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Thank you! CONUS 488 Grids Completed!
by Fernando Ramirez 29 Dec '17

29 Dec '17

Good evening fellow satelliteers! Finally, I was able to connect with an operator in FN65! Today, I had the privilege of working Ken, VE3HLS, on XW-2B during his trip to New Brunswick. We completed our QSO when the satellite was at 2º for me. I would like to publicly express my gratitude to Ken for going out of his way to help bring down the "white whale", and last grid needed in the 488 CONUS. I want to also thank all the satellite operators that made this possible. All credit goes to them! Extra thanks to all those who travelled and helped with multiple grid squares. This has been a fun and exciting 2 years and 3 months of operating Ham Radio Satellites. My apologies for the long list. These are the unique callsigns and number of grids I worked them on: NJ7H 92 W5PFG 31 KG5CCI 24 N6UA 22 WD9EWK 17 AK4WQ 16 N4UFO 16 N9IP 14 KL7R 11 VE3HLS 11 AI6GS 10 AC0RA 9 AA5PK 7 N8RO 7 KK4FEM 6 W4FS 6 K8BL 5 KM4RTS 5 KO4MA 5 N8HM 5 WA7HQD 5 WI7P 5 AA0CW 4 K8OE 4 K0D 3 KI4RO 3 KL7CN/W6 3 KM4LAO 3 N0JE 3 N1AIA 3 N7AGF 3 N9EAT 3 NX9B 3 W1PA 3 AD0TM 2 K6R 2 KA4H 2 KB1PVH 2 KB1SF 2 KC1EXK 2 KD8ATF 2 KE0FJI 2 KE4AL 2 KG4AKV 2 KG5FQT 2 KX9X/7 2 NR0T 2 NS3L 2 W0N 2 WA5KBH 2 WC7V 2 WE4B 2 WN9Q 2 AA5CK 1 AA9LC 1 HP/KG5FQX/MM 1 K0MDJ 1 K3RRR 1 K4RGK 1 K4YYL 1 K5L 1 K5T 1 K6FW 1 K6G/MM 1 K8DBD 1 KA3HSW 1 KA6SIP 1 KB0VXN 1 KB6A 1 KC3GFZ 1 KC4LE 1 KC5JSV 1 KC7MG 1 KC8QDQ 1 KC9ELU 1 KD8CAO 1 KE3LB 1 KE7JIM 1 KE8AKW 1 KF4FC 1 KG4ZQY 1 KG5AYB 1 KG5FQX 1 KG5GJT 1 KG5IPA 1 KG7EZ 1 KJ4EU 1 KK4OYJ/W0 1 KK8Y 1 KL7CN/W7 1 KM4MYW 1 KM4SYN 1 KM4THG 1 KU4UV 1 KX9X/1 1 KX9X/5 1 N0VVV 1 N1JEZ 1 N5UWY 1 N5UWY/VE2 1 N7DFL 1 N7SMT 1 N8MS 1 NJ7H/VE2 1 NJ7H/VE3 1 NJ7H/VE4 1 NM3B 1 VA3ECO 1 VE2FU 1 VE3/KA4H 1 W0DHB 1 W0JW 1 W0LSB 1 W1AW 1 W1GKT 1 W2JV 1 W2LI 1 W3ZM/9 1 W4DTA 1 W4UOO 1 W5GRP 1 W5RKN/100 1 W6GMT 1 W7JSD 1 W7QL 1 W8AB 1 W8MV/4 1 W9RF 1 WA6FWF 1 WB3CSY 1 WB9YIG 1 WI9I 1 WQ6C 1 WR7X 1 WU2M 1 WV2I 1 Again, thank you to all of them! 73 Fernando, NP4JV Arizona

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Re: [amsat-bb] Thank you! CONUS 488 Grids Completed!
by Rick Tejera 29 Dec '17

