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

VK5DG/p in PF92, PF93
by David Giles 18 Mar '19

18 Mar '19

Hello All, I will be participating in the 6th VK5 National and Conservation Parks Activation Weekend on Saturday the 23rd of March. In the morning I will be in Little Dip Conservation Park (PF92) and the afternoon will be in Butcher Gap Conservation Park (PF93). I will be trying as many passes as I can on FM and SSB birds. 73 de David VK5DG

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Upcoming ARISS contact with North Point School for Boys, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 17 Mar '19

17 Mar '19

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at North Point School for Boys, Calgary, Alberta, Canada on 20 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 20:16 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time.The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a telebridge between OR4ISS and IK1SLD. The contact should be audible over Alberta, Canada and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. North Point School for Boys, a private school in Calgary, provides a setting for boys from Kindergarten to Grade 9 in which they are challenged and motivated, developing into young men of integrity with a genuine love of learning. Through strong mentors, experiential learning and blended learning, students discover who they are and how they learn. Students will be learning about the International Space Station through social discussion, science class and engineering academy. Students will be building a scale model of the International Space Station and learning Canada's commitment to the space program. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. How did you train to become an astronaut? 2. What do you do all day? 3. Is time different on the space station? 4. What is it like being weightless in space? 5. Is it hard to move around? 6. What is your favourite space food? 7. What is the coolest thing you have seen while on the space station? 8. How long does it take to get used to zero gravity? 9. What did you bring with you to the International Space Station? 10. Was it scary launching on the Space Shuttle? 11. Will you get to do a spacewalk? 12. Do you operate the Canadarm? 13. What does the sunrise look like? 14. How long was the Soyuz ride? 15. What is your rank with the Canadian Space Agency? 16. Do you get to see all the parts of the International Space Station? 17. Can you see Canada from space? 18. How do astronauts breathe with their EVA suits on? 19. Do astronauts eat together? 20. What is it like being in space? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Attaching the coax to antenna boom
by radiomb 17 Mar '19

17 Mar '19

Building my new ground station and another question. I have always only elevated my antenna 90 degrees. I loose about 20 25 seconds while the azimuth rotator turns 180 degrees to track the rest of the pass. I have just let the coax hang off the back of the antennas in a big loop. I am afraid it will get hung up going 180 degrees. Question, Can I attach the coax to the antenna boom and run it back until it gets to the cross boom or will that throw off the radiation pattern? Thanks 73 Mike K4MIA

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 17 Mar '19

17 Mar '19

For anyone interested in the AMSAT on HF award I will be calling "CQ AMSAT" in slow code 1800 UTC to 1830 UTC today (Sunday). Frequency will be between 7.105 MHz and 7.115 MHz. Award info: https://www.amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ Steve AI9IN

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Rovin' the Eights (and Sevens)
by Alex Free - N7AGF 17 Mar '19

17 Mar '19

AMSAT Grid Chasers, My semiannual rover trip to activate rare and somewhat rare grids will happen from April 29th to May 4th or 5th (or longer depending on how things go). I will fly into Minneapolis and drive back to my home grid CN88, activating as many ENx8,ENx7,DNx8,and DNx7 grids as possible along the route. Hopefully I can hit many corners and lines. I will be on both linear and FM birds. As always, activations and route details will be posted to my Twitter @N7AGF at https://twitter.com/N7AGF. I will also be on APRS at https://aprs.fi/N7AGF-10. In areas of limited cell service, I'll be using inReach. Email or hit me on twitter with grid requests, route suggestions, or hot tourist attractions in Minot. 73, Alex Free N7AGF

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AO-92
by Frank Staffa Jr. 17 Mar '19

17 Mar '19

I apologize to everyone trying to come back to my call just now but we had a CLOWN on there constantly throwing a dead carrier and also whistling on top of everyone. Don't know if anyone else heard him/her but it was annoying and one reason why FM sats can be discouraging. Again I apologize to everyone trying to come back to my call. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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ANS-076 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by JoAnne K9JKM 16 Mar '19

