel- lites. Check out the pass listing link at the above web pages and let them know if you have a special schedule request from the outer reaches of our range, especially in EU and South America. [ANS thanks Matthew, NJ4Y for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- UPCOMING ARISS CONTACTS Pearl Technology STEM Academy, Peoria Heights, IL, direct via W9DWJ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Contact is a go for: Mon 2018-07-02 15:35:42 UTC Kardinal-Frings-Gymnasium, Bonn, Germany, direct via DLØIL The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be DPØISS The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Gerst KF5ONO Contact is a go for: Tue 2018-07-03 08:32:16 UTC 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 129 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 103 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 2018-06-28 19:30 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 1234. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 11821. 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: 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 2018-06-28 19:30 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_cor rection .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. 55 on orbit Drew Feustel Oleg Artemyev Ricky Arnold KE5DAU Exp. 56 on orbit Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Alexander Gerst KF5ONO Sergei Propopev [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Rover Award Updates AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO, says that congratulations are in order for the newest Rover Award operators, Chris, AA8CH, for earning award #024; and, Robert, WY7AA for earning Award #025. The AMSAT Rover award is granted to stations who achieve a combined 25 points using any combination of a list of achievements during their roving operations via amateur radio satellites. All of these combinations, including instructions of how to apply are posted at: https://www.amsat.org/amsat-rover-award/ - or from the main page - www.amsat.org --> Services --> Awards --> AMSAT Rover Award Examples of the point scoring include (access the Awards web page for details of multiplier points, etc.): + 1 point for each grid square activated outside your home grid square using a single-channel FM satellite transponder + 2 points for each grid square activated outside your home grid square using a linear (SSB/CW) satellite transponder. + 3 points for each grid square activated outside your home grid square using a digital mode satellite transponder. + 1 additional point for added to each grid square score for activating a state, province, or DX entity outside your home entities + 5 points for for advertising your grid operation using an open and public social media account, tagging @amsat or #amsat at least 24 hours in advance of the activation. + 5 points for photographing your grid operation and posting them afterwards using an open and public social media account, tagging @amsat or #amsat. + 10 points for activating a grid square while operating Maritime Mobile. + 15 points for 15 points for documenting your grid activation in an article published in the AMSAT Journal. AMSAT Rover Award winners to date include the following stations: Rover Call Date Issued ===== ============ =========== 001 AC0RA 02 Jan 2018 002 WD9EWK 05 Jan 2018 003 NJ4Y 08 Jan 2018 004 M0IDA 09 Jan 2018 005 KG5GJT 12 Jan 2018 006 EB1AO 18 Jan 2018 007 N7AGF 22 Jan 2018 008 N4YHC 29 Jan 2018 009 W0S 07 Feb 2018 010 KE0PBR 08 Feb 2018 011 K5IX 18 Feb 2018 012 AK4WQ 23 Feb 2018 013 WI7P 25 Feb 2018 014 K5ND 09 Mar 2018 015 N6UA 12 Mar 2018 016 N9IP 16 Mar 2018 017 N4UFO 04 Apr 2018 018 K7TAB 27 Apr 2018 019 K8BL 10 May 2018 020 AD0DX 16 May 2018 021 HB9WDF 28 May 2018 022 KE4AL 28 May 2018 023 KE9AJ 30 May 2018 024 AA8CH 27 Jun 2018 025 WY7AA 29 Jun 2018 [ANS thanks AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] -------------------------------------------------------------------- WMPLOTA 7/2 EN74 EN75 EN84 EN85 Rove 7/2/18 Objects AOS (U) LOS Period 1. EN74 WM1432 Cadillac XW-2D 00:01 00:09 XW-2F 00:05 00:13 SO-50 00:12 00:25 2. EN74 WM2014 Houghton Lake SO-50 01:54 02:03 (*Low Pass Attempt) AO-92 02:03 02:13 AO-73 02:32 02:38 (*Low Pass Attempt) Falconsat-3 02:43 02:53 FO-29 02:45 02:55 (*Low Pass Attempt) AO-85 02:59 03:06 (*Low Pass Attempt) AO-92 03:37 03:46 3. EN74 WM5159 West Branch XW-2B 11:57 12:07 AO-07 12:06 12:22 4. EN84 WM5376 Tawas XW-2B 13:33 13:39 (*Low Pass Attempt) AO-07 14:01 14:04 (*Low Pass Attempt) XW-2A 14:13 14:22 AO-73 14:15 14:26 SO-50 14:27 14:38 AO-92 15:05 15:14 5. EN85 WM2358 Alpena AO-92 16:39 16:47 AO-91 17:16 17:30 6. EN75 WM1542 Gaylord AO-91 18:52 19:06 AO-07 19:19 19:39 7. EN75 WM2417 Petosky XW-2C 21:49 21:58 XW-2D 22:12 22:22 XW-2F 22:15 22:25 AO-85 22:15 22:28 8. EN75 WM2100 Cheboygan XW-2C 23:22 23:32 AO-73 23:35 23:45 XW-2D 23:47 23:56 XW-2F 23:50 23:59 AO-85 23:57 00:08 7/3/18 EN75 Holiday Style Maybe Wish me luck on my first real rove, all stops are in a new VUCC circle, please work me if there is room. Manual tuning on linear birds, please be patient. [ANS thanks Andrew, KE8FZT for the above information] -------------------------------------------------------------------- VUCC Awards-Endorsements for June 2018 Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period June 1, 2018 through July 1, 2018. