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

SatPC32 & "A+" Auto Tracking
by Kd7yz＠denstarfarm.us 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

So I skimmed the Archives here and saw I need to edit the Auxiliary Files Prior.sqf and add in up to 9 lines of Sat's and their priority. ISS,1 AO-7,2 XW-2F,3 XW-2A,4 XW-2D,5 CAS-4A,6 CAS-4B,7 SO-50,8 CAS-2T,9 However, I just went through three Sat changes back to back and SatPC32 never switche3d to the next bird. What other setting must I alter? -- KD7YZ Bob AMSAT LM #901

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Home Satellite Antennae System for sale.
by ke0pbr＠gmail.com 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

Hi, I have a used home sat setup for sale: G-5500 El / AZ rotator with the control box and Fiberglass pole. M2 - 436CP30 Yagi M2 2MCP14 Yagi The Antenneas do not have the CP switch setup. I have some cables but frankly I would question if they are good. I bought this setup used 3 years ago with good intentions, but never got it installed. I'm moving so I want them gone, Looking for $500 for all, will NOT ship, I'm in MN south of Minneapolis about 40 miles. My QRZ address is good. Please email me with questions. K E zero P BR @ G mail.com (no spaces) Email is also on QRZ. KE0PBR Paul Overn AMSAT Ambassador Twitter: @KE0PBR Website: <http://ke0pbr.wordpress.com/> KE0PBR.Wordpress.com

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ARISS News Release No. 21-19
by David Jordan 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

ARISS News Release No.21-19 Dave Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn(a)amsat.org FORIMMEDIATE RELEASE ARISSContact is Scheduled with Students at Oakwood School, Morgan Hill, California, USA March20, 2021—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has receivedschedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact with astronauts. ARISS is thegroup that puts together special amateur radio contacts between students aroundthe globe and crew members with ham radio licenses on the International Space Station (ISS). This will be a Multipoint Telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio between the ISS and students fromOakwood School, Morgan Hill, CA. Students will take turns asking theirquestions of ISS Astronaut Shannon Walker, amateur radio call sign KD5DXB, duringthe ARISS radio contact. English is the language that will be used duringthe contact. The downlink frequencyfor this contact is 145.800 MHz. The ARISS team in Casale Monferrato, Italy willuse call sign IK1SLD to serve as the ARISS relay amateur radio ground station. Each student asking a question onthe ARISS radio will be conferenced in from home or social-distancedat school. TheARISS radio contact is scheduled for March 22, 2021 at 11:27 am PDT (MorganHill, CA) (18:27 UTC, 2:27 pm EDT, 1:27 pm CDT,12:27 pm MDT). OakwoodSchool is a nonprofit,private, rural/suburban school (about 500 students, preschool – 12thgrade) serving the community of Morgan Hill. The school’s STEM curriculumincludes lab science in kindergarten and college prep courses for middle andhigh school students and extracurricular activities in STEM-related subjects (roboticsand astronomy). During the past school year, in preparation for the ARISScontact, the school instituted a Year in Space Program for all grades. Theclass curriculum included new STEM courses that focused on space-related studiesas well as enhancements to the existing STEM courses. This year-long program benefitedfrom a number of volunteers from the space industry who provided classpresentations and student activities in the fields of: radio communication(amateur radio and radio astronomy), astronomy, computer science, engineering,and robotics. High school students from the Astronomy Club will assist amateurradio operator volunteers in integration and testing of the ARISS contact’sbackup radio station, and will help in setup of the ground station. In additionto incorporating amateur-related ideas into after-school STEM programs, theschool’s amateur radio volunteer, who advises the school amateur radio andastronomy clubs, hosted ham radio testing for middle and elementary gradestudents. Viewthe live stream of this ARISS radio contact at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg8ni7Gq6Z0. _______________________________ Astime allows, students will ask these questions: 1. What is your favorite place on the ISS? 2.Are you currently conducting any experiments yourself? 3.What was your favorite part of Astronaut training? 4. What advice do you have for a 6-year-old thatwants to be an astronaut? 5. What is the hardest thing you have had to doin space? 6. Is the coronavirus on the ISS and do you needto wear masks? 7. Do you and your crewmates play games inspace? 8.Can you still do your favorite Earth hobbies on the ISS? 9.Are your astronaut outfits customizable (like can you make them differentcolors)? 10.What happens if there is a medical emergency on the ISS? 11.Who was your role model growing up and how have they helped you succeed inbecoming an astronaut? 12.How do you communicate with all the astronauts that come from differentcountries? 13. Who is your favorite Avenger/superhero andwhy? 14.What is the object you miss the most that is on planet Earth? 15.What was the hardest part of the training, and did you think you were going topass? 16.Do the constellations from the space station look different from how they do onEarth? 17.We've noticed you use a lot of towels-- what if you run out of towels? 18.Although zero-gravity sounds fun at first, does it get “old” after a while? 19.If you were given the chance, would you like to be the first person to mars? 20.How do you stay connected with your family on Earth while in space and how longdo you get to talk or see them? ARISS– Celebrating 20 Years of Amateur Radio Continuous 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 . MediaContact: DaveJordan, AA4KN ARISSPR Likeus on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Search on Amateur Radio on the ISS and@ARISS_status.