29 Dec '17

Congratulations! Well done Fernando. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Fernando Ramirez Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2017 20:57 To: AMSAT -BB Subject: [amsat-bb] Thank you! CONUS 488 Grids Completed! Good evening fellow satelliteers! Finally, I was able to connect with an operator in FN65! Today, I had the privilege of working Ken, VE3HLS, on XW-2B during his trip to New Brunswick. We completed our QSO when the satellite was at 2º for me. I would like to publicly express my gratitude to Ken for going out of his way to help bring down the "white whale", and last grid needed in the 488 CONUS. I want to also thank all the satellite operators that made this possible. All credit goes to them! Extra thanks to all those who travelled and helped with multiple grid squares. This has been a fun and exciting 2 years and 3 months of operating Ham Radio Satellites. My apologies for the long list. These are the unique callsigns and number of grids I worked them on: NJ7H 92 W5PFG 31 KG5CCI 24 N6UA 22 WD9EWK 17 AK4WQ 16 N4UFO 16 N9IP 14 KL7R 11 VE3HLS 11 AI6GS 10 AC0RA 9 AA5PK 7 N8RO 7 KK4FEM 6 W4FS 6 K8BL 5 KM4RTS 5 KO4MA 5 N8HM 5 WA7HQD 5 WI7P 5 AA0CW 4 K8OE 4 K0D 3 KI4RO 3 KL7CN/W6 3 KM4LAO 3 N0JE 3 N1AIA 3 N7AGF 3 N9EAT 3 NX9B 3 W1PA 3 AD0TM 2 K6R 2 KA4H 2 KB1PVH 2 KB1SF 2 KC1EXK 2 KD8ATF 2 KE0FJI 2 KE4AL 2 KG4AKV 2 KG5FQT 2 KX9X/7 2 NR0T 2 NS3L 2 W0N 2 WA5KBH 2 WC7V 2 WE4B 2 WN9Q 2 AA5CK 1 AA9LC 1 HP/KG5FQX/MM 1 K0MDJ 1 K3RRR 1 K4RGK 1 K4YYL 1 K5L 1 K5T 1 K6FW 1 K6G/MM 1 K8DBD 1 KA3HSW 1 KA6SIP 1 KB0VXN 1 KB6A 1 KC3GFZ 1 KC4LE 1 KC5JSV 1 KC7MG 1 KC8QDQ 1 KC9ELU 1 KD8CAO 1 KE3LB 1 KE7JIM 1 KE8AKW 1 KF4FC 1 KG4ZQY 1 KG5AYB 1 KG5FQX 1 KG5GJT 1 KG5IPA 1 KG7EZ 1 KJ4EU 1 KK4OYJ/W0 1 KK8Y 1 KL7CN/W7 1 KM4MYW 1 KM4SYN 1 KM4THG 1 KU4UV 1 KX9X/1 1 KX9X/5 1 N0VVV 1 N1JEZ 1 N5UWY 1 N5UWY/VE2 1 N7DFL 1 N7SMT 1 N8MS 1 NJ7H/VE2 1 NJ7H/VE3 1 NJ7H/VE4 1 NM3B 1 VA3ECO 1 VE2FU 1 VE3/KA4H 1 W0DHB 1 W0JW 1 W0LSB 1 W1AW 1 W1GKT 1 W2JV 1 W2LI 1 W3ZM/9 1 W4DTA 1 W4UOO 1 W5GRP 1 W5RKN/100 1 W6GMT 1 W7JSD 1 W7QL 1 W8AB 1 W8MV/4 1 W9RF 1 WA6FWF 1 WB3CSY 1 WB9YIG 1 WI9I 1 WQ6C 1 WR7X 1 WU2M 1 WV2I 1 Again, thank you to all of them! 73 Fernando, NP4JV Arizona _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Alinco DJ-580
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 28 Dec '17

28 Dec '17

Hi Folks, I’m trying to resurrect my old Alinco DJ-580 for use on AO-85/91. When using the DC supply socket on the side with a 9 V plug pack, I’m finding that the Rx audio output is very low (the nicad pack has at least 1 dead cell). Is anyone still using one of these radios and if so how well does it perform? 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

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VE3HLS Christmas Rove Schedule
by Ken Alexander 28 Dec '17