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! CALL 01 Jun 01 Jul N8HM 1054 1068 AA5PK 1011 1042 N9IP 609 618 XE1AO 584 598 WD9EWK 441 450 AA9LC 299 416 AF5CC 314 338 VA3NNA 179 300 KC9ELU 220 229 W7JSD 189 215 G0ABI 200 206 KE8FZT 175 200 PT2AP 172 200 PS8ET 157 180 KE0PBR New 122 W3ARD New 119 N3ROY New 102 AD0DX New 101 W5PFG (DM95) New 100 W5PFG (EM12) New 100 If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and I'll revise the announcement. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for June 1, 2018 and July 1, 2018. 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! [ANS thanks Ron, W5RKN for the above information] -------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-NA President to attend AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2018 AMSAT-UK is very happy to announce that the dates of the next AMSAT-UK Colloquium will be October 13-14, 2018. The AMSAT-UK Colloquium, incorporated into the RSGB Convention, will take place at the Kents Hill Park Conference Centre, Timbold Drive, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BZ. The AMSAT-UK Committee are pleased to announce that Joe Spier, K6WAO will be presenting a paper entitled '50 Years of AMSAT and Beyond' AMSAT-UK invites speakers, to cover topics about Amateur satellites, CubeSats, Nanosats, Space, High Altitude Balloons and associated activities, for this event. Those wishing to speak should contact Dave, G4DPZ, dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk AMSAT-UK Colloquium web page: https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/ The schedule will be at http://rsgb.org/main/about-us/rsgb-convention/rsgb-convention- programme/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] -------------------------------------------------------------------- FP/KV1J 3 - 17 July 2018 GN17 Includes Satellite Operation Eric, KV1J will be active on the Sats from the French island of Miquelon from 3 July through 17 July as FP/KV1J. This will be his 12th trip to the island. He mostly operate the low bands and 6 meters. When the WX is good, he will try to get outside and work the linear birds. Occasionally, he plans to also be on the FM birds using a pair of FT-817s and an Arrow antenna. Most of the time he will be grid GN17. If he is on the main island of St Pierre or if he can borrow a car a drive to Langlade, he will be GN16. The island has limited internet. His email is kv1j (at) arrl.net More information at: http://www.kv1j.com/fp/July18.html [ANS thanks Eric KV1J / FP/KV1J for the above information and wishes him success on his trip] -------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT BOD Nominees The 2018 candidates, in alphabetical order by last name are: Tom Clark, K3IO Mark Hammond, N8MH Scott Harvey, KA7FVV Bruce Paige, KK5DO Peter Portanova, W2JV This year AMSAT-NA will be electing three voting members of the Board of Directors. These will go to the three candidates receiving the highest number of votes. In addition, there will be two alternates chosen, based on the next highest number of votes received. Ballots will be mailed to the AMSAT-NA membership by July 15, 2018 and must be received at the AMSAT office by September 15, 2018 in order to be counted. Those sent outside North America will go by air mail. If you have not received your ballot package in a reasonable time for your location, please contact the AMSAT office. Completed ballots should be returned as promptly as possible, and those from outside North America preferably by air mail. Election of Board members is both an obligation as well as an opportunity by our membership to help shape the future direction of AMSAT. Please take the time to review the candidate statements that will accompany the ballot and determine who you wish to see on the Board. You have the option to vote for up to three candidates. [ANS thanks Clayton, W5PFG for the above information and wishes him success on his trip] -------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts + Stations in the USA mid-west and Canada will have the opportunity to hear the ISS on 145.800 MHz for a school contact with the Pearl Technology STEM Academy, Peoria Heights, IL. This will be a direct contact between NA1SS and W9DWJ. The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT. The contact is planned for: Mon 2018-07-02 at 15:35:42 UTC. (via ARISS) + AMSAT has discovered a pagination problem from printer error in the May/June issue of the AMSAT Journal. Please take a look at the issue you just received and, if you see any missing or duplicate pages, let Martha know ASAP at the AMSAT office at martha(a)amsat.org. + Congrats to Sean Kutzko, KX9X, on winning the June QST Cover Plaque for his article "Get on the Satellites for ARRL Field Day." The article has been reprinted on the AMSAT website with the ARRL's permission. Although Field Day is over for an another Year Sean's article gives good operating tips for every pass. Check it out! https://www.amsat.org/get-on-the-satellites-for-field-day/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Chris Bradley, AA0CB aa0cb at amsat dot org

