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

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-08-10 16:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-08-10 16:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Kopernik Observatory & Science Center, Vestal, NY, direct via K2ZRO (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR (***) Contact is go for: Fri 2020-08-21 18:23:40 UTC 29 deg (***) SpaceX-Demo2 back on earth (***) Congrats guys on a job well done! (***) Bob Behnken KE5GGX Doug Hurley ######################################################################################################################################## 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 2020-08-10 16:00 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 2020-07-31 02:30 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 1393. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1326. 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 back on earth (***) Congrats guys on a job well done! (***) Bob Behnken KE5GGX Doug Hurley **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Hack-a-Sat finals this weekend - AMSAT volunteers represented!
by Michelle Thompson 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

Greetings all, There's a major event happening this weekend with a very large amateur radio satellite component. It's DEFCON. This year it's virtual and free to attend! https://www.defcon.org/ DEFCON draws 30,000 people interested in improving technology and themselves. In the past, amateur radio and AMSAT have been well represented, presented, and promoted at WiFi Village, Ham Radio Village, and Hardware Hacking Village. It's been a real pleasure to present amateur satellite work at DEFCON because the audience is receptive, educated, interested, and supportive. Every time we have a booth or talk, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. The largest US amateur radio licensing session on record happened at DEFCON a couple of years ago. Amateur radio is alive and well. This year, a number of AMSAT members have participated in another aspect of DEFCON: The competitions! There are a lot of competitions at DEFCON. They range from silly to extremely difficult multi-day technical ordeals. This year, the Air Force sponsored a high-end competition called Hack-a-Sat. For the qualifying event, amateur radio satellite service enthusiasts were recruited. Our practical knowledge and interdisciplinary can-do spirit was something that I thought would provide a unique advantage in a competition ordinarily dominated by networking and computing information security professionals. This strategy worked. An interdisciplinary team finished 20th out of over 1500. You can find reports about it in the -BB archive. Unfortunately, while 20th place is a remarkable achievement, that meant that team missed out on the finals, as only the top 10 moved on. However, I have some news! A number of us hams were recruited by teams that finished in the finals. There will be several AMSAT engineering volunteers participating in the final event this weekend. I'm on ADDVulcan along with several others. We are very excited to represent amateur radio in an event put on by the Air Force to explore current and pressing security issues with satellite technology. For the finals, the teams each received a flatsat. The challenges in the competition are both "virtual", meaning code only, and also "real", meaning having to do with the flatsat hardware. If you want to follow along, there will be coverage and content at https://www.hackasat.com/ Some inside baseball: The team that won the semifinals is a famous engineering competition team called PPP. They have withdrawn from the finals because they also have a team in the "main" computing CTF at DEFCON, and could not field both teams at once. ADDVulcan finished 4th, and has strengthened their position through recruiting and practice. So, I think it's fair to say that amateur radio satellite service people have a chance to contribute to a possible win at an international elite competition. Everyone here should be very proud of what our license and hobby enables. Some of the things we've had to learn with respect to tools are Core Flight System (NASA open source) and COSMOS, from Ball Aerospace. We've also been given an opportunity to see what the Air Force believes are the 1) current capabilities of the technical community and 2) what the threat models might be. I look forward to sharing what we learn and how we do with all of you. These are the sorts of things I think AMSAT should be supporting and sponsoring. It's well within our capabilities as a community to host competitions like this one, where the goal of the challenges is to produce quality open source work that solves particular problems. If you are interested in doing something like this, then I'm here to help make it happen. Get in touch and let's see what we can come up with! -Michelle W5NYV

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Let’s talk satellites
by Paul F. Merrill 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

1) We need a separate mailing list for campaign issues in campaign season. The back and forth is valuable because I’ve seen one candidate who I’m very glad to not have voted for, more than one I can’t wait to vote against, and clues as to the personal integrity of others. Useful information, but it doesn’t need to be diluting operational satellite conversations, mentoring, and other useful information. 2) I’d throw a vote in for a different communication platform than this legacy bbs format - apparently even very smart people who can get little flying repeaters into orbit can’t understand how to trim their messages - the digests and nearly unreadable when someone posts a three word comment over 400 lines of nested emails. 3) For the pedants among us, yes...I know that I can view the threads in the browser, but when I rejoined AMSAT earlier in the year, I was very enthusiastic at how much useful information I gleaned from the daily digests - lately...not so much.

