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

Please Help Fund the Creation of Thrusters for Cubesats and PocketQube Satellites
by Bruce Perens 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

The canonical version of this appeal is at http://perens.com/static/AppliedIon/ <https://perens.com/static/AppliedIon/> , please re-publish it widely! Donate at GoFundMe <https://gf.me/u/x9vnv2> >From Bruce Perens K6BP: <https://perens.com/> Michael Bretti is designing electric thrusters so that Amateur and Educational microsatellites can maintain or change their orbits. Some of his designs are small enough to work on a PocketQube <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PocketQube>, a satellite literally so small that it fits in your pocket. Michael has so far created several working thruster designs, as Open Source Hardware. Below Michael's photo is his gridded pulsed plasma thruster firing in a vacuum chamber he's put together in his home. And the photo below that is another of his thruster designs being readied to fly as part of the GENESIS N and L satellites <http://perens.com/static/AppliedIon/AMSAT-EA-Newsletter_11-2019.pdf>. That's his thruster between the two measuring tapes. Michael calls his project Applied Ion Systems, and you can follow his work at @Applied_Ion <https://twitter.com/Applied_Ion> on Twitter. I've been following Michael's work for about a year, and this is a tremendously important project for Amateur and Educational satellites. It will provide them with thrusters that are easily affordable on their slim budgets, and allow them to maintain or change their orbits like the big boys! To test the thrusters, he uses a vacuum chamber that duplicates the *hard vacuum* of low-earth orbit. Vacuum is hard, and hard vacuum is harder, and hardly cheap. Due to his shoestring budget of literally pocket money - he has no significant funding and works on his own time - Michael's work has been plagued by failures of his roughing pump <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughing_pump>. That's a pump which creates a medium vacuum and supports another pump that provides the space-quality vacuum. He bought and attempted to rebuild a worn-out roughing pump - all that he could afford - but this effort failed. Michael can't go on with testing until he gets a reliable roughing pump. That would allow him to move forward confidently in creating thrusters for our satellites. Michael would like to buy an Edwards RV12, which is available for no more than $4200 Please help to fund the new pump. With the ability to achieve a space-quality vacuum again, Michael will proceed with new designs. Not every one succeeds, because space is hard, but enough do. You'll be able to watch his efforts and - soon enough - perhaps you'll communicate through some of the satellites he supports. Donate at GoFundMe <https://gf.me/u/x9vnv2>

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eShail Qatar-OSCAR 100
by Joe Leikhim 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Zach; I would rather motivate the folks I vote for! They have far better credentials than I! ">/I really just hear excuses when others ask the same question, why no HEO? / You could always run for a seat on the AMSAT board. A highly motivated, enthusiastic member, such as yourself, might be able to help achieve more HEO launches. --- Zach N0ZGO" -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446 WWW.LEIKHIM.COM

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Satellite Users on Macs
by Richard Lawn 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Every now and then I get sick of dealing with Windows updates and particularly the dreaded updates and think about going back to using an Apple computer. I'd be interested in learning how many of you are using Apple computers with Apple software. Let me hear from you please. 73 Rick, W2JAZ

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AMSAT DMR TalkGroup 98006
by Michael Walker 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

I noticed that there is a DRM TalkGroup for Amast conversations. Does it still get used or did it die a death? We have one for Flex users and we are finding it getting used for technical help and conversations. You don't even need a DMR handheld to access it. You will need a DVMega DVStick though. Mike va3mw

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Re: [amsat-bb] Membership Length
by Brennan Price 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Jeff (and all), In response to the question of who maintains the membership records, that would be the Secretary, which would be me. Members or potential members with questions or concerns about their membership status can and should feel free to contact me. I prefer to assess and discuss individual cases off reflector, and I commit to Jeff to do so in this instance. 73, Brennan Price, N4QX Secretary, AMSAT