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PCSAT 32
by Tom Lubbers K8TL 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

Changing from my old XP to a windows 7 machine. Attempted up load from my disk but it said it was not compatible with my 64 bit operating system. So I tried a down load. Keeps telling me I must be signed in as ADMIN. I thought I was. I ran into this before but forget how I solved it!! Tom K8TL(a)earthlink.net. Thanks in advance.

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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for June 2018
by Ronald G. Parsons 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period June 1, 2018 through July 1, 2018. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! CALL 01 Jun 01 Jul N8HM 1054 1068 AA5PK 1011 1042 N9IP 609 618 XE1AO 584 598 WD9EWK 441 450 AA9LC 299 416 AF5CC 314 338 VA3NNA 179 300 KC9ELU 220 229 W7JSD 189 215 G0ABI 200 206 KE8FZT 175 200 PT2AP 172 200 PS8ET 157 180 KE0PBR New 122 W3ARD New 119 N3ROY New 102 AD0DX New 101 W5PFG (DM95) New 100 W5PFG (EM12) New 100 If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and I'll revise the announcement. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for June 1, 2018 and July 1, 2018. 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, Ron W5RKN

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SDR Recordings Requested for WMPLOTA
by Adam Whitney 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

The WMPLOTA scoring minion (me) is looking for a few kind souls in the US to record and post SDR recordings for the XW-2D and XW-2F passes around 00:00 UTC on July 2. (This evening at 7 PM US Central Time). My limited understanding is that SDR software can record the entire transponder, and this can be played back to select and listen to QSOs on the various transponder frequencies. I am hoping to use these recordings to help determine the winner of the Early ‘Bird’ Award, for the first confirmed QSO nearest to 00:00 UTC at the start of the event. Ideally, the recordings would be from a station in more southern US latitudes as the satellites ascend from the south. I am also interested in an audio recording of SO-50 around 00:10 UTC as a fall-back, in the unusual circumstance that no confirmed WMPLOTA QSOs happen on the two XW birds. Thank you for any help you can provide! -Adam, K0FFY Information About the WMPLOTA Event: The Walmart Parking Lots on the Air encore event is this Monday, July 2 at 00:00 UTC! WMPLOTA is a special event and award scheme for amateur radio satellite operators that encourages the practice of portable operation in the easily accessible location of Walmart parking lots with a maximum amount of fun. To participate you simply need to operate an amateur radio satellite station, and then choose to be an WMPLOTA Associate (activator), who operates portable from any Walmart parking lot, or a Shopper (chaser) operating from another location and contacting Associates. Awards include: - Early ‘Bird’ Award for the first QSO nearest to the 00:00 UTC starting time - First Contact Award for making your first ever satellite QSO during WMPLOTA - ‘MacGuyver Works at Walmart’ Award exercising your ingenuity to build and make a QSO with an antenna made entirely from stuff purchased in the store and assembled in the lot - Sam Walton Award testing your extreme roving skills for the most stores activated during the event - Distance Record for the largest distance QSO - the April record was 5,620 km between Rhode Island and Brazil over AO-7 For more information including the award scheme, please visit http://wmplota.org <http://wmplota.org/> and follow us on Twitter @WMPLOTA. And remember to rollback the power, always.