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Another mailing list?
by Stephen DeVience 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

I'm trying to figure out what satellite antennas I should build next, so I ran some simulations of signal strengths for various ground station and satellite antenna combinations, given a tumbling satellite like the foxes. It turns out a dipole or whip antenna on the satellite is not so good, because some fraction of the time is spent in its null (when the long axis of the antenna is pointed toward ground). It's more reliable to have an omnidirectional, circularly polarized antenna on the bird, which is why things like this exist: https://gomspace.com/shop/subsystems/communication-systems/nanocom-ant430.a… It's similar to the design on Lilacsat-2. It would also make your Lindenblad very happy. I'll have to write something up for the Journal. -Stephen, N8URE

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AMSAT-NA - WE4B
by Clint Bradford 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

The future indicates “clear skies” for AMSAT-NA, as far as fulfilling their mission statement is concerned. Say, WE4B - You have been asked several times to report which AMSAT-NA activities in which you have been involved. What HAVE you volunteered to do for AMSAT-NA in, say, the past ten years? Don’t you think actual volunteer hours devoted to an organization is a valuable part of one’s resume - as they runoff office for that organization? Clint Bradford K6LCS WE4B - > Regardless of who wins this election, there will still be a cloud over AMSAT regarding the handling of members? monies until an independent source provides an authoritative summary of both AMSAT?s finances and physical assets.

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new computer doesn't see Keyspan adapters
by Perry Yantis 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

I have purchased a new MacBook Pro computer running Mac OS 10.15.6 with USB-C portsIt is just like my old MacBook Pro computer with USB-A ports, running the same OS except while my older computer sees my Keyspan usb to serial adaptors and gives me radio and antenna control, my new computer doesn't see these adaptors for some reason.I have went to Keyspans web page and downloaded a newer driver but still not seeing these adaptors.Does anyone else have this problem or have a solution?I will try calling Keyspan tomorrow. Perry WB8OTH py41(a)att.net sent from my Apple Macbook Pro

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ONE INDIVIDUAL'S VIEW
by GEO Badger 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

Hello, I was born the eldest of four into a prosperous WASP familyin southern Cali. I squandered pretty much every opportunity given tome, a West Point appointment, a scholarship to Virginia Tech, those sortsof things. We moved a lot so I never really developed any long termfriendships. I received many "citations” during my four years inthe military. However, those where not the kind you wear on youruniform, they were Article 15's of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.I wasn't at the "appointed place at the appointed time". I chafe atauthority. Upon my honorable discharge from the military I returned toCali and pretty much lived as a 1%'er for a few years. In 1980 SiliconValley called and I went to work as a design engineer to VP of Engineeringfor a number of tech firms in the valley. They included TeledyneMEC, M/A-COM, ThermoFisher Scientific and MBARI among others. During that time I became a pillar in the community, whoknew, and was, and still am, involved with non-profits, all501(c)(3) orgs. Additionally, my wife, MBA in Non-Profit Management fromthe Anderson School of UCLA, has been intimately involved in all aspectsof non-profits. She is currently assisting Burning Man in its transitionfrom a LLC to a 501(c)(3). This has been a difficult process fraughtwith politics and leadership issues. Hmmm. Now, about Amsat: Amsat is not a corporation. It has nocompensated senior management, it doesn't issue stock and it can't besold, taken over or merged. What Amsat is; a club chartered/incorporated underthe articles of 501(c) paragraph 3 which stipulates that it can be aneducational org. Donations can be deducted from the donor’s taxes. A(7) is a social club and donations may not be deducted. You've no doubtheard of political non-profits, the donations to them may not be deductedbut they are used to shield where their money that they distributecomes from. Amsat was chartered in 1969 and IMHO the by-laws are out ofdate. The mission statement and by-laws need to be revamped. Thereneeds to be more members on the BOD. The served terms should be 3 years.There should be term limits so current members rotate off. Thisinsures there is no entrenchment of an "old guard" and thereis an infusion of new ideas and talent. Is Amateur Radio growing? I have no idea, nor does anyoneelse. Is Amsat growing? Same. The satellite biz has changed dramatically.It has become VERY commercialized. I posted an email from a knowledgeable outsideobserver a while back that discussed this. Is there anyone on the BOD or within the GM, who can pick upa phone and make a personal call to Jeff Bezos, Dmitry Rogozin,Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Hiroshi Yamakawa, Jim Bridenstine, orZhang Kejian? I hesitate to guess that the answer is "No",though I threw a ringer in there. These are all young people who wereprobably born after 1969. How does Amsat move forward? Amsat needs to have a dynamicBOD who operates in a fair, honest and open manner and is willing to revampthe mission statement and by-laws to reflect an exciting organizationfocused on education. The GM needs to be invited to BOD meetings and seethe results of said meetings. By meeting with any/all of the aboveindividuals, Amsat can show them that the club is providing the interestand educational directions for young people to become the newengineers/scientists that these space organizations are going to requireto be viable in the future. BTW, status quo, anger, personal attacks and/or the airing ofdirty laundry is the antithesis to Amsat moving forward. Just sayin’….. --- Ciao baby, catch you on the flip side 73 de W3AB/GEO http://www.w3ab.org You can say "over", you can say "out", you just can't say "over and out".