16 Mar '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-076 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. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers * Out of This World Auction Sponsored by ARISS * 50th Anniversary AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award * Lilacsat-1 LO-90 Re-entry Commemorative Competition * ARRL TI-2 Teachers Institute Includes Amateur Satellite Telemetry * ARRL Supports No Change to Table of Allocations for 45.5 - 47 and 47 - 47.2 GHz Bands * Upcoming Satellite Operations * AMSAT-DL QO-100 Up- and Downconverter Kit Modifications Announcement * Changes to the AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution This Week * Satellite/AMSAT Presentation at Phoenix AZ - March 21, 2019 * VUCC Awards-Endorsements for February 2019 * GPS Network May Experience Errors in "Week Number" Rollover * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-076.01 ANS-076 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 076.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE March 17, 2019 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-076.01 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT relies on your donations to Keep Amateur Radio in Space Please consider a one-time or recurring donation today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention -- Call for volunteers Last year, we had about 40 people assist with the AMSAT booth at the Hamvention. It was the efforts of those volunteers that made the 2018 Dayton Hamvention a success for AMSAT. The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience a lot of fun. The 2019 Hamvention is May 17-19 at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio. Would you consider helping AMSAT at the Hamvention this year? Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Phil, w1eme(a)amsat.org if you can help. [ANS Thanks W1EME for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ AMSAT and ARISS are currently supporting a FundRazr campaign to raise $150,000 for critical radio infrastructure upgrades on ISS. The upgrades are necessary to enable students to continue to talk to astronauts in space via Amateur Radio, ensure reliable packet operations and to keep the immensely popular SSTV operations running. We have reached a great milestone with $17,255 raised or about 12% towards our goal. This would not have been possible without your outstanding generosity!! ARISS has a lot of exciting upgrades to the ISS Radio system coming up. And we are in the expensive fabrication and testing phase right now. So every dollar counts!! For more information and to DONATE TODAY visit: https://fundrazr.com/arissnextgen?ref=ab_e7Htwa_ab_47IcJ9 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Out of This World Auction Sponsored by ARISS March 6, 2019 — The ARISS-US team (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) will auction two very unusual items in its first-ever auction! Picture yourself as the winning bidder and proud owner of a unique JVC Kenwood TS-890S signed by astronauts! Or, you could be top bidder on a special astronaut-signed 6-volume boxed set 2019 ARRL Handbook! Bidding starts April 8th at 12:00 UTC and ends April 14th at 22:00 UTC. You could own this one-of-a-kind beautiful Kenwood TS-890S; your ham station would boast the only Kenwood in the world showcasing astronaut signatures. Your top bid on the limited edition boxed-set 2019 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications would mean your bookshelf includes astronaut signatures among your book collection. JVC Kenwood, a proud supporter of ARISS, generously gave a brand new TS-890S for ARISS to auction. They first offered the radio for sale in the US in the last half of 2018. Kenwood has been a super support- er of ARISS for years, and it was the company’s idea for this radio, with astronaut signatures, to be an exclusive that just one ham opera- tor could own! The company hopes you’ll be a bidder who wants to sup- port ARISS. The limited edition 2019 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications sold out fast once ARRL posted their ad. It was the first time that ARRL divided the Handbook into volumes, which nestle in a hard slipcase. ARRL, an ARISS sponsor along with AMSAT and NASA, saved back one boxed set to give ARISS for the fund-raiser auction. When you bid in this auction you could be the crucial person who helps ARISS launch its new custom-built higher-power radio system in 2019 with its voice repeater and improved packet APRS and SSTV capability that thousands of hams enjoy. The new system will replace the aging, problematic units currently on the ISS. You may be the winning bidder who helps ARISS continue