February 2019 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Off to the Motherland
by Gabriel Zeifman 23 Feb '19

23 Feb '19

Hello fellow bird folk and sky yellers, I am on the first of four flights now on the way for another one of my signature trips. This voyage will take me to Poland (Feb 24-28), Lithuania (Feb 28-Mar 4), Kaliningrad (Mar 4-7), Saint Petersburg (Mar 7-11), Åland Islands (Mar 11-13), and Helsinki (Mar 13-14). I think the most desired entities are going to be UA2 and OH0 (unfortunately OH0 is gonna be quick, get in in the evening and leave in a morning, so two nights and one full day). I’m hoping to make US contacts from every entity and will try to hit as many grids as feasible (I’ll have a car in Vilnius and Kaliningrad), but good transatlantic locations will take precedence over grids. Don’t expect me on every pass, I’m traveling with family and we’ll be doing touristy stuff, but I’ll make my best effort to be on the great AO-7 and FO-29 passes across the ocean, updates will be on Twitter @AL6D_Alaska. I’m operating ninja portable like the good ole days, QRP with two FT-817NDs and an arrow, hopefully that doesn’t attract too much negative attention from customs in Russia. 73, Gabe “Harambe” Zeifman AL6D/VE6NJH/Harambe1

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Using an SDR Receiver with SatPC32
by Les Rayburn 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Finally, I have all the components together to add a SDRPlay2 receiver to my satellite station. I purchased two Alpha Delta 4 way N female switches. This will allow me to have one each for the 2M antenna, and another for the 432 antenna. Attached to each will be the IC-910H, Kenwood TM-D71GA (with duplexer), SDRPlay2, and my D-STAR ID-800H (with a duplexer.) In theory, this will allow me to route the antennas to any of the four radios for either TX or RX depending. The last hurdle is how do I interface my SatPC32 software to control both the uplink on the IC-910H and the SDRPlay2 for the downlink at the same time? Any help appreciated. 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63nf AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member

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Yaesu G-5500 Rotor
by Mike Lucas 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

After a 15+ year break from Ham Radio, the spark has returned and trying to get all set back up on the Satellites again. Lots has changed! I've downloaded HRD and a trial version of PST Rotator s/w to drive my TrakBox connected to the Yaesu rotator. Making headway with the USB/Serial connection to the TrakBox but need to update the firmware. Also I'm sure the internal Lithium battery is likely gone so will need a replacement. Any idea of sources? TAPR says they have some new EPROM's so will get that coming. I have a USB/Serial interface board coming so I can control the Yaesu FT-736 from HRD. Question on the Yaesu rotator controller. I don't have the rotator itself hooked up yet but wanted to make sure the control box is still working Ok. I plugged it in to the 120VAC but there's no meter lights and the EL meter goes negative so wondering if that's normal behavior if the rotator isn't actually connected to the control box? The fuse is Ok. Regards, Mike N7ASZ

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Re: [amsat-bb] KickSat-2 received but not decoded
by andy thomas 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Ken, many thanks. I have cut and pasted your offer in your posting onto the google group for kiscksat-2 and its Sprite mission, so hopefully someone will come back to you for your recording (or you can post it there?) the site is:Google Groups | | | | Google Groups Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experienc... | | | | | | | Google Groups Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experienc... | | | https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/kicksat-gs 73 de andy g0sfj

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KickSat-2 received but not decoded
by Ken Swaggart 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Put KickSat-2 in my telemetry lineup and could clearly see the beacon on the SDR but pretty weak during the 16:20Z pass over the Pacific northwest at 31 degrees max elevation. What modulation does it use? I'll try to capture a IQ recording during one of the other passes today. Who should the recording be sent to? 73, Ken, W7KKE CN75xa

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Beresheet Info?
by Martin Davidoff 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Can anyone point to a source for Tx frequencies and up-to-date trajectory data for Beresheet (the moon lander built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries) which was launched 21 Feb? K2ubc

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AO73/FUNcube-1 Operations
by Graham Shirville 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Hi All, AO73 is now in amateur mode for the weekend with the transponder active and available for your use! Please send all requests for fitter message uploads to operations(a)funcube.org.uk allowing at least two weeks notice. thanks and have FUN 73 Graham G3VZV

