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

iOS app Maidenhead
by Douglas Tabor 30 Apr '19

30 Apr '19

How much trust does one have WRT state boundaries and what Maidenhead displays? The borders are often not straight nor do they always align with Lat/Lon ... looking at Wyoming, we seem to have 8 more grids than our rectangular shape would have one believe (some from Colorado and others from Montana). Anyone else see this or similar? Thanks and 73, Douglas Tabor, N6UA - Sent from my iPad

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Fox -1B / AO-91 in trouble?
by Hans BX2ABT 30 Apr '19

30 Apr '19

Just had a good pass from Fox-1B, but it seems the bird is in trouble. No telemetry and no voices heard, just weird noises. I put a screen shot on my website: BX2ABT.com. Let's just hope a reset will cure this bird. 73 de Hans (BX2ABT)

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My first sat QSO
by Hans BX2ABT 30 Apr '19

30 Apr '19

It's been over a year since I decided to get busy with amateur satellites, and only now I've made my first sat QSO. For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to see which satellites I could reach with my home brew 2/70 cross yagis fixed at 20 degrees elevation. AO-91/92 were possible, but my IC-820H on loan has very low audio on FM, so I didn't dare to try. For some reason or another I can't get much signal from SO-50, but FO-29 was fine with CW and SSB. I tried Falconsat-3, but connecting the PC to the IC-820H is problematic, so I gave up for now. So Sunday night I was checking out a pass from CAS-4A and heard BD5EUA calling CQ in CW. At the spur of the moment I decided to answer him, just to see if I could. Well, I could get through the bird, but I was too late in answering him and the Doppler compensation didn't work, because BD5EUA was drifting up instead of down! Then an hour later, or so, a pass from CAS-4B and there he was again, still drifting up. So I switched off my Doppler correction and tried to get on his frequency. I put out my call and he came back to me with a 599, which I returned to him as well. So, yay! My first satellite QSO was in CW, not SSB, FM or digital. It wasn't a beauty of a QSO, but it counts. I made a screen recording of the whole ordeal and you can find it on my website: BX2ABT.com or here: https://youtu.be/Z7zRI_ALbpQ. I'm not proud of my keying, but I found I got fazed by the delay between my keying and the audio that came back from the bird. My first try to do CW over a satellite I did so with paddles, which was even worse, so this time I used a straight key (Chinese army made, kind of approriate), which I am more familiar with. Still, the delay wreaked havoc in my brain. Is the solution to turn of the side tone of my rig? Or maybe wearing headphones? Anyway, it was fun and we'll do it again. Heck, I might even become good at this!

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Yaesu GS-232B Rotor Interface to computer RS-232C Port Help!
by cbs045＠charter.net 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

Hello list members, I have a new Yaesu GS-232B I'm having connection issues and could use some help. My system is a Dell XPS running Windows 7 Pro. Terminal emulator is PuTTY.exeThis computer uses a real RS-232C port set to the only choice of COM1. No COM2 port, parallel or printer ports are used with this machine. Port settings are 9600 baud, 8 bit, no parity, hardware control set to none. I'm sure my computer, RS-232C port and strait RS-232C cables are good because I have no trouble connecting to another device. (Juniper CTP-1002 router)I tried all combinations of hardware control options, port speeds and always get a blank screen with only a cursor when connected to the Yaesu GS-232B. Anybody have any suggestions what I might be overlooking? Thank You, N8OCX Brook Smith

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-04-30 02:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-04-30 02:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca (OAM), Costitx (Mallorca-Islas Baleares-España), Spain, telebridge via W6SRJ Participating schools: Colegio San José Obrero, Palma de Mallorca(Islas Baleares-España), Spain and Colegio Luis Vives, Palma de Mallorca(Islas Baleares-España), Spain (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV Contact was successful: Mon 2019-04-29 11:48:40 UTC 36 deg (***) Watch for live stream at https://www.youtube.com/user/LuisVivesTV/live Mildred Hall School, Yellowknife, NT, Canada, telebridge via LU8YY The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Fri 2019-05-03 18:32:19 UTC 59 deg Walter Murray Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada via LU8YY (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Mon 2019-05-06 17:35:50 UTC 40 deg (***) Moriah Central School, Port Henry, NY, telebridge via K6DUE (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Nick Hague KG5TMV Contact is go for: Tue 2019-05-07 13:15:35 UTC 55 deg (***) The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. International Space Station Astronauts are Calling CQ Students ARISS-US program’s education proposal window is open April 1 - May 15, 2019 March 24, 2019: The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program is seeking proposals beginning April 1, 2019, from US schools, museums, science centers and community youth organizations (working individually or together) to host radio contacts with an orbiting crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020. Each year, ARISS provides tens of thousands of students with learning opportunities about space technologies, communications, and much more through the exploration of Amateur Radio and space. The ARISS program connects students to astronauts on the ISS through a partnership between NASA, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, the American Radio Relay League, other Amateur Radio global organizations and the worldwide space agencies. The program’s goal is to inspire students to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and in Amateur Radio. Educators report regularly that student participation in the ARISS program stimulates interest in STEM subjects and STEM careers. One educator wrote, “Many of the middle school students who took part in and attended the ARISS contact have selected science courses in high school as a result of that contact.” Educators are setting up ham radio clubs in schools and learning centers because of students’ interest. ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed, exciting education plan. Students can learn about satellite communications, wireless technology, science research conducted on the ISS, radio science, and other STEM subjects. Students learn to use Amateur Radio to talk directly to an astronaut and ask their STEM-related questions. ARISS will help educational organizations locate Amateur Radio groups who can assist with equipment for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students. The proposal window opens April 1, 2019 and the proposal deadline is May 15, 2019. For proposal guidelines and forms and more details, go to: http://ariss-proposal-webinar-spring-2019.eventbrite.com Proposal webinars for guidance and getting questions answered will be offered April 11, 2019 at 7 pm Eastern Time and April 16, 2019 at 9 pm Eastern Time. Advance registration is necessary. To sign up, go to https://ariss-proposal-webinar-spring-2019.eventbrite.com **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, go to: http://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) http://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** 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: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 114 **************************************************************************** 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 2019-04-30 02:30 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 1305. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1248. (***) 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: 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 2019-04-30 02:30 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_correction .rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain Exp. 59 on orbit Christina Koch Aleksey Ovchinin Nick Hague KG5TMV **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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DSP-12 TNC?
by Robert Bruninga 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