introducing ham radio to thousands of students, teachers, parents, and whole communities—and inspiring students about science, technology, engineering, math, and radio! Don't forget; set yourself a reminder: bidding starts April 8th at 12:00 UTC and ends April 14th at 22:00 UTC. Be the winning bidder for one or both of these two exclusive offerings and you’ll own a rare article that makes your ham station a classic! More auction details will soon be posted at www.ariss.org including that winning bidders will be responsible for shipping costs and for handling any required customs paperwork. ARISS thanked JVC Kenwood and ARRL for their generous support. And if you don’t do auctions, please contribute a donation to help ARISS launch its new radio system into space—look for the Donate but- ton near the top right corner of the www.ariss.org page. Thank you! About ARISS Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a coopera- tive venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation ( AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educa- tors, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. Media Contact: Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn at amsat.org [ANS thanks ARISS for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 2019 marks AMSAT’s 50th Anniversary of Keeping Amateur Radio in Space. To help celebrate, we are sponsoring the AMSAT 50th Anniversary Awards Program. Full details are available at https://www.amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 50th Anniversary AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards says the 50th Anniversary AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award is now online: https://www.amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ Unlike the AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award, the 50th Anniversary AMSAT Satellite Communications Achievement Award will be issued on one of the original goldenrod paper stock certi- ficates and signed by AMSAT’s founding President, Perry Klein, K3JTE (now W3PK). With only 20 original certificates available, this award will certainly become a collector’s item. The first 20 applicants to successfully submit 20 confirmed, qual- ifying contacts on any satellite will receive this award. A qualifying contact is defined as the establishment of two-way communication on any amateur radio satellite, with another station in a U.S. state, Canadian call area, or DXCC entity, no two of which may be the same. A U.S. state shall mean any state of the United States and the District of Columbia. All contacts must be made between March 03, 2019 00:00 UTC and December 31, 2019 23:59 UTC. Refer to the 50th Anniversary Awards program page (above) for the complete set of requirements and sub- mission instructions. As of March 15 Bruce says he issued 50th Anniversary Satellite Communication Achievement Awards to these satellite operators: Award # Callsign ------- -------- 590 W5RKN 591 K7TAB 592 KG5GJT 593 KB6LTY 594 KC9VGG 595 K6FW 596 N1RCN 597 K5IX 598 WD9EWK 599 KI7UNJ 601 VA3NNA (Award #600 was not a 50th certificate and went to W5RTX.) There are 9 more 50th Anniversary Anniversary Satellite Communication Achievement Awards still available. [ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lilacsat-1 LO-90 Re-entry Commemorative Competition Wei Mingchuan, BG2BHC, at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China says LO-90 (Lilacsat-1) is about to re-enter so the LO-90 team has announced the Lilacsat-1 Commemorative Competition (LOCC). Use Google translate to learn more of Lilacsat-1 at: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/wp/ The contest period begins on March 16, 2019 at 00:00 UTC and con- tinues until Lilacsat-1 re-enters. The competition consists of two operating categories: + Amateur Radio Telemetry Group - Receive and upload as many telemetry packets as possible within the competition period. + Amateur Radio Communication Group - Make as many bidirectional QSO as possible in as many grid locator as possible within the competition period. For the telemetry competition each successfully uploaded telemetry packet to the Harbin Institute of Technology server counts as one point. BG2BHC advises there is a change to the Lilacsat-1 telemetry upload proxy address. Those using http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn should change it to http://data.lilacsat.online in proxy window of the dashboard. For the amateur radio communication competition a bidirectional contact consists on exchange of callsign and grid locator. Each QSO will count as one point. Each different grid counts as one multiplier. Duplicate QSOs with the same callsign do not