28 Dec '17

Forgot to post this here. My mistake! This is the full schedule, which begins tomorrow (Dec 28th) afternoon. See notes following the schedule. Meductic, NB FN65 Thursday Afternoon/Evening 28.12.2017 CAS-4B 21:46 EU 28.12.2017 XW-2B 23:21 28.12.2017 AO-73 23:55 29.12.2017 XW-2A 00:35 29.12.2017 SO-50 00:51 29.12.2017 CAS-4B 01:06 29.12.2017 AO-73 01:34 29.12.2017 FO-29 02:31 Meductic, NB FN65 Friday Morning 29.12.2017 FO-29 12:42 CA 29.12.2017 AO-73 13:16 29.12.2017 XW-2A 13:25 29.12.2017 AO-07 14:18 EU 29.12.2017 FO-29 14:33 CA Metis-sur-Mer, QC FN58/68 Friday Afternoon/Evening 29.12.2017 XW-2B 23:08 29.12.2017 CAS-4B 23:16 29.12.2017 SO-50 23:35 29.12.2017 FO-29 23:50 EU 30.12.2017 CAS-4B 00:56 CA 30.12.2017 SO-50 01:16 30.12.2017 FO-29 01:35 30.12.2017 AO-73 01:54 CA 30.12.2017 CAS-4B 02:37 CA Warwick, QC FN35/45 Saturday afternoon Dec 30th 30.12.2017 AO-07 20:39 CA 30.12.2017 CAS-4B 21:26 EU 30.12.2017 SO-50 22:20 BC/EU 30.12.2017 CAS-4B 23:06 CA BC - Pass favours British Columbia EU - Pass favours Europe CA - Pass favours U.S. west coast Notes - I've had a few people ask about FN66. My "mission" is to make sure NP4JV gets FN65 to complete his 488. If we accomplish that on one of the Thursday afternoon passes, then I will use some or all of the Friday morning FN65 passes to operate from FN66 instead. - As I stated above, the purpose of my trip to FN65 is to make sure Fernando gets it for the FFMA. You can help too. If you hear NP4JV calling me, or hear me calling him, please kindly wait while we complete this important QSO. After that I'll take as many callers as I can. The quieter it is, the quicker we can get this done. Thanks in advance! - K4FEG told me he needs FN68, so I'm going there. I don't know of anyone else who has this in their log, so it should be fun! - K6FW needs FN35/45, so I'm making a stop there for a few passes on my return trip. - See what happens when you post your grid maps and send your requests to me?

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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS APRS
by Roy Dean 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Word on the street is that the digipeater is indeed switched on, but is just not working. I have not yet had an opportunity to set up and listen for it to see if it's off completely, or if the packets are just so bad as to be un-decodable by any software. I can tell you that prior to being shut off the last time, the packets - while decodable - were drifting in frequency pretty noticeably. There was a serious "slant" in the packets when viewed on a waterfall - and this was most definitely NOT due to doppler. Yet my Kenwood and Direwolf had no problems decoding them. I'm wondering if the digi is in fact beaconing and digipeating, but the packets are just so bad now that nothing can decode them? Interested to see if anybody has noticed anything at all (even if it was pure silence)? Plenty of "not heard" reports on the Amsat status page - I assume those were more than just "nothing showed up on my satgate report and/or ariss.net". -Roy K3RLD > No APRS through ISS for 21 days. Anybody have any hints as to when it > will be back up and running? Steve AI9IN

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Update: Falconsat-3 Wisp Error NO -5
by Tony 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

All: Still getting the Wisp error message: "Directory request error NO -5" after uninstalling the program. There must be traces of Wisp left in the registry so the next step is to do a thorough deletion. The only reference to this error in the amsat-bb archives points to the "Test for SMACK" setting which is unchecked. Apparently, the nature of the error has something to do with directory requests so I'm wondering if there's a way to solve the problem via Wisp housekeeping? Any suggestions before I go through a tedious deletion process? Tony -K2MO > All: > > Wisp is showing the following error when accessing Falconsat-3: > "Directory request error NO -5 K2MO" > > I searched the archives and it seems this error takes place if the parameter "Test for SMACK TNC" is checked which is not the case here. > > Any suggestions? > > Tony -K2MO

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Falconsat-3 and Direwolf
by Bob Mattaliano 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Happy Post-Christmas and Pre-New Year Everyone! Is anyone using Direwolf together with WISP in full duplex mode? If so, any special settings? TKS es 73, Bob N6RFM

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ISS APRS
by skristof＠etczone.com 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

No APRS through ISS for 21 days. Anybody have any hints as to when it will be back up and running? Steve AI9IN

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National Academies of Science on WRC-2019
by Arthur Feller, W4ART 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Download Free PDF <https://www.nap.edu/login.php?record_id=24899&page=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nap.ed…> 73, art….. W4ART Arlington VA To thrive in life, you need three bones: a wish bone, a back bone, and a funny bone. - Reba McEntire http://afeller.us <http://afeller.us/>

