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

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-20 17:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-20 17:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: GAGARIN FROM SPACE Performing an amateur radio session with the 9th International Aerospace School. Ufa, U.N. Sultanova Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, direct via RZ9WWB (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Ivan Vagner Contact was successful: Fri 2020-07-17 19:08 UTC (***) American School of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 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: Thu 2020-07-30 16:41:42 UTC 78 deg (***) ######################################################################################################################################## 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 2020-07-20 17:00 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 2020-07-20 16:30 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 ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. Message to US Educators ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The Proposal Window of February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020 has now closed. 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. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. 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 134 (***) 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 1392. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1325. (***) 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 SpaceX-Demo2 now on orbit Bob Behnken KE5GGX Doug Hurley **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-20 16:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-07-20 16:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: GAGARIN FROM SPACE Performing an amateur radio session with the 9th International Aerospace School. Ufa, U.N. Sultanova Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, direct via RZ9WWB (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Ivan Vagner Contact was successful: Fri 2020-07-17 19:08 UTC (***) ######################################################################################################################################## 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 2020-07-20 16:30 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 2020-07-20 16:30 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 ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. Message to US Educators ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The Proposal Window of February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020 has now closed. 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. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. 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 134 (***) 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 1392. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1325. (***) 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 SpaceX-Demo2 now on orbit Bob Behnken KE5GGX Doug Hurley **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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OSCAR Satellite QSO Party 1 Aug – 22 Sept
by M5AKA 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

The objective of the AMSAT-UK OSCAR Satellite QSO Party is to encourage all radio amateurs around the world to get on the air and make contacts via satellites during northern hemisphere summer https://amsat-uk.org/2020/07/20/oscar-satellite-qso-party/ DIY Weather Satellite Ground Station Sasha M6IOR and Sophie M6NYX have made available a Guide for the reception of NOAA satellite images using software defined radio on Windows or MacOS https://amsat-uk.org/2020/07/07/diy-weather-satellite-ground-station/ ESA promote amateur radio in ISS SSTV video https://amsat-uk.org/2020/07/08/esa-promote-amateur-radio-iss-sstv/ 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] Elections HEO QO-100' Linear NB + Digital WB
by tokens＠myranch.com 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Joe, I agree with you 100%. Over the years I have heard all sorts of reasons why we can’t do this or that. Although we sure can argue! Specifically I have seen posts on why QO-100 isn’t a good idea. The meantime the guys in the eastern hemisphere are having a great time with their satellite while we argue about what is going on the next Cubesat. I haven’t been active on satellites for a number of years and won’t go into why. But you can be sure if we had something like QO-100 out there I would be active particularly on DATV. Al W8KHP

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Recommendation for project website
by Leffke, Zachary 20 Jul '20

20 Jul '20

Hi All, I was wondering if folks had any recommendations for website services for hosting simple project pages. I do a lot of little side projects and occasionally folks ask for more details. I tend to keep things scattered across multiple media (lots on github), and collecting up everything in a 'useful' way isn't very efficient. I've considered making better use of github markdown, but I'm not sure thats the best way to go for all projects, particularly if I want to post a lot of images. Some examples of the types of 'project' sites that I like and am looking to start include the following: https://www.w6pql.com/ http://www.w1ghz.org/ https://destevez.net/ Wordpress seems like it might be a good way to go. For the moment I'm just looking for something simple where I can 'publish' projects a bit better than just posting code or KiCAD designs on github. Eventually I might branch out to this new fangled social media stuff...but for the moment I just want to get the projects written up and posted. Any and all recommendations would be welcome. I'm not opposed to pay sites (mainly to remove annoying ads from the page) as long as the interface is relatively simple and I like the look and feel of things. Thanks in advance, -Zach, KJ4QLP -- Research Associate Aerospace & Ocean Systems Lab Ted & Karyn Hume Center for National Security & Technology Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Work Phone: 540-231-4174 Cell Phone: 540-808-6305

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Re: [amsat-bb] ERC-m g5500 pcsat32
by Pete (vk2pet) 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

Hi everyone, Does anyone have the setup details for PCSAT32, integrating with USB ERC-M with G 5500 rotator? I'm after a step by step setup instructions for it please. Running an IC9100 via usb. 73 Pete vk2pet

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AT Golden Packet 2020 success - Maine to Ga at 9600
by Robert Bruninga 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

