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

ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Virtual Conference (DCC), September 11 - 12 (THIS WEEK)
by Mark Thompson 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

39th Annual ARRL / TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC) THIS WEEK - Friday, September 11th & Saturday, 12th DCC will be a virtual conference using Zoom video communications and YouTube video-sharing platforms. DCC information, Technical Papers, Presentation Schedule & Registration Available at: DCC Information DCC Technical Papers DCC Presentation Schedule DCC Registration Registered DCC attendees participating via Zoom will be able to interact with presenters and other attendees via a chat room as well as raise a virtual hand to ask questions. (you don’t need a Zoom account to register). Non-registered DCC attendees can watch the live stream for free on YouTube, however non-registered DCC attendees will not be able to ask questions or chat. No registration is required for YouTube access. The YouTube URL will be announced and posted on this webpage preceding the DCC. DCC registration is free for TAPR members and $30 for non-members. Members receive a 100% discount at checkout. Non-members who would like to join TAPR and receive the free DCC pass can simply add TAPR membership and DCC registration to their shopping carts. After checkout, they will receive the free DCC pass when their membership is processed.

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Request for a couple Fox telemetry files? (to practice decoding)
by Curt Laumann 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Hello, I downloaded and installed the Fox 1 Telemetry tool. A group of us are going to discuss using this tool during our weekly net tonight, and It thought it would be helpful to have a couple of audio files to practice decoding. If you have one or two telemetry audio files that you could send to k7zoo(a)arrl.net it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Curt / K7ZOO

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Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT BoD Election... Please Vote!
by Burns Fisher 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

It seems perfectly clear that the root problem with AO-92 is that the batteries are no longer holding a charge as well as they did when new. I am not a battery expert, and unfortunately, we had no battery expert volunteers when the Foxes were being built (although we do now). Fox was designed for AMSAT engineering and ops to learn about cubesats. This is one of the things we learned. All the Foxes are complete--there is nothing we can do about that except work for better results on Golf. Another issue is that AO-92 sometimes stays in safe mode after the voltage rises again as it exits eclipse and requires a command station to start the repeater again. That is not the design. I'll take responsibility for that behavior since I wrote that software. And believe me I *am* analysing it to ensure future birds that I work on don't have that bug (which is subtle to the extent that I have not yet found it, or even been able to reproduce it on the ground). I'd add that these problems are most likely based on volunteer engineers with limited time butting up against fixed launch schedules set by large for-profit corporations with big payrolls. It's hard for me to imagine blaming the board of a volunteer, non-profit corporation for this situation. 73, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ AMSAT Flight Software Volunteer

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Re: [amsat-bb] Request for a couple Fox telemetry files? (to practice decoding)
by Roy Dean 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

> > Hello, I downloaded and installed the Fox 1 Telemetry tool. A group of us > are > going to discuss using this tool during our weekly net tonight, and It > thought it would be helpful to have a couple of audio files to practice > decoding. If you have one or two telemetry audio files that you could send > to > k7zoo at arrl.net <https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb> it > would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Curt / K7ZOO Curt, I actually plan on listening in this evening, and have an audio file from a pass yesterday, however it is over 100 mb. Do you have a way of accepting this via something other than email? --Roy K3RLD

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-09-08 12:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-09-08 12:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: College Raymond Sirot, Gueux, France, telebridge via VK5ZAI The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Thu 2020-09-10 08:17:01 UTC 57 deg Avellaneda Ikastetxea, Sodupe, Spain, telebridge via ZS6JON (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Chris Cassidy KF5KDR Contact is go for: Fri 2020-09-18 12:56:34 UTC 65 deg (***) There is a new radio on board the ISS. The Kenwood D710GA is now in use. The crossband repeater is now available when the radio is not being used for ARISS school contacts. The frequencies are 145.99 MHz up (67 tone) and 437.800 MHz down. Watch the Doppler on the downlink. ######################################################################################################################################## 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 2020-09-08 12:30 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 2020-09-02 20:00 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 135 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 1397. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1330. 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 **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT BoD Election... Please Vote!
by E.Mike McCardel 08 Sep '20

08 Sep '20

Jeff stated “ A few days ago, one of the BoDs and the VP of Engineering stated on that he couldn’t be bothered with the failure of AO-92 and that if anyone wanted to know what happened to it, they could look at the data but he was too busy to do so. ” This is incredibly misleading and distorted. The VP of engineering said no such thing. In fact if you take the time to actually read his statement he offered to share information if someone wanted to dig deeper. He did say that current engineering priorities were “focused on Golf”. This is a far cry from saying he couldn’t be bothered with the failure of AO-92. You can look it up and read it for Yourself. People, please, do your fact checking and don’t be mislead by distortions of the truth. EMike McCardel, AA8EM Past Senior Editor AMSAT News Service Past AMSAT-NA VP Educational Relations Former ARRL, Ohio Section, Affiliated Club Coordinator > On Sep 7, 2020, at 9:01 PM, Jeff Johns via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: > > A few days ago, one of the BoDs and the VP of Engineering stated on QRZ.com that he couldn’t be bothered with the failure of AO-92 and that if anyone wanted to know what happened to it, they could look at the data but he was too busy to do so.