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WIMO X-Quads
by Dave Tipton 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Good Morning folks, After an extended hiatus, (Like 15 years) I'm back. Looking at getting the shack set back up for the birds, and was wondering if anyone here was using the WIMO X-Quad antennas. They look pretty impressive for their size, and I was thinking about putting a pair of them on a split Yaesu 5500 over top of my TA-33 on the tower. Just wondering what you guys thought of them. Thanks, Dave Dave Tipton, W5DMT (Formerly N8KXA) (615) 689-0685 <mailto:[email protected]> dave(a)w5dmt.com

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Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 12, Issue 350
by n7drb＠totacc.com 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

I'm writing to you to let you know Jim O'Leary N7DRB passed away October 3rd 2017. Please let everyone know that might have known Jim. I will be monitoring his email address for the next month or so until his sister has his account terminated. Best Regards, Barry Thompson N6CID ------- Original Message ------- >From : [email protected][mailto:[email protected]] Sent : 12/27/2017 5:51:23 AM To : amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Cc : Subject : RE: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 12, Issue 350 Send AMSAT-BB mailing list submissions to amsat-bb(a)amsat.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to amsat-bb-request(a)amsat.org You can reach the person managing the list at amsat-bb-owner(a)amsat.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of AMSAT-BB digest..." Today's Topics: 1. [Video] UNCUT AO-91 demo (impromptu Christmas Eve demo) (John Brier) 2. Re: polarisation switch (Bob- W7LRD) 3. Re: [Video] UNCUT AO-91 demo (impromptu Christmas Eve demo) (Michael Styne) 4. Re: polarisation switch (JoAnne K9JKM) 5. Re: polarisation switch (JoAnne K9JKM) 6. polarisation switch (Roland Zurmely) 7. Re: [Video] UNCUT AO-91 demo (impromptu Christmas Eve demo) (John Brier) 8. Re: polarisation switch (JoAnne K9JKM) 9. Re: Has anyone made a satellite QSO with an orbiting ISS astronaut? (Andy) 10. Falconsat-3 Wisp Error NO -5 (Tony) 11. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC (AJ9N(a)aol.com) 12. 3 Element Yagi Design (Wendy and Terry Osborne) 13. WIMO X-Quads (Dave Tipton) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 11:18:12 -0500 https://youtu.be/w7Ukh_nT2Tg This is an uncut and lightly edited video I made mostly so Blair (the ham who saw and joined me at the 8 minute mark) could see it. I normally only upload highly edited videos (24, 32 or more hours of editing). Even though it doesn't meet my normal standards I figured others besides Blair might still be interested. 2017-12-24 1753 UTC 03:05 Bird comes in strong 04:58 YV6CR FJ78 Contacted? he said WP3KG 07:42 KG3GDS FN00 CONTACTED 08:00 Blair arrives - demo begins 09:02 KE4AL EM761 CONTACTED 09:16 WO3T FN00 CONTACTED 09:29 K3RRR CONTACTED 10:22 ???MTS FN32 Contacted? What was prefix? 13:00 KC3GFZ FN00 CONTACTED 13:13 WN9Q EN64 CONTACTED This is from the Christmas Eve AO-91 pass at 1753 UTC (2017-12-24). I was just having a little fun for myself before I left Raleigh for Wilmington to be with my parents for Christmas. About halfway through the pass, Blair, another ham, saw me from his car in this shopping lot and came over, so I did I did a little demo for him. I was lucky because I recently made a cable for my Kenwood TM-V71 to pull the audio off the DATA pin. This cable allowed me to get audio into my recorder and play audio from the radio's speaker simultaneously. Normally I plug a cable into the speaker out port but that disables the internal speaker. I made the cable originally so I could decode the Data Under Voice (DUV) telemetry from AO-91 during commissioning, which helps the engineers determine if the bird is okay. You need the unfiltered audio because the data is all below 200 hz, which is normally filtered from speaker out. Unfortunately, even using the supposedly unfiltered audio from the DATA pin I still couldn't get the FoxTelem software to decode anything. But without this cable if I wanted someone else to hear the audio I would have to hook up a splitter in front of the recorder and run a second cable to an external speaker. I couldn't have done that in time for Blair to hear, or it would have been a lot of effort for not a lot of gain because the pass might have been over before I got it all hooked up. I also have another proper AO-91 video I'm making. It is from the second daytime pass right after it was commissioned about a month ago (on the US Thanksgiving holiday). To those that celebrate it, Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays to everyone else! 73, John Brier KG4AKV P.S. I think my phone's tracking app was set for a location I was at the previous day about 40 minutes from where I live, so it was off slightly as far as timing and max elevation. The pass was actually about 72 degrees max elevation, not 67 or whatever I told Blair, and when I thought the bird was at 2 degrees during the last contact, it was actually about 4 or 5 degrees elevation. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 09:24:48 -0800 (PST) I think it was in the AMSAT Journal several years back..Do a archive search 73 Bob W7LRD > On December 24, 2017 at 8:01 PM Mike Thompson <zryder94(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but might be a good > place to start. > > http://www.sm5bsz.com/polarity/simplesw.htm > > > On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 5:55 AM, <jerry.tuyls(a)telenet.be> wrote: > > > Hello all > > > > Does someone has the article from late I8CVS, switching 4 polarisations on > > a 70cm crossed yagi? > > In pdf if possible for a friend of mine, i used to have it but can't find > > it anymore on my pc. > > > > Best 73's > > > > Jerry,ON4CJQ > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions > > expressed > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > > AMSAT-NA. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 12:01:49 -0500 It was me! Looks like I was stomped on a little. Should have said my call again. Thanks for posting this recording & happy holidays. Michael Styne K2MTS mstyne(a)k2mts.org > On Dec 25, 2017, at 11:18, John Brier <johnbrier(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > 10:22 ???MTS FN32 Contacted? What was prefix? ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 12:01:48 -0600 I added parts 1 and 2 of Domenico's I8CVS article from the 2007 AMSAT Journal archive to the files section of the AMSAT North America group on Facebook. The files are too big to upload to amsat.org without administrator intervention. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 8:13 AM, JamesDuffey <jamesduffey(a)comcast.net> wrote: > Can you share it with the rest of Us? - Duffey KK6MC > > > James Duffey KK6MC > Cedar Crest NM > > > On Dec 25, 2017, at 02:04, jerry.tuyls(a)telenet.be wrote: > > > > Tnx all for the replies, the article has arrived. > > > > 73's > > > > Jerry,ON4CJQ > > > > ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht ----- > > Van: "jerry tuyls" <jerry.tuyls(a)telenet.be> > > Aan: "amsat-bb" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> > > Verzonden: Zondag 24 december 2017 12:55:33 > > Onderwerp: [amsat-bb] polarisation switch > > > > Hello all > > > > Does someone has the article from late I8CVS, switching 4 polarisations > on a 70cm crossed yagi? > > In pdf if possible for a friend of mine, i used to have it but can't > find it anymore on my pc. > > > > Best 73's > > > > Jerry,ON4CJQ > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions expressed > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions expressed > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions > expressed > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 12:13:56 -0600 Part 1 was in the March/April 2007 issue; Part 2 was in the May/June 2007 issue of the AMSAT Journal. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org On Mon, Dec 25, 2017 at 11:24 AM, Bob- W7LRD <w7lrd(a)comcast.net> wrote: > I think it was in the AMSAT Journal several years back..Do a archive search > 73 Bob W7LRD > > On December 24, 2017 at 8:01 PM Mike Thompson <zryder94(a)gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but might be a good > > place to start. > > > > http://www.sm5bsz.com/polarity/simplesw.htm > > > > > > On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 5:55 AM, <jerry.tuyls(a)telenet.be> wrote: > > > > > Hello all > > > > > > Does someone has the article from late I8CVS, switching 4 > polarisations on > > > a 70cm crossed yagi? > > > In pdf if possible for a friend of mine, i used to have it but can't > find > > > it anymore on my pc. > > > > > > Best 73's > > > > > > Jerry,ON4CJQ > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions > > > expressed > > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views > of > > > AMSAT-NA. > > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions expressed > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions > expressed > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 20:31:04 +0000 (UTC) < http://www.qsl.net/py1ll/amtccy.pdf> ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2017 22:33:38 -0500 Haha! I thought I might find you if I posted this. I would have asked for your prefix on the pass but I figured it would be on the recording earlier in the pass. Didn't search hard for you in it but I didn't hear you. 73, John Brier KG4AKV On Dec 25, 2017 12:02 PM, "Michael Styne" <mstyne(a)k2mts.org> wrote: > It was me! Looks like I was stomped on a little. Should have said my call > again. > > Thanks for posting this recording & happy holidays. > > Michael Styne K2MTS > mstyne(a)k2mts.org > > > On Dec 25, 2017, at 11:18, John Brier <johnbrier(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > 10:22 ???MTS FN32 Contacted? What was prefix? > > ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 12:02:17 -0600 Domenico's article has been added to the AMSAT Station and Operating Hints page: https://www.amsat.org/station-and-operating-hints/ It is placed down on the page with the antenna articles. Look for "Domenico, I8CVS (SK) published a two-part article in the AMSAT Journal