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FM Birds, New Grids, and Chaos
by Clayton Coleman W5PFG 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

I support a laissez-faire approach when it comes to FM transponder use. Not everyone chases grids. Not everyone chases DX. There are busy passes and there are slow passes. It balances out. When I am out roving, I don't sit and call every station on the pass. I normally give my callsign once and wait for others to call me. On average, if I'm in a desired grid square, I might receive 20 direct calls. If most stations are hearing adequately and adhering to generally-accepted operating norms, there is plenty of room in a 11-13 minute pass for twice that number of QSO's. Last week, while I was operating from a remote grid in West Texas, another station was operating from desired grids further northwest. Between us there were nearly 40 clean QSO's, with the potential for more. It was amazingly orderly for an FM transponder - on a weekend! Any transponder is a shared, multi-user resource. Except for emergency communications I don't believe consensus exists to prioritize use for particular groups (backyard/handheld warriors, rovers, home stations, club demo's, hamfests.) Who would make that determination? It would likely be unpopular. I try to prioritize the young people, Scouts, demos, and new calls but that is MY personal preference. HEARING the satellite is critical but LISTENING(comprehension) to the cadence of the pass is equally important. Often I listen to transponders and hear very few stations. Time of day and footprint coverage are key elements to determine when a transponder will have activity. If someone new is expecting to make their first-ever QSO on a Saturday afternoon pass covering an entire continent, their expectation might not be met. 73 Clayton W5PFG > On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 11:30:09 AM EST, Jerry Buxton < > n0jy at amsat.org> wrote: > > Not to deter grid chasing and awards, does every FM bird have to be that > way? I do miss my start with "portable stuff" a decade or so ago, and > just having quick QSOs with new contacts on SO-50 from the pizzeria > parking lot when I visited Mom and Dad... > > Jerry Buxton, NØJY > > On 2/19/2019 21:02, Bob wrote: > > I can tell you from personal experience as a satellite mentor, giving > > presentations which always excite potential new satellite users, then > > having them go into the field to experience the bedlam of a FM Satellite, > > that they too often become discouraged and give up. Easysat is a very > > deceptive name, especially on weekends. > > > > 73, Bob, WB4SON > > _______________________________________________ > >

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SatPC32 Stalls at AOS
by Allen 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Hi All, For several months I have been automatically receiving frames from the Fox-1 satellites. Typically at –3 degrees elev, the az/el sets the antenna position correctly and the radio is tuned to the correct frequency. But lately as soon as 0 degrees el is reached, SatPC32 stalls, the clock stops and nothing further happens until I manually click on the enabled satellite. Everything again proceeds normally, until the next scheduled satellite reaches 0 degrees el and SatPC32 stops. Since this error I upgraded from Ver 12.8c to 12.8d which produced the same error. I reinstalled 12.8c but the condition persists. In receive only mode, I’m using a Flex 1500 with FlexSatPC 7.2.2 and the computer uses Win10 Pro with an i7 processor and 8GM RAM. CPU demand always is less than 10%. I’m at a loss as to where to look to resolve this issue. Any guidance is greatly appreciated. 73, Allen KI7RM

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Satellite survey of amateur radio operators: Less than ten 10 days to give our opinion
by christophe.mcr 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Dear All Up to 270 people from 34 country have already fulfill the survey. Some figure are already available ( http://bit.ly/figureSat ). Answer are mainly from france. It should be very interesting to have the opinion from other country. Please take less than 10 minutes to fill this survey : http://bit.ly/AmsatSurvey . You opinion is important. Results should be made available to all other AMSAT sociaty. Thank you for your Help Christophe président Amsat-F Number of submiter per countries : France 122 United States 27 United Kingdom 20 Poland 13 Germany 12 Netherlands 9 Belgium 8 Italy 8 Australia 6 Canada 6 Spain 4 Greece 3 Romania 3 Switzerland 3 Argentina 2 Austria 2 Brazil 2 Finland 2 Portugal 2 Sweden 2 Algérie 1 Bulgaria 1 Chile 1 Colombia 1 Croatia 1 Estonia 1 Japan 1 New Zealand 1 Sénégal 1 Serbia 1 Suisse 1 Taiwan 1 Turkey 1 Venezuela 1

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