Is there any market for an old DSP-12 TNC from LL-grace? Bob, WB4APR

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Hot Rod Power Tour ++ Rove. June 2-27
by Robert Bragg 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

Myself and the Elco will be running the Hot Rod Power Tour again this year from June 8th – 14th. The ++ part of the rove will be the roving before the Power Tour and the roving following the Power Tour. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hot-rod-power-tour-2019-dates-locations-jun… For the before, I plan to head south and start my roving on the DM77/78 gridline and head east from there on June 2nd – 5th, covering the line from DM77/78 all the way to EM87/88. Then with a stop in EM86 for a few days. If you are located anywhere near one of the Power Tour cities, please come out and see the events. It is a very impressive show. I will be working passes in each of the cities that we go to. For the after, I will be heading to New York for 10 days, and I plan to light up some of the FN field. Including FN01/11 gridline at some point. And then the trip back to Wyoming as well. Please watch for me on Twitter and look at my QRZ page for details. Each grid that I activate will be on FM, and when I have time, I will try to get some linear action in as well. And all contacts will be uploaded to LOTW as soon as travel schedule allows. Hope to work you from somewhere good. Cheers! R.J. WY7AA

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Re: [amsat-bb] Good price on Kenwood TS2000X
by John Brier 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

No same one. Sorry I didn't know it had a pig tail for 1.2 GHz. I just saw the serial plate said 1200 MHz and assumed the N-connector was for 1.2 GHz. Thanks for the correction. 73, John Brier KG4AKV On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 3:00 PM Paul Andrews <w2hro.fn20(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > John, > > Maybe we are looking at different radios. > > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kenwood-TS-2000-HF-VHF-UHF-All-Mode-Ham-Transceive… > > This radio does not have the 1296 pigtail. > > 73 - Paul > > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 2:58 PM John Brier <johnbrier(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> The pics of the back of the radio seem to suggest it has 1.2 GHz. >> >> 73, John Brier KG4AKV >> >> On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 2:56 PM Paul Andrews via AMSAT-BB < >> amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: >> >>> John, >>> >>> The TS-2000 is great for satellites but this unit does not have the 1296 >>> MHz module. >>> >>> You can expect to pay $1200 for a good TS-2000X with the 1296 module >>> installed. >>> >>> 73 - Paul - W2HRO >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Apr 29, 2019 at 2:41 PM John Geiger via AMSAT-BB < >>> amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> >>> wrote: >>> >>> > Saw this when I was on ebay, this will get you on all of the >>> satellites, >>> > including AO92 when it goes into L/V mode. >>> > >>> > https://www.ebay.com/itm/283464552283?ul_noapp=true >>> > _______________________________________________ >>> > 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: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb >>> >>

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Good price on Kenwood TS2000X
by John Geiger 29 Apr '19

29 Apr '19

Saw this when I was on ebay, this will get you on all of the satellites, including AO92 when it goes into L/V mode. https://www.ebay.com/itm/283464552283?ul_noapp=true

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AISAT-1-decode solution
by D. Craig Fox 28 Apr '19

28 Apr '19

So with the patience of Christy, KB6LTY, I finally had my first contact over AISAT today. I guess for the reasons talked about by others here, it is difficult (or impossible) to decode packets from this sat, at least on my TS2Kx running UZ7HO soundmodem and UISS. However, I did figure out that by putting the rx into NBFM mode, and fine tuning the sat downlink, I can now decode. Im not sure if the sat can digipeat a NBFM signal it receives, so I have been toggling the tx from NBFM to WBFM. SATPC's default for tx is NBFM if I put the rx in that mode. Next step is to modify the Doppler file to see if it will handle entry of NBFM for the rx mode only. Otherwise it's all manual. I welcome any other suggestions for decoding this sat's downlink. 73s Craig N6RSX

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