about his design for switching polarization on circularly polarized antennas. The PDF files are available for download as Part1 (2MB) and Part2 (4MB)" -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 14:48:28 -0600 During the SAREX days we coordinated a QSO between the Shuttle and MIR on 2 meters. It was a bit involved due to Doppler and choosing a window on the Shuttle for the antenna, but it did work. Operating via a VHF/UHF FM Hamsat would be more involved, but could certainly work with the external antenna on ISS and a satellite like AO-91. Complete frequency calculations would be needed for the ISS astronaut. Andy W5ACM -----Original Message----- STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) astronaut? Douglas, No, this hasn't happened - but not from a lack of trying. In 2006, at the very end of Bill McArthur's ISS tour, there was an effort to see if Bill could make a QSO via AO-51. Bill had already completed WAS, WAC, and DXCC working hams around the world, and this was considered the last big thing he could do from the ISS radio. Time was tight, and probably the biggest reason why this didn't work. Instructions were sent up to the ISS, and stations were recruited on the ground in locations compatible with both available AO-51 passes and Bill's available time. Bill was heard through AO-51, but no QSOs were made. I am not aware if there have been other attempts since 2006 for an ISS crewmember to work an amateur satellite from the ISS. Maybe if Doug Wheelock can get another ISS tour, this could be tried again. IIRC crewmembers that used the ISS cross-band repeater to work stations on the ground are not using a different radio to work through the ISS repeater. Since the cross-band repeater was a function of the Kenwood dual-band mobile transceivers, the crews would use the microphone and speaker on that radio to work stations. Really no different than if the cross-band repeater function on those radios is turned off, or if the crews used the GE/Ericsson HTs to work stations. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 2:35 PM, Douglas Quagliana <dquagliana(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Has anyone ever had a successful two-way QSO with an orbiting ISS > astronaut through an amateur radio satellite transponder? > > Regards, > Douglas KA2UPW/5 > > _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ------------------------------ Message: 10 Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 19:59:27 -0500 All: Wisp is showing the following error when accessing Falconsat-3: "Directory request error NO -5 K2MO" I searched the archives and it seems this error takes place if the parameter "Test for SMACK TNC"? is checked which is not the case here. Any suggestions? Tony -K2MO ------------------------------ Message: 11 Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2017 20:20:46 -0500 Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Higher National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), Rabat, Morocco, telebridge via VK5ZAI (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP (***) Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-01-03 13:52:42 UTC 33 deg (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 145.8? 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IK?WGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 127 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-27 01:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1200. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1149. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DP?ISS, IR?ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS?ISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR Exp. 54 on orbit Scott Tingle KG5NZA Norishige Kanai Alexander Skvortsov **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors ------------------------------ Message: 12 Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 16:56:08 +1300 Hi Folks, I have recently built up a 3 Element 2M yagi antenna from a some old TV antenna parts in my junk box. It seems to work well on AO-91. If anyone is interested, the details are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4f4m07pzhy8lyvi/AAAv3yVEIK45ClC0RHCt3s3Ea?dl=0 Happy holidays and 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC ------------------------------ Message: 13 Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 04:28:46 -0600 Good Morning folks, After an extended hiatus, (Like 15 years) I'm back. Looking at getting the shack set back up for the birds, and was wondering if anyone here was using the WIMO X-Quad antennas. They look pretty impressive for their size, and I was thinking about putting a pair of them on a split Yaesu 5500 over top of my TA-33 on the tower. Just wondering what you guys thought of them. Thanks, Dave Dave Tipton, W5DMT (Formerly N8KXA) (615) 689-0685 < mailto:[email protected]> dave(a)w5dmt.com ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat-bb(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ------------------------------ End of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 12, Issue 350 *****************************************

