AMSAT-BB October 2020

102 participants
152 discussions

Re: [amsat-bb] Fox Telemetry antenna?
by Roy Dean 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

I've been using a 3/4 wavelength ground plane (vertical with 4 equal length radials) in my attic for the last couple of years, and have usually been in the top 60 on the leaderboard for the fox satellites. Lately I've been having FoxTelem stability issues, though (pretty regularly getting a usb access error). --Roy K3RLD > I'm set up with 2M, 70cm, and 23cm CP antennas on a G5500 rotator but I > understand I can also use a fixed antenna such as a Lindenblad or > quadrifilar. Suggestions? > >

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AO-27 this morning
by Stephen DeVience 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

I also noticed a lot of fading. I heard you and KB2M but not very clearly. I made a QSO with KI5DVX near the end of the pass, but it was rough going. Maybe the satellite antenna was just in a bad orientation this morning. -Stephen N8URE

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ARISS News Release No. 20-19
by David Jordan 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

ARISS News Release No. 20-19 Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn(a)amsat.org FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE ARISSContact is Scheduled with McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA October06, 2020—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has receivedschedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is thegroup that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students aroundthe globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS). This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students fromMcConnell Middle School in Loganville, Georgia. Students will take turns askingtheir questions of ISS Commander Chris Cassidy, amateur radio call sign KF5KDR,during the ARISS radio contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz. ARISS team member Jan Poppeliers, using call signON4ISS (from an AMSAT amateur radio clubstation in Aartselaar, Belgium), will serve as therelay amateur radio station. Each student asking a question of Cassidy on the ARISS radiowill be teleconferenced in from home or social-distancedat school. Youth and faculty and the publiccan watch the livestreamed action from home. TheARISS radio contact is scheduled for October 7, 2020 at 10:18 am EDT (Georgia) (14:18UTC, 9:18 am CDT, 8:18 am MDT, 07:18 am PDT). McConnellMiddle School (about 2,300students ages 11 to 15) is a Gwinnett County public school near Atlanta.The district’s career-planningcurriculum group integrated lessons into established science, math and languagearts classes before the contact in order to increase student interest andawareness related to space science, expand student experience with researchmethodologies, and inspire them to pursue studies and careers inscience-related fields. The school’s McConnell Radio Club, in its 6th year,is mentored by members of the Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society who provide radioclasses and equipment for student use, and guided the ARISS project, a part of thefaculty’s efforts toward becoming a STEM-certified school. ARISS invites the public to view thelivestream of the upcoming ARISS radio contact at: https://youtu.be/pHOM15BLRSo. _______________________________ Astime allows, students will ask these questions: 1. Are there specialactivities designed for you to help relieve the stress of living and working inspace? 2. Describe whatsurprised you about earth when you got to the ISS. 3. Do you seeevidence of the recent West Coast wildfires or other environmental situations? 4. As a middle schoolstudent what can we do to prepare ourselves for the job you do today as anastronaut? 5. In the movie TheMartian, Mark was trained as a botanist. What is your area of interest and whatexperiments are you doing in your field? 6. How long is yourmission and how do you expect it might impact your body? 7. What was thehardest part of training prior to going to space? 8. How often do youneed to do repairs on the outside of the ISS? 9. Describe yourmedical training that would help if an astronaut becomes ill or seriouslyinjured while on the space station. 10. Standard airpressure on earth is 1 atmosphere. What air pressure do they try to maintain onthe ISS? 11. Whatqualifications do you have that enable you to be assigned to more than onemission or similar? 12. Have you evertried growing carrots or root vegetables in space? 13. Are there anytimes where any shipments of food or drinks are running late, or have spaceflight troubles, and you run out of food or water for the time? 14. How does foodtaste when you don't get to smell it? 15. How is the ISSdesigned in case of a collision with space junk or a meteoroid? 16. What is theprocedure if spills, liquid or solid, occur during experiments? 17. How do youmaintain clean hygiene while in space? 18. What is yournormal schedule on the ISS? ARISS– Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous Operations on the ISS About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the InternationalSpace Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radiosocieties and the space agencies that support the International Space Station(ISS). In the United States, sponsorsare the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio RelayLeague (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s SpaceCommunications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promoteexploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematicstopics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew membersaboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students,educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, andamateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org . MediaContact: DaveJordan, AA4KN ARISSPR Likeus on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS [email protected]_status.