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EM50/51 Today
by Bob Liddy (K8BL) 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

Gridders, The Q's from today's rove at EM50/51 have been uploadedto LoTW. Next Grids planned to be from FL. 73, Bob K8BL

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CAS-4A K8YSE
by Bob Liddy (K8BL) 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

It was good to work John K8YSE/60 on CAS-4A today. He is celebratinghis 60 years of being licensed by using the /60 suffix. Congrats to mylong-time friend, SAT mentor and ex-Boss. de Bob K8BL

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Re: Pocketqubes Deployed 03/21/21
by Amsat Argentina 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

What are the mark and space frequencies of the beacon in RTTY? What is the callsign that the cw robot responds to? Is there any protocol to comunicate with the cw robot ? Thanks ! 73, Congratulations ! Enviado desde Correo para Windows 10 -- Este correo electrónico ha sido comprobado en busca de virus por AVG. http://www.avg.com

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Pocketqubes Deployed 03/21/21
by Gustavo Carpignano 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

Dear All After being launched on 03/20/2021 at 03: 06 UTC from Baikonour with the Soyuz-2 rocket aboard UNISAT-7. On 03/21/2021 between 11:55 and 11:58 UTC, three radio amateurs pocketqubes will be deployed from the mothership UNISAT-7 amateurs, DIY-1, SMOG-1 and STECCO. DIY-1 / ARDUIQUBE (ARGENTINA): Frequency: 437.125 MHz USB/CW Power: 25/50/100 mW. Telemetry: RTTY 100BD 7N2, 15 ppm CW. ROBOT CW autotransponder, (like RS-5 / RS-7 / RS10-11 soviet satellites) Antenna: dipole At the time of deployment DIY will be in low power until verifying the status of the battery and will be sending only telemetry in an RTTY sentence. It is recommended to receive it with the FLDIGI-HAB program. Once the operation and battery charge are verified, the ROBOT will be activated and we hope it will be the delight of the CW enthusiasts. Much more info once in orbit. I appreciate the reception reports. 73 Gustavo LW2DTZ

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BCCSAT-1 launched into space
by Tanan Rangseeprom 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

