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

Measuring VSWR at 2.4GHz
by David G0MRF 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Hi everyone. Does anyone know a cost effective way of measuring VSWR or reflected power at 2.4GHz ? I'm building a 70cm to S band upconverter with 25 Watts output. Before I connect it to my dish feed, it would be nice to know that the match is reasonably close to 50 ohms. It would be nice for the PA transistor to last more than 1 QSO 2.4G inserts for bird watt meters are few and far between.....I wonder if the one that covers 400M to 1GHz would work.? 73 David G0MRF

3 2

doppler.sqf file
by alex weimer 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Complete file sent this morning 73 JACK KC7MG

1 0

DM07-DM08 Rove
by Bob Keating 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

I just wanted to let everyone know who contacted me this past week while we were in the Eastern Sierra that I am in the process of uploading my contacts to LoTW and QRZ.com as N6REK/P. Since I have recordings of 7 satellite passes, it may take me a few days, but I will get them logged. Thanks to all of you with whom I had a QSO and also to those I couldn't quite reach. It was a fun trip, fishing was lousy, but I made up for it bagging a good number of contacts on the satellites. 73, Bob, N6REK

1 0

Current copy of Doppler SQF?
by Mark D. Johns 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

I'm recovering from a hard disk crash and lost all of my current SatPC32 various.SQF files. I did a Google search for Doppler.SQF and the most recent I could find was something posted in 2015. Does anyone know where a current copy of Doppler.SQF (with today's satellites in it) can be downloaded? Would save a lot of time. Thanks in advance. -- Mark D. Johns KØJM / MØGZO / ex-9H3DJ / ex-KØMDJ Brooklyn Park, MN USA EN35hd ----------------------------------------------- "Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in." ---Mark Twain

1 0

Using a Raspberry Pi (or any linux system) for packet APRS
by Scott 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

Hi everyone. I really enjoy the aspects of Amateur Radio that involve connecting our radios to a computer. That includes decoding telemetry from the long list of cubesats in orbit now as well as digital modes like packet. It's been great to have the ISS digipeater back in service, plus PSAT has been working well lately. I normally use UISS on Windows for my packet operations but thought it would be fun to try to find the most simple method of doing the same thing on linux, in particular a Raspberry Pi. I know there are linux packet apps, but I was looking for something as lite as possible that was point-and-click like UISS. This is important... please note that this is NOT a turnkey, step-by-step how to. But rather, I wanted to share my findings so that anyone comfortable with linux/Pi basics could install a couple of pieces of software and edit a few text files. Since I wanted to demo how it actually works, I recorded a screen session on my Raspberry Pi. It's not meant to be fancy and has no audio, but the "narration" is done with text on the screen so that you can pause the video at any time you wish to read or take notes. The video is at: http://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//video/2018-09-02--RPi-APRS-demo.mp4 ... and all the files AS I USE THEM can be found at: http://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//downloads/pkt/ ... please note, if you'd like to duplicate my little experiment, it's critical that you do the following: --determine which audio device connects to your radio & setup a proper .CONF file for Direwolf --if you're not using VOX for PTT (i.e., Signalink), then determine which USB or serial devices keys your PTT & put that in the Direwolf .CONF file --edit each and every .SH script file & replace my call sign with yours, plus edit the wording to suit yourself ... so, obviously not as easy as UISS on Windows but for portable use, a Raspberry Pi might be easier to carry than a full-size laptop. Final note, while I did the video demo on a Pi, this setup works equally well on any linux computer as long as you review your Direwolf .CONF file and all the scripts to make sure they are using syntax that is proper for your system. For anyone already familiar with the linux or Pi environment, I hope my learnings might save you some time. I know this all sounds complicated, but it's really not... only a few things to configure and you're up and running! I used this setup on a PSAT pass the other day and was digipeated several times. Here's a screen shot of findu.com from that pass: http://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//images/2018-09-01--PSAT-Pi.png I hope this might be interesting to someone. Of course please contact me if you give it a try and have any questions. -Scott, K4KDR

2 1

Re: [amsat-bb] SatPC32: New Sat Groups into WinAOS
by Erich Eichmann 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