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New FAQ "How do I program the Kenwood TH-D72A for satellites"
by John Brier 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

I added a new FAQ to the sats wiki after I ran across the question twice in one day. http://sats.wikidot.com/how-do-i-program-the-kenwood-th-d72a-for-satellites First enable both the A and B bands by pressing DUAL (0 key). While the B band is selected enable full duplex using F -> DUP (0 key as well). DUP should be displayed at the top of the LCD screen. The Kenwood TH-D72A won't store cross-band split memories. I use the VFO instead. I store one memory each for the downlink and uplink (labeled "SO-50 DN" and "SO-50 UP" respectively) and transfer the downlink to the A band and the uplink to the B band using the F -> VFO key sequence. To adjust for doppler on SO-50 I have to switch from the B band (uplink/tx side) to the A band and then adjust the frequency, and then switch back to the A band to TX again. With the Fox birds (AO-85, AO-91, AO-92) you mostly only have to compensate for doppler on the uplink so you don't have to flip around from one band to the other as much. Alternatively you could program all the doppler corrected frequencies in memory and just use memories, but you still won't be able to do split operation and at least for SO-50 you'll have to switch back and forth between bands through the pass. This is my first stab at it and if anyone wants to add more or edit it for clarity/etc. let me know and I will give you access to the wiki so you can do it. 73, John Brier KG4AKV

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FM26 WMPLOTA Activation
by Ruth Willet 01 Jul '18

01 Jul '18

I will be active during WMPLOTA from FM26! As a reminder, here are the passes I plan to be on from Walmart #2000. Monday July 2 XW-2A 14:14z 11ºW SO-50 14:25z 86ºNW AO-92 15:05z 77ºW SO-50 16:08z 10ºNW AO-91 17:13z 67ºE I hope to work you during this fun event! 73, Ruth KM4LAO

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I got VUCC!
by John Brier 30 Jun '18

30 Jun '18

I haven't uploaded anywhere close to all my satellite contacts to Logbook of The World, but I uploaded enough to get 100 grids as of yesterday when WW8W confirmed our contact from 2018-06-17 on AO-91. He was in EN73. Thanks to everyone else who worked me. Clayton W5PFG got me the most grids at seven, and Gabe AL6D got me five, using almost as many callsigns! (NJ7H, NJ7H/VE3, NJ7H/HR9 and KM4RTS [I was too far from my QTH when I worked him in AK as AL6D]). Honorable mention to the rest of the folks that gave me more than one grid: WE4B, KM4LAO, WD9EWK, VE3HLS, KI4RO, KE0PBR, and AA5PK. Here is the full list: 7 W5PFG 3 WE4B 3 KM4LAO 2 WD9EWK 2 VE3HLS 2 NJ7H 2 KI4RO 2 KE0PBR 2 AA5PK 1 6Y5IDX 1 AA8CH 1 AA9LC 1 AB1OC 1 AC9E 1 AD0DX 1 AD0TM 1 AE5PH 1 AI6GS 1 FG8OJ 1 HP2VX 1 K0EKL 1 K0FFY 1 K0JM 1 K2MTS 1 K3RRR 1 K4FTP 1 K4KDR 1 K4LIX 1 K4RGK 1 K5IX 1 K8YSE 1 K9EI 1 KB2YSI 1 KB3GVC 1 KB6LTY 1 KC1EXK 1 KC4LE 1 KC9ELU 1 KD8ATF 1 KD9JUQ 1 KE4AL 1 KE8FZT 1 KG5GJT 1 KM4RTS 1 KM6NJL 1 KO4MA 1 N1JEZ 1 N3GS 1 N4SAX 1 N4UFO 1 N4YHC 1 N6UA/VE2 1 N7NEV 1 N8HM 1 N8MS 1 N9EAT 1 N9LQ 1 NA2AA 1 NB3T 1 NJ7H/HR9 1 NJ7H/VE3 1 NP4JV 1 TI2CDA 1 VA3NNA 1 VE3RCN 1 VE7CEW 1 W0DHB 1 W1GKT 1 W3ARD 1 W4DTA 1 W4FS 1 W4UOO 1 W7QL 1 W9EXP 1 WA5KBH 1 WB3CSY 1 WF7T 1 WN9Q 1 WU2M 1 WW8W 1 XE1SEW 1 XE1TD 1 XE2RV 1 XE3DX 73, John Brier KG4AKV

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