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Another call for forensic accounting and an inventory
by Jeff Johns 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

About 24 hours ago I asked if the legacy BoD members and Officer which are running against me during this election cycle would join me to call for a full forensic accounting of AMSAT’s finances. The call to ask them to step-up and help ease the minds of many members was not answered. Why? It could be a myriad of things but because they will not (so far) step forward and help promote financial transparency is very disturbing. If there is nothing astray, then there would be nothing to worry about other than the cost for a third-party to perform the audit. I will once again ask them if they are willing to move forward a motion to authorize a forensic audit of AMSAT’s finances. Along with this audit, a full inventory of all AMSAT assets should be performed. Can any BoD member tell us, the general membership, the last time an inventory was performed? I can’t find anything in any minutes that are published. It’s good business practice to perform inventories. The Treasurer, as a CPA, should be very familiar with inventory practices in business. AMSAT is a business, albeit non-profit. An inventory of physical assets would go a long way to helping to heal AMSAT by removing the cloud. Regardless of who wins this election, there will still be a cloud over AMSAT regarding the handling of members’ monies until an independent source provides an authoritative summary of both AMSAT’s finances and physical assets. If elected, I would make the motion to have this occur in order to ease the minds of members and donors. This needs to happen regardless of who wins seats and I would ask all members to encourage the Board to make this happen. Jeff WE4B http://we4bravo.com

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Re: [amsat-bb] FT-736 power supply part.
by Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL 08 Aug '20

08 Aug '20

At 12:06 PM 8/8/2020 -0400, you wrote: >Your request for info on that part made me look at the parts list I have >had for close to 20 years. >I don't think I ever used it for capacitor info as it was always available >on the capacitor. >I see my information (provided by another ham) isn't accurate on some of >the caps. >It is also possible the info was correct for the P.S. he had, as Yaesu >changed many things on the >736 and didn't document them all. > >Looks like I can't totally trust the parts list....sorry > >Â 73 >Richard / K4RTS Hi Richard, No problem. C24 isn't ceramic. I've been studying the components on that side of the schematic to see what other component could have failed to cause the SCR to blow. If C24 got hot and shorted, I wonder if that could have done it. The 736 is in fine shape, I hooked it to an external supply and current draw was normal. The bad part of all this is that my eyesight is not as good as it was 25 years ago. :-) 73

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Re: [amsat-bb] FT-736 power supply part. Thanks everyone.
by Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL 08 Aug '20

08 Aug '20

At 03:23 PM 8/7/2020 -0700, wa7fwf(a)gmail.com wrote: >Vince, >Â The SCR looks to be the crowbar for a overvoltage, you may have >something else wrong also. > >http://radioaficion.com/mods/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DL7VHFs-FT-736R-mod… > >There is the schematic for a 736R, not sure what the R difference is but >it lists your SCR as a 5P4M, a google search shows many available. > >73 >Kevin Thanks Kevin, and everyone else for the help, I have all schematics and original manuals for the rig, but didn't have one for the PSU. Ha, Murphy's law I think the reason the SCR finally gave out, was I kept the radio on 24/7, and there is a lot of heat in it any way. I need to make up a 12V power cord so I can power it externally. And Talk about good luck, I also noticed I can buy the SCR on ebay, NEC brand. Thanks again everyone for all the help. 73

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