BCCSAT-1 is an educational multi-spectral Cubesat 1U developed by the cooperation between Bangkok Christian College and the King’s Mongkut university of technology north Bangkok. http://bccsat.bcc.ac.th/ Schedule When our cubesat is completely finished it will be launched into space in March 20,2021 06.07 AM UTC at Russia with the Soyuz-2.1 rocket by UNISAT-7 GAUSS SRL to the low earth orbit at 575 km. http://en.roscosmos.ru/21973/ and https://www.roscosmos.ru/30285/ BCCSAT-1 1 99999U 21999A 21079.53571058 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 06 2 99999 098.4012 345.1641 0004344 283.2593 155.6823 14.80364805 03 Downlink Frequency Beacon 435.635 MHz CW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpSTEf3PUI Slow Scan Digital Video SSDV Data 435.635 MHz AFSK 1.2 kbps Telemetry Data 435.635 MHz GMSK 9.6 kbps After launch into space if AMSAT member receives the CW signal of BCCSAT-1 satellite. please send information to our team directly an email to: bccsat1(a)gmail.com BCCSAT-1 is a technology demonstration satellite in Thailand. High school students in Bangkok Cristian College in collaboration with King Mongkut’s University of Technology (KMUTNB) and the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEcg5q7ZBw0 are building the satellite. The project aims to build capacity on systems engineering, space education, and radio communication technology to students. During the project, students will learn about communication technology through amateur radio activities. It also encourages other interested people to receive the satellite signal. The main missions of BCCSAT-1 include: (1) testing in-house developed satellite transceiver and antenna in orbit (2) experiment of Slow-Scan Digital Video (SSDV) transmission from the satellite (3) take pictures of Earth by cameras onboard satellite BCCSAT-1 communication subsystem is an in-house developed transceiver and antennas. It has the capability to transmit GMSK modulation signal at 9.6 kbps, FSK for SSDV at 1.2 kbps and receive AFSK signal at 1.2 kbps. The transceiver will send its parameter such as RSSI and temperature to the ground station. BCCSAT-1 will carry four cameras onboard the satellite and aim to capture images of the Earth in different wavelengths: red, green, blue, NIR, and Red Edge band. We hope to process the images acquired for the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and widely used in Science education. The images will be widely distributed among amateur radio community via the experiment of SSDV transmission system and GMSK packets downlink. Moreover, BCCSAT-1 will be able to transmit pre-stored images chosen by high school students. BCCSAT-1 will provide the multi spectral images by having the total of 5 cameras on board; Red, Green, Blue, NIR, and Red Edge bands. The images we get from these cameras will be used to process for the Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), that will significantly provides huge advantage on analyzing the terrain of the country. 73 Tanan Rangseeprom , HS1JAN

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EM50/51 Log Today
by Bob Liddy (K8BL) 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

Gridders, The following stations were in the log for EM50/51 todayon CAS-4A and CAS-4B. If you are missing or I botched your Call, send me an e-mail and I'll re-check my recordings.Uploading to LoTW later (NO e-QSL). 73, Bob K8BL W5RKN, K8YSE/60, W4ALF, WD2E, KN2K, K5DNA,KC3EF (1st SAT QSO!!), NA1ME, AB5SS, N8MR,N8HI, WA6DNR, KC9ELU, K4RGK, K4UPI, AA9JS,WB4NCT, KE0EP, AA4QE, WA2FHJ, KE4KOL, WA2FZW P.S. Sorry if you didn't make it due to someone repeatedly calling over folks on the wrong sideband unintentionally.

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LVB Tracker firmware with multiple calibration points?
by alex＠kr1st.com 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

Hi there, Has anyone modified the LVB Tracker software to allow for more calibration points? If so, would you be willing to share this? The reason I ask is that I'm using an old Yaesu G-450XL to rotate my satellite beams. I was hoping to use a FoxDelta ST2 to control this rotator but found that the feedback voltage is anything but linear. It seems that the FoxDelta controller uses the LVB Tracker version 0.7 firmware. I took a quick peek at the source code and it doesn't look to be too hard to add calibration points for say every 30 degrees. Perhaps one every 90 degrees would be sufficient. Of course that depends also a little on the fact if the modified code will fit in the 16F876. 73, --Alex KR1ST

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