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New AMSAT net for Dallas/ Ft. Worth, Texas
by tjschuessler＠verizon.net 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

The DFW Metroplex has had a local AMSAT net for at least 35 years on the Arlington ARC repeater each Wednesday evening. It continues to be a great home for the net. I am a regular net control and have taken over the organization of the net following the passing of our late friend, Keith Pugh, W5IU. The metro area has grown so much to the North and East however, that most likely, folks up in that area have no way to get into the Arlington machine which is in the southwest quadrant, which in some cases is over 60 miles away. I tried to engage a linked repeater group in the area but they were not willing to host a "Non-Affiliated net" on their system. The Arlington machine has no Internet connectivity for modes like Wires-X or other of the digital voice modes. Thus I proposed to the Dallas Amateur Radio Club, of which I am a member, to let me host an AMSAT net-EAST. Dates will be every Tuesday at 8PM CT except the first Tuesday of the month. DARC does have an Echolink node on W5FC-R so it will allow for folks who can't hit it by RF, a chance still to get in with a local group of satellite enthusiasts. Oh yes, we will continue to host the West net on the Arlington machine as will. Yup, this is the same time as the Houston AMSAT net, which has an Echolink presence at the same time, but no intentional competition is intended. That is the slot DARC could give me. Our first DFW AMSAT East net is tomorrow, September 8th. I am posting this here, because I am hoping to do something unique with this net. I want to have a 20 minute "Expert" section where satellite chasers, designers, rovers, data downloaders, antenna builders and more, can share their passion for certain aspects of the hobby. Having an Echolink connection to the repeater means it will be easy to draw from the larger AMSAT community, both here and abroad. If you would be interested in being a part of this one week, please do drop me a note off list and we can discuss and set up a week for you to present. Hope yo can be a part of this new outreach venture. Tom Schuessler, N5HYP EM12ms

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Re: [amsat-bb] Icom IC-9700 and Kantronics TNC
by Yono Adisoemarta 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

What is the setup to decode ? I’ll try to replicate the problem as I have a 9612 somewhere in the storage. 73 de Yono - YD0NXX Sent from my iPhone

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Manual Tracking ISS pass times
by Robert Bruninga 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

For those who dont keep an up-to-date ISS tracking program always handy, I find it easy to remember that in general ISS passes are about 23 minutes later each day, but overall ,moving Earlier by 51 minutes every other day. See the plot about 40% down this page: http://aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html Nice to remember when you dont have access to heavens-above.com Again the actual orbit is moving earlier each day, but almost repeats every other day. Bob

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SatPC32 vs. HRD
by Rafael Pena 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

Mr. Payton, thanks for the many Qs in sat mod. I have used HRD with 9100 but it was caos....never / will not work, they claim is the Icom 9100 problem :( ...but since we are in the Icom 9700 once you talk to the radio which is not that difficult to do and setup the rotator. The display of the sats is awesome. One can track the sats via Elevation, World Map, or Radar. ....then....I have found that in many instances I have to enter the sat frequency, mode, etc., which can happen with any other software....logging now....kind of cumbersome to log a Sat qso...too many steps just to do one Sat log ...the software does not detect automatically the sat name...or maybe I don't know how to use it..... doppler works ok... Then I also used / tested Log40M...great software which allows just about anything, log, uploads, doppler, sat updates, rotor control, etc. Display of sats is neat. Very easy to setup...My issues were with uploading to eQSL...the contacts were not being uploaded properly...rejected by the other operator because of the wrong mode or something like that. LotW, QRZ was ok...just eQSL had this issue...maybe is fix with newer version. It was many months ago and I could not be manually uploding to eQSL. Now comes SatPC32. In conjunction with DXLab suite of apps, the Icom 9700 can be used in both, non-sat and sat mode as the software knows SatPC32 movements. DXKeeper automatically knows the name of satellite, mode, freq, time, etc. Loggin is a breeze....and properly setup it will tell you all of the needed information from the other operator; grid, name, qth, etc. Uploads to LotW, eQSL, QRZ are possible. My $.05 .... NN3RP / Rafael ******************************************** Message: 7 Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2020 21:36:10 +0000 From: Gerald Payton <gp_ab5r(a)outlook.com> To: "amsat-bb(a)amsat.org" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: [amsat-bb] SatPC32 vs. HRD Message-ID: <SN6PR11MB275287724C1FF25CAC78E3C7D02D0(a)SN6PR11MB2752.namprd11.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" As I have previously stated, I am new and in the planning stages of my satellite station. I have SatPC32 installed and impressed with its abilities. Also, I am receiving encouragement from a friend to try HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) which I also own. I was wondering if and how many satellite operators are using HRD or have tried it. I suspect that SatPC32 of used primarily by most everyone. Many thanks for the help being received here and off the BB. 73, Jerry AB5R ------------------------------

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