October 2020 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Help on BY70-2 Proxy
by Vincenzo Mone 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Hello there, I would like to know if there is anybody to uses Linux to decode BY70-2 And can help me how to do. I have all set ( It seems ), I can decode the satellite but I do not get any incoming data into the Proxy. I have downgrade the Tornado how it says in the Doc file but still no success. Anybody able to help me may be off the list? Thanks in advance 73's de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ********************************* ****** GSM +39 328 7110193 ****** ***** SMS +39 328 7110193 ***** *********************************

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Re: [amsat-bb] PSAT is ON (Dual hop testing?)
by Robert Bruninga 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

> > > I am working with a HT and a hand held arrow, so it can be challenging. > > If I understand correctly, My packet would travel this path. > > ME>>>ISS>>PSAT>>ME > > yes, in the sense that the first ME is a TX, the next two are DIGIpeats and the last one is RX. But you have to set the correct PATH callsigns in your APRS radio. That would be NA1SS,PSAT for a dual hop. NA1SS would hear it first and then transmit it via the path of PSAT which then (if it heard it amongst all the other QRM on the channel) would then digi eat it too. Doing the dual hops in this direction (assuming they can see each other (rare) is because the chance of the ISS hearing the weak 0.25W XMTR form PSAT is very small compared to PSAT hearing the 10W signal from ISS. So a dual hop path in this direction has a 16 dB better chance than one attempted in the opposite direction. And that is Huge. Bob, wb4APR > > On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 4:53 PM Robert Bruninga via AMSAT-BB < > amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: > >> Robert NcHale KE6BLR has turned on PSAT for digipeating. >> I have no idea if it has the power budget to support it, but we will see. >> If the telemetry counter gets above 90 (minutes) then it is surviving >> eclipses >> See http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/raw.cgi?call=psat,psat-1&time=1&start=12 >> >> Have fun. Try some double hops from ISS to PSAT using the path NA1SS,PSAT >> >> If you simply used APRSAT,APRSAT, then PSAT might digi the first hop too >> and then be clobbered when ISS also does it. Then the second hop will not >> go via PSAT beacuse by then it is a dupe. >> >> Bob, WB4APR >> >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> 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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Funcube Dongle Pro+ w/GQRX (Ubuntu)
by Roy Dean 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Does anybody have experience with this combination? I've been having issues with my dedicated FoxTelem Raspberry Pi station, so I've taken it down in favor of my APRS SatGate (which uses an RTL-SDR instead of the FCDPP) - and decided to use the FCDPP for my Rx in my normal everyday shack operations. However I can't seem to connect to the dongle at all with GQRX. GQRX is doing something, but there is no waterfall and no audio. I'm somewhat concerned that the issue with my FoxTelem station was with the dongle itself, as I seem to remember successfully connecting to the dongle with GQRX in the past. I've tried the dongle on two separate pcs running Ubuntu 18.04 with no luck. I am able to start FoxTelem on a raspberry pi and it seems to start decoding as expected (however the failure mode is when it's left unattended for a couple of days, it ends up stalling with a USB access error). Any suggestions welcome. Thanks. --Roy K3RLD

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Re-purpose Cable Modems, headed to dumpsters ?
by Gregory Beat 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Amateur Radio has a history of re-purposing Radio & Electronics surplus, for a variety of uses (receiving, transmitting, accessories, etc.). Recent posting on Github the past two weeks https://github.com/stdw/cm-sdr “cm-sdr” is a piece of software to turn a Broadcom BCM3383-based cable modem into a general purpose Software Defined Radio (SDR) In its current state, cm-sdr serves as a proof of concept. It can currently stream I/Q data to a peer via TCP. A script to demodulate and play FM radio broadcasts is also provided. cm-sdr is dependent on many functions and memory mapped registers in the unmodified firmware. Thus, at the moment it is highly tailored to one specific cable modem model and firmware version. == Earlier work by OpenWrt with the Broadcom’s BCM33xx chipset. https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/hardware/soc/soc.broadcom.bcm33xx The BCM3383 DOCSIS 3.0 cable gateway System on a Chip (SoC) combines Broadcom's Full-Band Capture (FBC), dual-band concurrent Wi-Fi and a custom applications processor. https://www.broadcom.com/products/broadband/cable/modems/bcm3383 Current Broadcom cable modem SoC offerings https://www.broadcom.com/products/broadband/cable/modems == greg, w9gb

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PSAT is on again
by alex weimer 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Great to hear it ! I will definitely be on the digipeater shortly ! JACK KC7MG