count. Scoring and Awards ------------------ In the Amateur Radio Telemetry Group: final score = basic point which is the total number of telemetry packets uploaded. All telemetry data uploaded qualifies for a LilacSat-1 QSL card. In the Amateur Radio Communication Group: final score = basic point * multiplier + China: top 3 certificates issued. + World: Top 10 certificates issued. + The ham who receives the last downlink signal in the world and successfully uploads it to the server will receive a special gift. + Honor stickers - portable stations set up and operated in the field for this contest will receive a "Fiel " sticker affixed to the certificate. (Include a photo of the portable station.) The LO-90 team will publish the telemetry package list received from March 16, 2019 00:00 UTC to LilacSat-1 re-entry. Telemetry participants should send an e-mail with your callsign and address to: locc(a)lilacsat.online. (no later than April 30, 2019 00:00 UTC) Communication category participants should submit logs in Cabrillo or Excel XLS format containing your e-mail address, sent/received exchange information, UTC time of QSO. Send logs and information to locc(a)lilacsat.online no later than April 30, 2019 00:00 UTC. Include your photo of portable operation if applicable. LO-90 (LilacSat-1) operates on an FM uplink with a Codec2 digital voice downlink. A Linux Live ISO image with the decoder can be downloaded from: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-074-LO90-LiveCD (This will also work on Windows systems by booting off of the Linux Live CD. Then you reboot back into Windows when the pass is completed.) LO-90 Lilacsat-1 (http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/wp/?page_id=594) Uplink: 145.985 MHz FM Downlink: 436.510 MHz Codec2 digital voice Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, has documented his LO-90 operating setup in his article, "Digital Voice on Amateur Satellites: Experiences With Lilacsat-OSCAR 90", published in the January/February 2019 issue of the AMSAT Journal. A PDF copy of this article can also be accessed on AMSAT's Station and Operating Hints page: to https://www.amsat.org/station-and-operating-hints/ AMSAT-UK has posted an article about Lilacsat-1 at: https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/lilacsat-1/ Orbital evolution estimates for Lilacsat-1 posted on DK3WN's page indicate re-entry around March 31: http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=93929 [ANS thanks the LO-90 team and the Harbin Institue of Technolgy for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Purchase AMSAT Gear on our Zazzle storefront. 25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ ARRL TI-2 Teachers Institute Includes Amateur Satellite Telemetry The ARRL announced 2019 Teachers Institutes on Wireless Technology sessions. As part of its educational outreach through the Education & Technology Program (ETP), ARRL will offer week-long sessions of the Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology in July at ARRL Head- quarters in Newington, Connecticut. Applicants to the advanced TI-2 “Remote Sensing and Data Gathering” workshop are required to have completed TI-1 and be licensed Amateur Radio operators. Interested educators can find all the details and apply online at: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-076-ARRL-TI2 The TI-2 “Remote Sensing and Data Gathering” workshop will concen- trate on analog-to-digital conversion and data sampling. Partici- pants will receive telemetry from Amateur Radio satellites and apply it to math and science topics. TI-2 participants are also introduced to a marine research buoy equipped with environmental sensors and taught how to create a similar design with a microcontroller to sample the data, configure it for Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) transmission, and receive and upload data to a spreadsheet for analysis. For more information, contact ARRL Lifelong Learning Manager Kris Bickell, K1BIC, at ARRL Headquarters. [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Supports No Change to Table of Allocations for 45.5 - 47 and 47 - 47.2 GHz Bands The FCC has opened a brief window for public comment on recommendations approved by the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (WAC). Comments are due March 18 on International Bureau Docket 16-185. The FCC said the short comment period was necessary to allow time to finalize the US position for submission to the upcoming meeting of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). The Public Notice can be found in PDF format at, https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-19-172A1.pdf . Addressing WRC-19 Agenda Item 