January 2021 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

[Blog] Comparison of AMSAT and ARISS official statements about respective anomalies
by John Brier 30 Jan '21

30 Jan '21

Somebody said off-list they didn't understand the differences I was pointing out in the ARISS and AMSAT responses. I wrote a detailed comparison. I hope this explains what I mean. https://spacecomms.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/comparison-of-amsat-and-ariss-o… 73, John Brier KG4AKV

4 7

Re: [Blog] Comparison of AMSAT and ARISS official statements about respective anomalies
by Clint Bradford 30 Jan '21

30 Jan '21

From a Facebook user to John: As a new person to the Satellite community. I dropped out the email BBS this morning because of some clear animosity between what appears to be two groups in AMSAT. John you seem like a good person and I appreciate your help this far. But you seem to be a main instigator in this....stuff. As an outsider and newcomer to the Satellite community. This stuff is unproductive, off putting and I’m out. Thanks again but no one needs this kind of childish crap with all that’s going on in the world. I use my hobbies as an escape to relax. God luck hope you all get yourself’s sorted out. Clint Bradford K6LCS Sent from my iPhone

1 0

SiriusXM's new SXM-7 satellite suffers major payload failure, feared total loss. Insured for $225M.
by John Brier 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/1354478752730853380?s=19 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/sirius-xm-says-does-not-expect-satellite-ra… Similar to our recent difficulties. 73, John Brier KG4AKV

14 19

RadFXSat-2 Update
by Clint Bradford 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

THANK YOU for keeping ALL in “the loop” for the latest information. Clint Bradford K6LCS

1 0

cube sat
by 73 Bob W7LRD 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

I ran across this little gizzmo, interesting. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/pdf/Brochure_IrisV2.1_201611-URS_Approved_…

1 0

RadFxSat-2 Update – January 29, 2021
by Paul Stoetzer 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

From AMSAT Vice President – Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY: Thanks go to W5SAT, who applied the amateur radio spirit of exploration and innovation to helping find out “what’s up?” with RadFxSat-2. We appreciate his work and immediately applied it to our processes as we discover/recover RadFxSat-2. Why was it not heard or found week ago? There could be an unexplained behavior such that it could not and was not able to occur until the other day. Our stations attempted transponder use under various conjectured and commanded states throughout this period as part of the exploration of the anomaly, but did not detect any signals. They were able to confirm their signals the night of the 27th. Following that we turned attention to the beacon, as you know. We have not discovered the beacon yet and we have contacted some top class “big gun” stations, asking for their help. The signal will obviously be pipsqueak and may not even be there. The drive to find it, or if it is not detected then to take possible actions to activate it, is the information in the telemetry that is paramount to knowing through satellite data exactly what is going on. We asked you that the transponder not be used because any power to signals in the transponder downlink is power stolen from the beacon strength. We have asked everybody to listen, as from the beginning, to help find it and find status and solutions faster. It may sound boring or useless but it is at the heart of every satellite launch and commissioning phase and perhaps the biggest part the general satellite community can play in the lifetime of the satellite. The payoff is important to all of us, and I invite anyone to join the hunt and share in the enjoyment of – whatever happens. I can’t say what we will be doing tomorrow for sure, we will be looking for any reports and telemetry as more and larger stations join and because we have seen behavior that is not clearly understood. Procedures and conclusions that are not carefully thought out could result in losing what we have now. It is comparable to NASA taking careful time in dealing with anomalies (barring safety-related issues). Very importantly, we will be watching to see if anyone captured anything at all from the telemetry in the beacon. All you have to do is hunt and catch one frame and you are a hero in this game. Your help is greatly appreciated. Unless there is some big news over the weekend, I expect that Monday evening would be the next opportunity for a short update, time permitting.

1 0

Request for AMSAT Engineering and Operations
by Roy Dean 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

I respectfully ask that AMSAT-NA Engineering and/or Operations publish a copy of the IOC (In Orbit Checklist), with any sensitive information redacted. I will also ask that the reasons for the redaction be provided. For example: "This sentence redacted as it relates to proprietary launch provider information." Or "This paragraph redacted as it relates to trade secret uplink transmission protocols." I feel this information can greatly enhance the collective knowledge of AMSAT-NA by getting more eyes on the procedure, perhaps even leading to some hindsight that could lead to future design changes/improvements, etc. --Roy K3RLD

16 27

Satellite tracking script resurrected
by Joseph Armbruster 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

