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

M2 LEOpack tuning
by Mark D. Johns 08 Apr '20

08 Apr '20

I’ve had my LEOpack antennas about 8 years, but over the winter my station became almost totally deaf on 2 meters. I took the 2 meter beam down and cleaned up a bunch of corrosion around the coax connector, and that seems to have helped the situation, but... I checked the antenna with my MFJ Antenna Analyzer (which I did not have back when I first assembled these antennas) and find that the 2 meter beam is resonant at about 143.95 MHz — just below the 2 meter ham band. Up at 145.9, where I would LIKE it to be resonant, my SWR is about 2.5:1. Pretty high. Messing with the tuning sliders only made things worse (these adjust impedance and not necessarily resonance), so I’m wondering, has anyone else found it necessary to trim the elements on these? My calculations are that about 1/8” off each end of the DEs would bring it up the 2 MHz needed. Opinions? -- ***Sent from Gmail on iPhone*** Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. K0JM Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA Now residing in Minneapolis, Minn. ------------------------------------------------ "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain

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sun/moon
by 73 Bob W7LRD 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

where is the sun/moon tracker in satpc32? Can't find it. 73 Bob W7LRD

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odd phenomena AO7 ?
by Ron VE8RT 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

back in the late 80's and early 90's I'd heard this on the HF sats that downlinked on 10M, but not on 2M. While looking at future satellite plots I had the receiver tuned to the mid band of the AO7 downlink and I'm hearing CW (145.948 MHz). There are no amateur satellites above my horizon, anywhere. It was very clear, sounded like someone listening for their output, long dashes, bursts of CW, pauses, more of the same. I thought that I'd recorded it, but I didn't press the record button long enough and have nothing to show for it. GPredict, at about 21:12 UTC had the azimuth of AO7 at 327 deg with an elevation of -54. It lasted a few minutes and the followed the Doppler correction as shown on GPredict. When I pointed my antenna to the GPredict azimuth for AO7 the signal strength noticeably increased. Does this also happen on 2M? Ron VE8RT -- Ron VE8RT <ve8rt(a)yknwt.ca>

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IC-475H CI-V questions
by Ron VE8RT 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

I've recently came into an IC-475H that I'd like to use as the uplink on linear sats. But I'm having some trouble getting the CAT control to work. I'm using grig instead of going in/out of Gpredict just to test the CI-V link. I thought that this should work in grig: grig -m 307 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 -s 1200 -c 14 but it doesn't seem to connect. I have visually verified in the 475 the switch settings for the address and speed, they're set to default $14 1200 baud. With nothing connected the DC voltage on the remote output is about 2.0VDC which agrees with the schematic. I'm hoping that there is something I've overlooked. The interface with grig works with my IC-R7000 grig -m 340 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 -s 1200 -c 08 Ron VE8RT -- Ron VE8RT <ve8rt(a)yknwt.ca>

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A Critique on Operations of the FM Birds
by Brad Smith 07 Apr '20

07 Apr '20

My 2 cents worth of opinion, given free. I own both the Alinco DJ-G7 and Kenwood D72. There is no comparison between the two radios. The Alinco has desense problems, so one still has to use two radios to work full duplex. Where the Alinco shines, is that it can do L/v on AO-92, but still with another radio for down link to hear it best. Save your money for a D710, unless you are looking for L/v! 50 watts?? I think that if you check the specs of the new 9700 radio, it puts out more than 50 watts. Couple that to a 30 db gain yagi antenna any one can "rule the airwaves." Yes, please give us portable and handheld hams a break. But the offenders probably are not on this message board. As portables, we try to do the best we can. I do throw my call out once during most passes that I work, because I know that hams need some of the grids that i work from when I rove. I learned that by Gridmaster. I am happy to give someone a grid by appointment. I began working the FM and linear birds in 2013. It has always been a "good old boys club" on the birds. Guys saying "Hi" to their friends and it isn't going to change. I remember Uncle Frank being the center of attention on each pass and there was a "Breakfast Club." It was fun back then. Yes, the birds were much less busy, but not much has or will change other than the amount of people trying to get into a bird. PO-101 seems to be that way now. Why does one permanent shack station, with high power have to dominate a pass? Especially when a rover is on. Make one contact and let people get the rover. Just because you may not collect grids, a lot of others do. I, personally am unhappy with what I am hearing on the FM birds and it is not the guys saying "Hi" to their friends. There is a lot more going on our there. There are some very poor operators out there and I believe, some jammers with open mics, etc. That part is sad and has gotten worse, lately. Again,just my opinion and thank you for letting me voice it. Brad Smith KC9UQR