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eShail Qatar-OSCAR 100
by Joe Leikhim 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Zach; As a long time member of AMSAT, I can assure you I did donate for the AO-40 project. But since that time there have been no significant HEO projects. LEO and primarily FM oriented satellites have been the rule. Year after year, the focus has been on these short term, low earth projects or ARISS. Who cares if an HEO requires COTS space rated modules to be considered a payload? There is plenty of work to be done on the ground building an earth station. Paul; Why no outreach to the industry. Elon Musk? A free AMSAT membership, some Honorary AMSAT Knighthood? Anybody ever give him a call? I know part of this is ITAR and the US basically screwing ourselves by embargoing technology. "Donate early, donate often. 2) No amateur-built hardware on the satellite -- Yes, specifying and overseeing development takes a LOT of work. I do this for my day job, not satellites, but just as complex. However, designing, building, testing, and deploying amateur-built hardware is what I feel AMSAT is all about. --- Zach N0ZGO" "There are many political and economic factors that made the partnership with AMSAT-DL possible. " "the most senior political official we've had who was active in amateur radio was Sen. Barry Goldwater. Currently, Rep. Greg Walden is the only amateur radio operator I'm aware of in high levels of government and he's retiring when his term ends in January. 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Executive Vice President AMSAT" I really just hear excuses when others ask the same question, why no HEO? -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446 WWW.LEIKHIM.COM

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GridMaster Award
by Bruce 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

In case you have not perused the AMSAT.org website lately, the newest of AMSAT Awards is available. It is the GridMaster award. Although the award is not new new, it is new to AMSAT. It was developed in 2014 by Star Comm Group. Thanks to Damon Runion, WA4HFN, and Rick Tillman, WA4NVM, for having sponsored the award since its inception. Now, AMSAT is taking the reins and will be issuing the award and it is still free of charge as it will be sponsored by an anonymous donor. The award is the same as the Fred Fish Memorial Award that is offered by the ARRL but for any satellite operator that works and confirms all 488 continental U.S. grids. You can view the award by clicking on Services, then Awards. You will find the Application, Grid Schedule and sample of the required LoTW verification (of course, paper QSL's are still accepted). As 10 awards have been issued to date, who will be lucky number 11 and the first issued by AMSAT? 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards AMSAT Board Member 2016-2020 ARRL Awards Field Checker (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat

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Re: [amsat-bb] need HEO .. please..
by Joe Leikhim 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Same boat here. I have kept my membership up, but life got into the way. I would be back on in a flash if there were an AO-10 or Oscar 100. I spent many hours and many kilobucks in gear on the old linear birds and enjoyed it. But fighting the QRM on an FM LEO to talk with someone down the road for 5 minutes is not worth the bother. The problem is nobody has stepped up and said we could do an OSCAR 100 for $10 million so that folks can dig into their pockets. And with the US ITAR we have alienated the rest of the globe where big donations might come from. How many AMSAT members? That is the denominator. $10 million/x "In full disclosure, I have not operated satellite in about 15 years. Several reasons for that, but I'm coming back. After what seems like almost every new satellite was a LEO digital bird, we have gotten a number of analog birds in the past couple years. I've got some work to do to get the station back up, but I'm spending money to do that. That includes re-joining AMSAT-NA after a quite a few year gap. And no, I can't write the 10 million dollar check either... -- 73 ------------------------------------- Jim Walls - K6CCC" -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446 WWW.LEIKHIM.COM

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Membership Length
by Jeff Johns 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

If someone joined and/or renewed their AMSAT membership, in person at Hamvention 2019 (May 2019), why would their membership expire on 3/1/2020? I ask because both mine and my daughter’s memberships had this occur. We were both shorted two months worth of membership. I’m curious if any other members had this occur and if it’s related to the swap over to the new member portal. To whom should affected members reach out to in order to have their accounts credited for the missing months of membership? Jeff WE4B

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SatPC32 via 9700
by Brad Hyde 19 Jun '20

19 Jun '20

Hello all, Today I spent several hours (computer illiterate) setting up SatPC32 with my new IC-9700. It is working great on several of the sats. I have noticed that several of the newer sats do not have the freq data in the program and therefore do not track the sats with doppler shift compensation. The ones I am trying to use are: RS-44, CAS 4A, CAS 4B, IO86, and EO88. With further study I noticed that data is lacking for these sats in the doppler.SQF file. Rather than reinventing the wheel I was wondering if anyone knows where I can obtain this data and maybe just copy and paste it into the doppler.SQF file? That would sure be a nice solution as my head hurts from installing drivers and cables and SatPC32 today. Thanks, Brad W5BK

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