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Re: [amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and, it's only the first.
by Michael Tondee 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Wow! Sounds like you guys have done and are doing an awful lot for the hobby. My thanks to you. It appears there are resources out there if AMSAT is willing to do what's necessary to have access to them. I guess the question is what's that involve? Is it simply just going open source or is there more to it than that? Are there other stumbling blocks that they wouldn't be comfortable with for some reason? 73, Michael, W4HIJ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2020 22:41:39 -0700 > From: Phil Karn <karn(a)ka9q.net> > To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org > Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and > it's only the first. > Message-ID: <38f30c90-6874-b8bc-5855-9e27bbb3bf66(a)ka9q.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > On 9/10/20 19:40, Bruce Perens via AMSAT-BB wrote: >> In the present time, people have grown to take the Internet a lot more >> seriously, and the world ran out of IPV4 addresses in their 32-bit space. >> We now have IPV6, which has a much larger address space, but IPV4 is still >> important. So, Brian and friends sold 3/4 of our addresses to Amazon for a >> lot of money, and formed a non-profit to manage it. > Correction: ARDC sold 1/4 (not 3/4) of its original IPv4 address block, > 44.0.0.0/8. The part that was sold is 44.192.0.0/10, i.e., the top > quarter, which had never been used on the "real" Internet though it had > been used internally in some European ampr subnets. > > ampr.org still has the bottom 3/4 of its original assignment: 44.0.0.0/9 > and 44.128.0.0/10. Hams running IP are still able to use these two blocks. > > The 44.0.0.0/8 block was originally obtained by Hank Magnuski, KA6M, in > the early 1980s, literally for the cost of a phone call. It did not see > much use until the mid 1980s when I began work on my KA9Q NOS TCP/IP > package; at that time, Hank transferred control of the 44 block to me. > Brian Kantor WB6CYT and Wally Lindstruth WA6JPR soon joined in its > management, with Brian running much of the infrastructure out of the > University of California San Diego (UCSD) where he spent his entire career. > > NONE of us had any idea whatsoever that these numbers would someday have > serious monetary value. We did amprnet simply because we really believed > in the potential of the Internet and, as hams, felt ham radio was the > perfect place to experiment with the Internet protocols. (Some of you > have fond memories of those days, as do I.) We thought it was a cool > idea that would find good uses, but we had no idea that the Internet > over radio would change the world as much as it did. It certainly > changed my life; in 1991 I moved from New Jersey to San Diego to accept > a position with Qualcomm largely on the basis of my work with TCP/IP > over ham radio, and Brian and I became very close friends. > > In the early 2010s, Brian obtained Hank's and my consent to transfer > formal ownership of this address block to a nonprofit he created for the > purpose: Amateur Radio Digital Communications, or ARDC. (Wally > Lindstruth had passed away by this time). In 2018 and 2019, with full > knowledge and consent of the ARDC board, Brian negotiated the sale of > the 44.192.0.0/10 block with the proceeds to ARDC to be used for a wide > range of charitable grants to benefit ham radio, the Internet, and > especially the intersection of the two and their role in STEM education. > Unfortunately, the nature of the IP address market and the size of the > sale necessitated secrecy, which none of us liked. A nondisclosure > agreement still limits what we can publicly say about the terms of the > sale, though some facts can be readily determined from public sources > such as the "whois" database and IP address market data. > > Brian passed away unexpectedly in November 2019 and I've taken over as > president and chair of ARDC. Hank continues to serve on the grant review > committee chaired by John Hays, K7VE. > > Since ARDC is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, it is required to > file detailed tax returns (990 forms) with the IRS; this will happen > very shortly. By law, nonprofit tax returns are publicly available. > > Phil Karn, KA9Q > > ARDC President & Chair > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ >

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YouTube Livestream of AMSAT-UK Colloquium
by M5AKA 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

The Online AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium is now streaming live on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnZGVY9ZteA Schedule info is at https://amsat-uk.org/2020/09/19/online-amsat-uk-space-colloquium/ Trevor M5AKA---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK YouTube https://youtube.com/AmsatUK ----

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Re: [amsat-bb] PSAT is ON circa 9:10 AM PST (Dual hop testing?)
by Robert Bruninga 11 Oct '20

11 Oct '20

Robert NcHale KE6BLR has turned on PSAT for digipeating. I have no idea if it has the power budget to support it, but we will see. If the telemetry counter gets above 90 (minutes) then it is surviving eclipses See http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/raw.cgi?call=psat,psat-1&time=1&start=12 Have fun. Try some double hops from ISS to PSAT using the path NA1SS,PSAT If you simply used APRSAT,APRSAT, then PSAT might digi the first hop too and then be clobbered when ISS also does it. Then the second hop will not go via PSAT beacuse by then it is a dupe. Bob, WB4APR > >

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet - APRS
by Stephen DeVience 09 Oct '20

09 Oct '20

There have been some projects to make amateur internet networks on our 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz allocations, for example http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/ However, no matter whether it's APRS or actual internet protocols, it will be dependent on the real internet unless amateurs make an independent backbone to support the long-distance traffic. This could be a good way to use our microwave bands. There are a lot of repeater systems linked over large regions via microwave, so I'm sure it could be done to support internet traffic too, although the bandwidth might be somewhat limited. A geostationary satellite could work too. The problem is getting enough people interested and finding the right hardware. -Stephen N8URE

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To Tweet or Not to Tweet
by Gerald Payton 09 Oct '20

09 Oct '20

I have fundamentally opposed to TWITTER doe to the NONSENSE on it! However, I see many references posted here. I am having second thoughts about signing up. PLEASE, will someone direct me to WHO I should follow regarding AMSAT and possibly others. Many thanks, 73 Jerry AB5R EM12kh

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