1.13, which serves to identify spectrum above 24.25 GHz that may be designated for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), ARRL has recommended no change in the 45.5 - 47 and 47 - 47.2 GHz bands, with hopes that commenters will agree. The 47 - 47.2 GHz band is allocated to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services. ARRL and other no-change proponents point out that no sharing and compatibility studies were performed between IMT-2020 systems and the relevant incumbent services in the 45.5 - 47 GHz and 47 - 47.2 GHz bands, although sharing and compatibility studies for a number of incumbent services were required under Resolution 238 of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15). "In the absence of ITU Radiocommunication Sector studies, the only sustainable conclusion is that it has not been demonstrated that the incumbent services in either band - the Mobile-Satellite Service, the Radionavigation Service, and the Radionavigation-Satellite Service in the 45.5 - 47 GHz band, and the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite services in the 47 - 47.2 GHz band - can be protected, as required by Resolution 238," asserts the proponents of View B, which sides with no change to the current allocations. "In this regard, the View A proposal to identify mobile spectrum in the 45.5 - 47 GHz band for the terrestrial component of IMT, and to allocate spectrum in the 47 - 47.2 GHz band to the mobile service and identify the same for the terrestrial component of IMT, is fatally flawed. The absence of studies in the responsible ITU-R task group leaves the proposals unsubstantiated and incapable of adoption." View B proponents, including ARRL, are urging the FCC to accept the proposals of the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) for no change to the Table of Allocations in the 45.5 - 47 GHz and 47 - 47.2 GHz bands. [ANS thanks the ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming Satellite Operations + Eureka Nunavut (ER60, EQ79) – February 3, to March 29, 2019 Eureka ARC, VY0ERC, will be QRV from Eureka, NU (NA-008). Time and weather permitting, they expect to be on the FM satellites from ER60 and EQ79. Announcements will be posted on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/vy0erc. + Radio Club de Heredia (EK70/EJ79) – March 17, 2019 Vic (TI2VLM), Octavio (TI3ATS), and Minor (TI2YO) will activate the EK70,EJ79 gridline at the Radio Club de Heredia, TI0RHU 30th Anniver- sary Field Day. Planned satellite passes are: AO-92 @ 13:27z, SO-50 at 16:37z, and AO-91 @ 17:47z. Watch for further announcements on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ti2vlm and https://twitter.com/OctavioAraya. + Key West, FL (EL94) – March 18-21, 2019 Adam, K0FFY, will be in Florida Keys on March 18 through 21, activating EL94 vacation-style. Adam’s taking his linear gear to see who he can hear East and South of that location If you still need EL94 please send direct message or email. Otherwise, he’ll be announcing on Twitter https://twitter.com/K0FFY_Radio + Ontario (EN93,EN94,FN03, FN04) – March 18-21, 2019 Ron, AD0DX, with his tire still warm from his last roving trip, is heading to Ontario, March 28th for a one day, four grid, special. Ron will tweet passes the day of the rove, which will most likely be morning passes. Follow Ron on his journey at https://twitter.com/ad0dx Please submit any additions or corrections to ke4al (at) amsat.org [ANS thanks Robert, KE4AL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-DL QO-100 Up- and Downconverter Kit Modifications Announcement AMSAT-DL has recommended a modification to their QO-100 Upconvert- er and Downconverter kits which were shipped prior to March 1 to improve performance of the uplink SSB transmit signal and address reduced gain of the downlink wide-band DATV reception. Refer to AMSAT-DL's post at: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-076-AMSAT-DL-Converter Kits being shipped currently will already have the modification. The changes primarily affect the wide-band DATV signal so the users of the narrow-band CW/SSB only operations are less affected. Users able to perform the modification themselves will find the instructions posted at: https://amsat-dl.org/en/fix-fuer-qo-100-downconverter For users unable to make the modification themselves AMSAT-DL says instructions for exchange of the old kits will be published soon. [ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to the AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution This Week Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, noted changes to the AMSAT-NA TLE distribution this week. Exseed, Irvine 2 and VisionCube cubesats are not