Ken, the SatPC32 data folder contains also ISSFiles.SQF, WisFiles.SQF and AosFiles.SQF (the path to that folder is shown in the foot line of menu 'Satellites'). The programs SatPC32, SatPC32ISS, Wisat32 and WinAOS do not share the group files. Each of the programs uses it's own group files (WinAOS - for example - can be used stand allone). As Alan wrote already the lists of group files for the 4 programs are hold in SatFiles.SQF, ISSfiles.SQF, WisFiles.SQF and AosFiles.SQF The extensions of the group files are .Sat for SatPC32 .ISS for SatPC32ISS .Wis for Wisat32 .Aos for WinAOS. I have mentioned that in the manual (sect. F I 7) and in the aux. file SatFiles.SQF itself (all aux. files that can be opened from SatPC32 menu "?" contains instructions at its end about how to be used). The group files can be opened and edited from the menus 'Satellites' of their corresponding programs (in WinAOS: menu 'Lists'). You can add/remove satelites and select the source file. With the main programs SaPC32 and SatPC32ISS you can also add/remove groups. For WinAOS and Wisat32 that must be done manually by editing AosFiles.SQF or WisFiles.SQF (using editor Notepad, ALL SatPC32 aux. files are text files). Renaming group files must also be done using Notepad. If you want WinAOS to use the same sats that you have chosen for a group in SatPC32, say Standard.Sat, you have either to edit Standard.AOS or you make a copy of Standard.Sat and rename the copy Standard.Aos. 73s, Erich, DK1TB Am 02.09.2018 um 20:00 schrieb Kenneth P Alexander: > Alan, > > I can see SatFiles.SQF but not the other three. > > bueng-ken.com > > On Sun, Sep 2, 2018 at 5:40 PM, Alan <wa4sca(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Working from memory since I am not at the shack, but there are files which >> hold the groups for each program: >> >> SatFiles.SQF >> AosFiles.SQF >> WisFiles.SQF >> ISSFiles.SQF >> >> On the rare time that I do a new group, I always have to figure this out. >> Hopefully remembered correctly. >> >> 73, >> >> Alan >> WA4SCA >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> > _______________________________________________ > 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

1 0

Observations on tracking programs
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

Hi Folks, I have recently been following AO-91 with a selection of tracking programs and confirming the results with observations of the downlink. Using the same QTH location and Keps, I found the following: The AMSAT-NA online tracking page is pretty accurate. See: https://www.amsat.org/track/index.php Heavens-above.com is also pretty good. See: https://www.heavens-above.com SatPC32, Orbitron, InstantTrack, and Quiktrak are pretty good and give the same results as the “On-Line” trackers. Nova is about 5 minutes ahead. GPredict is about 5 minutes behind. Has anyone else noticed this? 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

5 5

WTB : AZ/EL Rotor
by Kirk P 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

Searching for a small AZ/EL system for a small M2 2m/435 SAT antenna. Kirk, N0KK Sent from Outlook<http://aka.ms/weboutlook>

1 0

SatPC32: New Sat Groups into WinAOS
by Kenneth P Alexander 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

I created a new satellite group containing the three NOAA APT satellites. The group was (I think) successfully created. I can re-start the program and it's still there. Now I want to use it with WinAOS to see when they are passing over. I open WinAOS and click on the Sat. Groups button in the dialog box to pick my group but it's not listed there. Section E.2 - WinAOS of the online manual is only 2 lines long and says nothing about how to import new satellite groups into its list. It does say "Please read the instructions" except I can find no other instructions. Help! 73, Ken Alexander VE3HLS bueng-ken.com

6 9

Choose the right satellite
by Vincenzo Mone 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

Hi folks, i get an issue on the SATPC32 program. Today i had two satellites in the range at about the same time GO-32 and Equisat. Go-32 come up first and about 5 minutes i got the Equisat one. So i decided to abbandon the GO-32 and track the Equisat. I clicked on the letter that shows me the Equisat, the program passed from GO-32 to Equista but immediately after it passed again to track the GO-32. Please how to do to track the bird what i want when there are two or more satellites at the same time? Thanks 73 de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ********************************* ****** GSM +39 328 7110193 ****** ***** SMS +39 328 7110193 ***** *********************************

1 0