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Unusual ISS SSTV signal
by Roy Dean 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

Loren, Here are 4 SatNogs observations from the same pass. I don't see the same signal in any of these, so it's likely that you have a local issue. https://network.satnogs.org/observations/2949326/ https://network.satnogs.org/observations/2949174/ https://network.satnogs.org/observations/2944749/ https://network.satnogs.org/observations/2949757/ --Roy K3RLD

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AO-27 this morning
by Steve Kristoff 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

Did anyone else have trouble hearing AO-27 this morning? Usually the downlink is strong. The only complete call that I heard was KB2M. A couple of other folks were trying to call, but I couldn't hear the complete calls. Steve Ai9IN Grid EM79ji

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-06 02:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-06 02:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA, multi-point telebridge via ON4ISS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Wed 2020-10-07 14:18:44 UTC 81 deg The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz. Vladivostok, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Anatoli Ivanishin Watch for possible contact Fri 2020-10-09 08:15 UTC Ramona Lutheran School, Ramona, CA, direct via N6ROR The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Wed 2020-10-14 16:26:13 UTC 43 deg (***) An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments. (***) Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/. After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image. ************************************************************************************************************* There is a new radio on board the ISS. The Kenwood D710GA is now in use. The crossband repeater is now available when the radio is not being used for ARISS school contacts. The frequencies are 145.99 MHz up (67 tone) and 437.800 MHz down. Watch the Doppler on the downlink. ######################################################################################################################################## A multi-point telebridge contact means that each student will be on the telebridge from their own home. ************************************************* ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. The following schools have now been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19: Postponed: No new schools Cancelled: No new schools The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Watch for future COVID-19 related announcements here also. 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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) 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 2020-10-06 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. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-10-01 03:00 UTC. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) (***) The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2021 and December 30, 2021. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. The deadline to submit a proposal is November 24th, 2020. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at www.ariss.org. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on October 8, 2020 at 8PM ET. The Eventbrite link to sign up is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2020.eventbrite.com The Opportunity Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session. An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact. Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. For future proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. 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 ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) 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, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** 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: https://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) https://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 https://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? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. 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 The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 136 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** 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. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1400. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1333. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://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: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 62 now on orbit Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-06 02:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-06 02:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA, multi-point telebridge via ON4ISS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be ONRISS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Wed 2020-10-07 14:18:44 UTC 81 deg The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz. Vladivostok, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Anatoli Ivanishin Watch for possible contact Fri 2020-10-09 08:15 UTC Ramona Lutheran School, Ramona, CA, direct via N6ROR The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Wed 2020-10-14 16:26:13 UTC 43 deg (***) An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments. (***) Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/. After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image. ************************************************************************************************************* There is a new radio on board the ISS. The Kenwood D710GA is now in use. The crossband repeater is now available when the radio is not being used for ARISS school contacts. The frequencies are 145.99 MHz up (67 tone) and 437.800 MHz down. Watch the Doppler on the downlink. ######################################################################################################################################## A multi-point telebridge contact means that each student will be on the telebridge from their own home. ************************************************* ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. The following schools have now been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19: Postponed: No new schools Cancelled: No new schools The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Watch for future COVID-19 related announcements here also. 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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) 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 2020-10-06 02:00 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. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-10-01 03:00 UTC. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) (***) The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2021 and December 30, 2021. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. The deadline to submit a proposal is November 24th, 2020. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at www.ariss.org. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on October 8, 2020 at 8PM ET. The Eventbrite link to sign up is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2020.eventbrite.com The Opportunity Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session. An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact. Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. For future proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. 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 ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) 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, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** 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: https://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) https://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 https://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? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. 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 The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 136 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** 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. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1400. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1333. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://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: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 62 now on orbit Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Searching amsat-bb for G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems
by JoAnne K9JKM 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

> You can go back through the amsat-bb archives It is possible to search the AMSAT-BB archives by using the "site:" command in Google. For example, to find all mentions of the word "G5500" in amsat-BB, type this line into Google: G5500 site:http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb To restrict the search to a particular year, type: G5500 site:http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2020 Perhaps you'll find the 5500 rotator threads quicker with this search technique. Just fine tune your search in that 'keyword' before the 'site:' to zero in on your particular -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-05 19:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-10-05 19:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: McConnell Middle School, Loganville, GA, multi-point telebridge via ON4ISS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be ONRISS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Wed 2020-10-07 14:18:44 UTC 81 deg (***) The downlink frequency for this contact is 437.525 MHz. Vladivostok, Russia, direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Anatoli Ivanishin Watch for possible contact Fri 2020-10-09 08:15 UTC An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for early October. The event is scheduled to begin on October 4 at 14:00 UTC for setup and operation and continue until October 8 ending at 19:15 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments. (***) Images will be downlinked at 145.8 MHz +/- 3 KHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD 120. The main theme of this collection of images will be Satellites. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event can post and view images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery at https://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/. After your image is posted at the gallery, you can acquire a special award by linking to https://ariss.pzk.org.pl/sstv/and follow directions for submitting a digital copy of your received image. ************************************************************************************************************* There is a new radio on board the ISS. The Kenwood D710GA is now in use. The crossband repeater is now available when the radio is not being used for ARISS school contacts. The frequencies are 145.99 MHz up (67 tone) and 437.800 MHz down. Watch the Doppler on the downlink. ######################################################################################################################################## A multi-point telebridge contact means that each student will be on the telebridge from their own home. ************************************************* ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. The following schools have now been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19: Postponed: No new schools Cancelled: No new schools The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Watch for future COVID-19 related announcements here also. 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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) 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 2020-10-05 19:00 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. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-10-01 03:00 UTC. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://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 https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) (***) The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2021 and December 30, 2021. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. The deadline to submit a proposal is November 24th, 2020. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at www.ariss.org. An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on October 8, 2020 at 8PM ET. The Eventbrite link to sign up is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2020.eventbrite.com The Opportunity Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session. An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact. Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. For future proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. 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 ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) 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, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** 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: https://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) https://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 https://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? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. 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 The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 136 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** 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. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1400. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1333. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://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: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 62 now on orbit Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Anatoli Ivanishin Ivan Vagner **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems
by john＠papays.com 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