transmitting. They are part of the SpaceX SSO-A 12-03-2019 mission. Since they are not transmitting, the remaining objects listed by Space-Track are either one of these three non-transmitting amateur satellites or they are non-amateur satellites. Therefore, the remaining unidentified satel- lites on the SpaceX AAO-A mission can be removed from the AMSAT-NA TLE distribution. The following satellites have been removed from this week's AMSAT TLE distribution: OBJECT D - CAT ID 43761 OBJECT P - CAT ID 43771 OBJECT T - CAT ID 43775 OBJECT U - CAT ID 43776 OBJECT W - CAT ID 43778 OBJECT X - CAT ID 43779 OBJECT AH - CAT ID 43789 OBJECT AV - CAT ID 43801 OBJECT BA - CAT ID 43806 OBJECT BD - CAT ID 43809 OBJECT BE - CAT ID 43810 OBJECT BS - CAT ID 43822 [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite/AMSAT Presentation at Phoenix AZ - March 21, 2019 Patrick, WD9EWK, will give a how-to presentation on working amateur satellites and AMSAT at the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club's monthly meeting on Thursday, March 21, 2019. The meeting site is room 147 at the North Valley campus of Northern Arizona University, 15451 N. 28th Drive in Phoenix AZ (northwest corner of I-17 and Greenway Road). More information is available at: http://www.w7tbc.org/content.php?128-general Patrick plans to demonstrate satellite operating depending on how the meeting goes. Possible passes that evening include SO-50 around 7:55pm (0255 UTC), a low AO-92 pass at 8:42pm (0342 UTC), and another SO-50 pass at 9:35pm (0435 UTC). If WD9EWK is on any of those passes, please feel free to give him a call and be a part of the demonstrations. The meeting site is in grid DM33. QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, and QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail WD9EWK directly with QSO details if you would like a QSL card). [ANS thanks Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- VUCC Awards-Endorsements for February 2019 Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period February 1, 2019 through March 1, 2019. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! There were lots of new Not-in-my-home-grid awards this month. CALL 01Feb 01Mar ------- ----- ----- WC7V 1199 1200 AA5PK 1049 1055 WD9EWK 525 537 NS3L 375 400 AF5CC 351 381 AE5B 342 368 KE8FZT 275 301 W7JSD 257 279 K9UO 202 225 WB7VUF 107 206 N2NL New 179 N1PEB 125 138 WD9EWK(DM22) 108 131 W5PFG(DM80) New 125 WD9EWK(DM31) New 110 W5PFG(DM95) 100 109 TI2VLM New 106 W5PFG(DM93) New 105 KS1G New 102 PU4JOE New 101 W1OH New 101 If you find errors or omissions please contact Ron off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and he'll revise the announcement. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for The two months. 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] --------------------------------------------------------------------- GPS Network May Experience Errors in "Week Number" Rollover The GPS network will encounter a small millennium bug of its own in April when the network's "week number" rolls back to zero. This known issue especially could affect those who use GPS to obtain accurate Coordinated Universal Time. In the GPS network, the number of the current week is encoded into the message the GPS receives using a 10-bit field. This allows for weeks ranging from zero to 1023. The current period began on August 1, 1999. On April 6, 2019, the week number rolls over to zero and starts counting back up to 1023. This should not affect later-model GPS receivers that conform to IS-GPS-200 and provide UTC, but testing carried out by the US Department for Homeland Security raised the possibility that some units may misinterpret the rollover, shifting the date back to January 6, 1980, or possibly to another incorrect date. An affected GPS not only may report the incorrect date, but time accuracy that is critical to precise location data could be compromised. A nanosecond error in GPS time can equate to 1 foot of position or ranging error, according to DHS-published guidelines that explain the issue and suggest how to address it. View the offi- cial release at: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-076-DHS-GPSRollover [ANS thanks the Department of Homeland Security, National Cyber- security & Communications Integration Center for the above information] +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ For a limited time, new and renewing AMSAT members will receive a free digital copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" Join or renew your AMSAT membership today at https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-membership/ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Satellite Shorts From