Amsat Rovers might find this interesting: On Sat 18 July in brutally hot weather the 15 mountains were manned from Maine to Ga and APRS packets and messages were exchanged end-to end. Typical Snafu's, I had to turn back 30 mins into my 2 hr trip to go home and get the radio! and another station had to turn back 45 mins in his 5 hour trip to get his coax! The 4000' hike up Mt Katahdyin in Maine was again done by Tim starting at 5 AM and getting back by sunset. Here is report from MDMTN-7 about half way along the mountains: "At 1100 I started receiving packets from the south, including ROAN-3, COMERS-4, AOMTN-5 and HWKSBL-6. As soon as Bob was set up on GDHILL-8 around 1220 (an hour 20m late!) I started receiving from the north, and in about 15 minutes I saw KATHDN-15 flying by." In our 11th year, we now do 9600 and it works fine. And are beginning to invite other mountains within 100 miles of the chain to join us (after the initial end-to-end success). (after 4 hours we usually quit due to exhaustion and heat, success or not!) The one lesson relearned over and over is that you cannot operate mountain top without some kind of helical or cavity filter. You wont hear anything but QRM. I used the dual band DCI filter so that both the voice channel and data channel were fine on a D710 and dual band omni. The main page will be slowly updated! (none yet, we are all recovering)... http://aprs.org/at-golden-packet.html Bob, WB4APR

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Election Thoughts
by Robert MacHale 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

Board Members should exhibit extreme ownership. Asserting Gender Discrimination or filing Demand Letters is a form of blame and deflection. Perhaps the new members were underprepared. Board Members should spend and hour per month communicating; or more. I hope the feet draggers are replaced. Declining Board Meetings betrays the trust of the group - a dereliction of duty. I still believe the legal expenditures were wise and necessary; the gender discrimination complaint and demand letter were neither. I support newer - more energetic - more innovative board members. Robert MacHale. KE6BLR Ham Radio License. http://www.aprsat.com/predict . http://www.spaceCommunicator.club . Supporting Boy Scout Merit Badges in Radio, Robotics, and Space Exploration Silly Joke: What did the little mountain say to the bigger mountain? Hi Cliff! He who dares not offend cannot be honest. -- Thomas Paine

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AMSAT: RFI from LED bulbs?
by Robert Bruninga 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

I am hearing reports of RFI from these LED bulbs. Not just HF, but also VHF. If you can make any quantitative assessments of such RFI, please let me know. And the amazing thing is that at VHF you will never notice it because RFI is noise power and it is noise power that keeps a squelch CLOSED. Manuallly open the squelch and sometimes RFI will show full scale on the S meter yet not open the squelch. And on my radios, when the squelch is closed, the S meter is inactive and shows 0. Bob Bruninga, WB4APR

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Amsat - SOTA
by Oscar Acton 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

Hello, I am new to satellite operations. I tried to access Lilacsat2 from a SOTA summit today and failed. I did manage to call into AO-92 yesterday and I was heard by four stations (but I couldn't receive the downlink). I was using a 2m dipole to transmit (I am fairly confident I was getting into the satellite today) and a 2 element 70cm yagi. Now, I think two things went wrong. Firstly, I had no way of directing the antenna accurately (I had to guess on the angle and azimuth), and secondly, the antenna isn't very powerful, is small and isn't tuned brilliantly (it's a 70cm yagi but I get SWR of 2.2 on 70cm). Firstly, I'm wondering how precise you need to be in directing the beam? Can I just hold it in the vague direction that the satellite is approaching from, or do I need to work out the headings? Secondly, I am wondering if my equipment is likely to cut it. As I said, yesterday I was told that my signal was getting in - quiet but fully readable using my Diamond x30. I don't want to transmit if I can't receive in case I talk over someone or cause some interference. I won't be able to buy an arrow or a powerful beam antenna for around a year, but I am really desperate to work the satellites. Wondering if there are any ways that I can use my current equipment in order to work it (whether that be from my Home QTH or from a SOTA summit). I have: Yaesu FT-2980 (2m only, limited to 10 watts) Anytone 868 (8 watts max) Baofeng GT-3TP (8 watts max) 2 ele 70cm yagi 2m dipole diamond x50 collinear at the Home QTH Hoping for some advice.. I would love to hear stories of you working satellites during a Summits On The Air activation, and I would be interested to hear of your station setup (and whether you have had success with a minimal setup like mine). Best Regards, Oscar M7OJA (IO94HT)

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