You can go back through the amsat-bb archives and find many of the same problems that are being talked about now. Yaesu rotor problems are not new and are re-discussed from time to time. I have a G5500 on my Arizona station. It was installed in 2013 and it was a used rotor at the time. It worked ok for several years. I had it tracking Funcube 24x7 for many months and that was probably not a wise decision considering the potential problems. A few years ago I started to experience what is being talked about now. The azimuth readings started to be erratic. The LVB tracker would give up trying to move the rotor and since I was not there to manually move it, I would use the park command in SatPC32 to try to get past the intermittent areas. That would work for a while but soon I could not park the rotor from about 100 degrees back to zero. So the best option for me was to buy a replacement azimuth rotor (no control box or elevation rotor). This was a catalog item at many ham radio supply houses. So last December my son and I replaced the azimuth rotor with the new Yaesu unit. I thought I would be good for a few years but that would not be the case. I planned to repair the original az rotor by replacing the pot and have it available if the rotor should fail in the future. In August the rotor started showing signs of the same problem. I noticed that the actual azimuth was lagging behind what SatPC32 was sending to the LVB tracker. Eventually it would get past the bad spot and movement would be normal until it got to another bad area. So the new rotor only lasted 8 months and I wasn't tracking and downloading data on any satellite. So what is different about Arizona? For one thing the temperature gets to 120F and when the sun shines, as it does most every day, the dark cclor of the rotor absorbs the heat and the temp inside the rotor is likely sky high. Could that be a reason that the potentiometer is failing? Maybe and maybe not. Several years ago I ordered replacement pots from Yaesu. The shaft on these pots is metric so 1/4" American made pots will not fit. You are stuck with metric components. The part number on the replacement pots is RA25Y25S B501. You can look it up on the web. The specs for this pot are 15,000 cycles and 100 degrees C. I doubt if the temp inside the rotor exceeded 100C so it should have held up in the Arizona sun. 15,000 cycles is a lot and you can do the math. The next question is what is the part number of the pot in my new azimuth rotor? Did Yaesu change suppliers over the years and what are the specs of the pots they are using now? Once I disassemble the old rotor which is in Arizona, I will know if the part number is different than the replacement pots I purchased. I could send the new rotor back to Yaesu under warranty and have it repaired, but why do that if the same pot is used to repair the unit and will likely fail again? I thought I was alone with this problem but after asking around I found that that might not be the case. KB6LTY is experiencing the same problem with a new G5500DC that she purchased not long ago. There appears to be a systemic problem here. Changing the pot may work for a while but you can't be taking things apart every year just to have the same problem occur shortly thereafter. K3RRR reported similar problems and his story should be told here as well. Last year Yaesu changed the model number of the G5500 to the G5500DC. There was no announcement and ham radio dealers knew nothing about the change. EA4TX who makes replacement control boxes was also unaware of the change. The motors in the rotors are now DC rather than AC. The controller is different, but Yaesu did not publish the schematic in their instruction manual as they did with the G5400/5500 series. One satellite operator noticed that when SatPC32 sent a command to move the az and the el at the same time, the control box would go into a fault condition. Apparently the control box detected an overcurrent condition due to a high startup current and shut down. I'm not sure if that issue was resolved by Yaesu or by a software change. Just another thing to be aware of if you have a new DC model. Another thing to be aware of is that there are meter amplifiers in the the control box that are used to isolate and control the output voltage to interfaces like the LVB tracker. These meter amplifiers can become erratic rendering the interface unusable. The meters in the control box are separate so if they are reading properly and don't jump around, erratic readings going to the computer interface are likely caused by the meter amplifiers and have nothing to do with the pots in the rotors themselves. If you have experienced these kinds of problems and have or have not resolved them, please post so that we can determine how widespread these issues are and possible fixes. 73, John K8YSE

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AMSAT-BB October 2020