All Over + Congratulations to these stations for establishing a new distance record via satellite: > FalconSAT-3 (V/U Digipeater) – 3,157 km. KE8AKW in EN80xv with KB6LTY in DM14jl. 15-Mar-2019 at 00:41 UTC. > AO-92 (L/V) – 3,626 km. WD9EWK in DM43bl with N1JEZ in FN44ar. 15-Apr-2018 at 16:36 UTC. Visit the distance records page at: https://www.amsat.org/satellite-distance-records/ + The engineering beacon on Es'Hail QO-100 is active. Legacy software that decoded the AO-40 beacon will also work on QO-100: http://www.moetronix.com/ae4jy/ao40rcv.htm If QO-100 is out of range for your station use the WebSDR at: https://eshail.batc.org/.uk/nb/ and tune the receiver to the Upper Beacon. + AMSAT's Fox Operating Guide hamfest and demo handout sheet has been updated to reflect the current operational status of AO-85 and AO-95. The high and low resolution PDF files are available on their links at: https://www.amsat.org/station-and-operating-hints/ + It is possible to search AMSAT's archives (amsat-bb and ANS) by using the "site:" command in Google. For example, to find all mentions of the word "Diplexer" in amsat-bb, type this line into a browser opened to the Google front page: Diplexer site:http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb To restrict the search to a particular year, type Diplexer site:http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2014 The AMSAT News Service (ANS) archives are searchable in a similar manner (for example hamvention in 2016): hamvention site:http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2016 (Thanks to Dan Schultz N8FGV) + On-line tweets indicate that the Philippine Diwata-2 satellite carrying an amateur radio FM transponder and APRS digipeater may be activated around March 29. The IARU has coordinated an FM downlink for voice, APRS and telemetry on 145.900 MHz and an FM voice uplink on 437.500 MHz. Additional Diwata-2 information is posted at: http://phl-microsat.upd.edu.ph/diwata2 https://www.facebook.com/PHLMicrosat + If you have lost you authorisation code for the AMSAT-UK FUNcube dashboards, there is a page on which you can request this code to be sent to your registered email address. See: http://data.badgersoft.com/recover-authcode (via G4DPZ) + Check out IZ5RZR's Two SatNOGS Satellite Rotators video posted at: https://youtu.be/tcdItBsMnC0 + The Internet Archive site makes all issues of 73 Magazine available: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-074-InternetArchive-73 Tools at https://mikeyancey.com/73mag/index.php offer indexed searches of the archive. + The March PDF of the weather satellite publication 'GEO News- letter' produced by the Group for Earth Observation is now available for free download. The Group for Earth Observation's aim is to enable amateur reception of weather and earth imaging satellites that are in orbit or planned for launch in the near future. Membership in GEO is free. Among the articles in this newsletter is How to "Receive X-Band Weather Satellites" by Jean-Luc Milette. Download the March 2019 GEO Newsletter from http://www.geo-web.org.uk/geoquarterly.php + Papers for IARU-R1 Vienna meeting can be accessed at: https://vienna.iaru-r1.org/conference-documents/c4/ > C4-002 bandplanning 15m satellites https://vienna.iaru-r1.org/conference-documents/c5/ > C5-011 @G3VZV Satellite Coordinator’s Report > C5-011 Annex to SCR > C5-012 2400 MHz satellite bandplanning > C5-029 Amateur Satellites + On March 14 NASA announced the projects selected in the 10th round of candidates for CubeSat space missions: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-076-NASA-10th-Round None of these satellites were found on the IARU Coordination pages at this time. + A free PDF of the current Raspberry Pi focused magazine, MagPi, issue 79, for March, 2019 is available now at: https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/79/ The next issue of MagPi will feature articles on Amateur Radio Projects in issue 80, available for free download starting on March 28. + The March 2019 Edition of SatMagazine is provided free by Satnews Publishers and is available to read online or download at: http://www.satmagazine.com/ + The March 2019 issue of CQ DATV magazine is available for download at: https://cq-datv.mobi/69.php + The 2019 Cubesat Developers Workshop will be held April 23-25, 2019 at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, San Luis Obispo, CA The schedule and additional information is posted at: http://www.cubesat.org/workshop-information [ANS thanks everyone for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and remember to behave and to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, JoAnne Maenpaa, K9JKM k9jkm at amsat dot org