The recent thread about tracking BOBCAT-1, got me to thinking of this old script I wrote ages ago, to track satellites in Google Earth. To do this, I wrote a bit of Python that would obtain keps from amsat or space track and then carefully craft and host a kml file locally. The user could then drag this into Google Earth to track in near-realtime. It was configurable and really only driven by one python file and one config file. I had posted about it to the -bb a couple times since then but I hadn't really maintained the project. I found one repository on GitHub, that u0m3 had created. I forked (my own) project a few minutes ago from his repo and figured I could start maintaining it again. I just made the following updates: - supports amsats latest bare url - supports the latest spacetrack api - you can now plot / resolve satellite names via regex (so say all AO-* or STARLINK-*) If you take it for a spin, let me know what you think: https://github.com/josepharmbruster/ge-satellite-tracker The core of this could easily be integrated with rigctl or any other mapping app for tracking purposes, if someone wanted to roll their own. 73's Joseph Armbruster KJ4JIO

2 1

ARISS News Release No. 21-06
by David Jordan 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

ARISS News Release No. 21-06 DaveJordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn(a)amsat.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ARISS Operations Situation January 28, 2021 All, Today was a tough one for ARISS. Let me explain. As you all know, an EVA (spacewalk) was conducted yesterday toinstall cabling on the exterior of Columbus to support the commissioning of theBartolomeo attached payload capability mounted on the Columbus module. OnJanuary 26, prior to the EVA, our Columbus next generation radio system wasshut off and the ISS-internal coaxial cable to the antenna was disconnectedfrom the ARISS radio as a safety precaution for the EVA. During the EVA, ourcurrent external antenna coaxial cable, installed in 2009, was replaced withanother one built by ESA/Airbus with four RF connectors included, as comparedto the current 2 RF connections. This change was made to allow ESA toconnect ARISS and 3 additional customers to Bartolomeo, as compared to ARISSand one additional RF customer. As you might have seen yesterday,the EVA was conducted and our cable connection was swapped out. Thismorning, the crew restarted the radio system. Not hearing any VoiceRepeater reports, we requested a switch to APRS packet. We still did nothear any downlink reports. At 1746 UTC we had a planned ARISS schoolcontact between our certified telebridge station ON4ISS, operated by Jan inBelgium, and Mike Hopkins on ISS. No downlink signal was heard during thecontact. The crew radioed down “no joy” on the contact about halfwaythrough the contact and the Newcastle High School, Newcastle Wyoming, USAcontact attempt ended. Clearly, there is an issue. More troubleshootingwill be required. It may be the new external RF cable that was installedduring yesterday’s EVA. It might also be from the connect and disconnectof the interior coaxial (RF) cable. So the interior cable cannot not betotally discounted yet. The crew took pictures of the coaxial cable andconnector attached to the ARISS radio inside the ISS. Because theexterior cable is a Bartolomeo cable and not an ARISS cable, we are workingwith ESA and NASA on a way forward. NASA has opened a Payload AnomalyReport on this issue. We have talked to both the NASA and ESArepresentatives. These are the same folks that worked with us on previousARISS hardware systems as well as the ESA Bartolomeo integrationinitiative. We have also asked our Russian team lead, Sergey Samburov, ifwe can temporarily use the radio in the Service Module for school contactsuntil we are able to resolve this issue. As we gather more information,we will share it with you. On behalf of the ARISS International Board, the Delegates andthe entire team, I want to thank all of you for your tremendous volunteersupport to ARISS. We WILL get through this and be more resilient as aresult. 73, Frank -------------------------------------------- Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO ARISS-USA Executive Director ARISS International Chair ISS Ham Radio Program Manager & PI ARISS –Celebrating 20 Years of Continuous Amateur Radio Operations on the ISS About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the InternationalSpace Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radiosocieties and the space agencies that support the International Space Station(ISS). In the United States, sponsorsare the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio RelayLeague (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, and NASA’s SpaceCommunications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promoteexploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematicstopics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew membersaboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students,educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, andamateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org . Media Contact: Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR

3 4

Re: RadFxSat-2 and ARISS (was ARISS News Release No. 21-06)
by Bill Gaylord 29 Jan '21

29 Jan '21

This is also what i was hoping would eventually happen with Fox-1C other then vague answers that they basically tried everything. Is there like a legal reason the steps took so far can't be published? Or just a no time to do that sort of reason? KD9KCK

1 0