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Re: [amsat-bb] FT-736R TAP Board Install
by Mike Lucas 06 Apr '20

06 Apr '20

Good day & hope everyone is doing well. Has anyone done a TAP board installation on their Ft-736R & used it with an SDR as a PAN adapter? If so can you share your experience with it and maybe point me to some installation tips, pix, etc.? It looks like a worthwhile project for not a lot of expense. Regards, Mike N7ASZ

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May QST
by Ray Soifer 06 Apr '20

06 Apr '20

The digital edition of May QST is now available to ARRL members. See pp. 52-53. 73 Ray W2RS

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SatPC32 with the FT-818nd
by Loren M. Lang 06 Apr '20

06 Apr '20

I recently tried using SatPC32 for CAT control of my Yaesu FT-818nd rig for automatic tuning during a pass of the XW-2B linear transponder satellite. The radio appears to be just a minor hardware refresh of the FT-817 and FT-817nd so I have it configured to use Yaesu FT-817 in the radio control settings. My CAT control interface is using a U5 Link which connects to the accessory port on the back of the radio. Inside the box, it is just an FTDI chip. It is set to the baud rate 38400. I have successfully been using this box with both Ham Radio Deluxe and N1MM for various other controls. However, I had an issue with SatPC32 not making all of the correct adjustments. >From what I can tell, it is dropping commands. The radio was only partly configured correctly such as setting the USB/LSB modes on VFOs A/B. It was not adjusting the frequency. I had the CAT delay set to the original value of 70 ms and tried increasing it. At 180 ms, it was still having issues, but I finally bumped it up to 300 ms and the radio started responding correctly. I then saw it tuning both the TX and RX VFOs as needed throughout the pass. However, at this delay, it spends a noticeable amount of time in the TX VFO before it updates the frequency and, if I'm not watching carefully, will press the PTT on only to have it jump to the RX VFO to transmit. It also means more time where I won't be hearing the incoming signal if someone else is talking. Are there any recommendations for improving this situation or could I possibly have a bad (cheap Chinese clone?) FTDI chip that is limiting the rate that commands can be sent? I have not had any issues with HRD or N1MM, but I expect they are sending commands at a lower rate since it's not a constant Doppler shift. Anyone else have a solid FT-817/818 setup? - Loren K7IW

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Re: [amsat-bb] How to Drive SATpc32
by Michael Walker 05 Apr '20

05 Apr '20

I'm sure that someone might be able to share that with you from this list. I'm still hacking away at them and I am amazed that I made so many errors in 3 or 4 entries. Someone might be able to share theirs with you. Mike va3mw On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 6:54 PM Ted Krempa <k7trkradio(a)charter.net> wrote: > Nice video, Mike. > > I wish there were something like this to cover the importing/updating/setup > of the sql files. That is where my problems have always been and what > prevents me from using the program. > > 73, Ted > K7TRK > > -----Original Message----- > From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael > Walker via AMSAT-BB > Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 11:56 AM > To: AMSAT > Subject: [amsat-bb] How to Drive SATpc32 > > Hi All > > I did this video to help experienced hams but new satellite operators to > navigate SATpc32. > > https://youtu.be/JLdROrcY7fY > > For me, the first weeks week terribly frustrating to get over the hump. > > This assumes your radio and rotator are already connected to SATpc32 but > you have yet to get a quality first QSO. > > Feel free to add useful comments in the video chat. > > Mike va3mw > _______________________________________________ > 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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How to Drive SATpc32
by Michael Walker 05 Apr '20

05 Apr '20

Hi All I did this video to help experienced hams but new satellite operators to navigate SATpc32. https://youtu.be/JLdROrcY7fY For me, the first weeks week terribly frustrating to get over the hump. This assumes your radio and rotator are already connected to SATpc32 but you have yet to get a quality first QSO. Feel free to add useful comments in the video chat. Mike va3mw

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