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Portable operation from travel trailer/truck camper
by Bob Hammond 16 Mar '19

16 Mar '19

I've about completed Mark Spencer's WRAPS (tricked out version) AZ/EL rotator system. And I plan to use it with my small travel trailer or truck camper with my IC-9700......whenever IT GETS HERE! My question: should I set up a small extendable mast (I have several fiberglass sections of MGS mast left over from my permanent mast setup) I can mount to the trailer/camper? Or should I go with a tripod setup? Suggestions?

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SatPC32 Kep Update Failure
by NA1SA Loon 15 Mar '19

15 Mar '19

I use the nasabare.txt for my source file, but when I try to update keps using: http://www.amsat.org/ftp/keps/current/nasabare.all I continually get Download Failed. I use the nasabare.txt because it contains the CAS-4A, CAS-4B, and PSAT (NO-84) satellites, which are not in the amateur.txt file. Any suggestions? Loon NA1SA FN10 AMSAT 41057

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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS APRS?
by ka3hdo＠gmail.com 15 Mar '19

15 Mar '19

Thanks Paul! We have a lot of exciting upgrades to the ISS Radio system coming up. And we are in the expensive fabrication and testing phase right now. So every dollar counts!! To answer a couple of the APRS questions out there: The system has been down recently because of the Soyuz docking. We now have an additional 3 crew members on ISS--a total of 6. We hope to have the radio system turned back on soon. We were waiting for the docking to occur for the crew to do a power cycle. We did launch and replace the old packet module with a "new" old flight backup unit. As some have pointed out, its characteristics are a bit different from the old one. Some have said that it is deaf. Note that when these were built in the late 1990's the radio system was set up with a tight 3 kHz deviation for packet. The suggestion to tighten up your deviation may improve your ability to better communicate with the system. In the meantime, the ARISS team is focused on getting the next-generation radio system built and flown. 73, Frank KA3HDO *************************************** Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO ISS Ham Radio Program Manager & PI ARISS International Chair AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 11:56:46 -0400 From: Paul Stoetzer <n8hm(a)arrl.net> To: Roy Dean <royldean(a)gmail.com> Cc: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ISS APRS? Message-ID: <CABzOSOqKUEx_mtpj9DFGvE7oe0t8+v3xbU6YQXn5=SCRwFja7A(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Yes, please donate to ARISS to help make that a reality! https://fundrazr.com/arissnextgen?ref=ab_48JQ5vYnLCu48JQ5vYnLCu https://www.amsat.org/donate/ You can even make a small recurring monthly donation if you prefer. Every penny counts! 73, Paul, N8HM On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 11:54 AM Roy Dean <royldean(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > The ISS digipeater has been unreliable in the last couple of years. > Firstly, it is turned off whenever there is a special event happening on > the space station (space walks, re-supplies, etc). Secondly, the packet > module and radio are really old, and we've been seeing erratic behavior > from the pair (sometimes it's not on at all, sometimes it's on but weak, > sometimes it's deaf, etc.). There is a fancy new ARISS transceiver > slated to go up to the station soon, and we all hope that will remedy the > situation. Of course, sending a few bucks to ARISS can't hurt that > timeline. :) > > Regarding the switch between the 1200 and 9600 packet sats - there is no > easy way. I also use a D710 and it would be nice if you could select a > "profile" to swap in all of the path, modem speed, and duplex options - but > to my knowledge this is not possible. If you are connected via KISS > serial connection, you could automate this - but I'm not sure if there are > any software packages out there that would do that - at least without > having to manually change all the values via individual KISS commands > (which doesn't seem to be any better than using the built-in D710 UI). > > --Roy > K3RLD >

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