1 0

Kenwood TS-2000X RX @38k4 Baud
by Vincenzo Mone 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Hello, I was a bit out of the world of radio due to the renovation of the house. In the meantime I took advantage of replacing my old Kenwood TS-790E with a new Kenwood TS-2000X. In the old TS-790, I had the Symek IFD card for receiving 38k4 baud satellites. I wanted to know if there are still satellites that still transmit at that speed and if it is worth inserting the TS-2000X card. Thank you 73's de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ************************************* ******* GSM +39 328 7110193 ******* ****** SMS +39 328 7110193 ****** *************************************

1 0

Falconsat-3 Whole Orbit Data
by Roland Zurmely 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

WOD from 26 dec 2017 <http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/falconsat.htm#g> 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ

1 0

3 Element Yagi Design
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Hi Folks, I have recently built up a 3 Element 2M yagi antenna from a some old TV antenna parts in my junk box. It seems to work well on AO-91. If anyone is interested, the details are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4f4m07pzhy8lyvi/AAAv3yVEIK45ClC0RHCt3s3Ea?dl=0 Happy holidays and 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

1 0

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Higher National School of Computer Science and Systems Analysis (ENSIAS), Rabat, Morocco, telebridge via VK5ZAI (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP (***) Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-01-03 13:52:42 UTC 33 deg (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 127 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-27 01:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1200. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1149. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-27 01:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR Exp. 54 on orbit Scott Tingle KG5NZA Norishige Kanai Alexander Skvortsov **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

1 0

Falconsat-3 Wisp Error NO -5
by Tony 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

All: Wisp is showing the following error when accessing Falconsat-3: "Directory request error NO -5 K2MO" I searched the archives and it seems this error takes place if the parameter "Test for SMACK TNC" is checked which is not the case here. Any suggestions? Tony -K2MO

1 0

Has anyone made a satellite QSO with an orbiting ISS astronaut?
by Douglas Quagliana 26 Dec '17

26 Dec '17

Has anyone ever had a successful two-way QSO with an orbiting ISS astronaut through an amateur radio satellite transponder? Regards, Douglas KA2UPW/5

16 17

polarisation switch
by jerry.tuyls＠telenet.be 26 Dec '17

26 Dec '17

Hello all Does someone has the article from late I8CVS, switching 4 polarisations on a 70cm crossed yagi? In pdf if possible for a friend of mine, i used to have it but can't find it anymore on my pc. Best 73's Jerry,ON4CJQ

5 7

[Video] UNCUT AO-91 demo (impromptu Christmas Eve demo)
by John Brier 26 Dec '17

26 Dec '17

https://youtu.be/w7Ukh_nT2Tg This is an uncut and lightly edited video I made mostly so Blair (the ham who saw and joined me at the 8 minute mark) could see it. I normally only upload highly edited videos (24, 32 or more hours of editing). Even though it doesn't meet my normal standards I figured others besides Blair might still be interested. 2017-12-24 1753 UTC 03:05 Bird comes in strong 04:58 YV6CR FJ78 Contacted? he said WP3KG 07:42 KG3GDS FN00 CONTACTED 08:00 Blair arrives - demo begins 09:02 KE4AL EM761 CONTACTED 09:16 WO3T FN00 CONTACTED 09:29 K3RRR CONTACTED 10:22 ???MTS FN32 Contacted? What was prefix? 13:00 KC3GFZ FN00 CONTACTED 13:13 WN9Q EN64 CONTACTED This is from the Christmas Eve AO-91 pass at 1753 UTC (2017-12-24). I was just having a little fun for myself before I left Raleigh for Wilmington to be with my parents for Christmas. About halfway through the pass, Blair, another ham, saw me from his car in this shopping lot and came over, so I did I did a little demo for him. I was lucky because I recently made a cable for my Kenwood TM-V71 to pull the audio off the DATA pin. This cable allowed me to get audio into my recorder and play audio from the radio's speaker simultaneously. Normally I plug a cable into the speaker out port but that disables the internal speaker. I made the cable originally so I could decode the Data Under Voice (DUV) telemetry from AO-91 during commissioning, which helps the engineers determine if the bird is okay. You need the unfiltered audio because the data is all below 200 hz, which is normally filtered from speaker out. Unfortunately, even using the supposedly unfiltered audio from the DATA pin I still couldn't get the FoxTelem software to decode anything. But without this cable if I wanted someone else to hear the audio I would have to hook up a splitter in front of the recorder and run a second cable to an external speaker. I couldn't have done that in time for Blair to hear, or it would have been a lot of effort for not a lot of gain because the pass might have been over before I got it all hooked up. I also have another proper AO-91 video I'm making. It is from the second daytime pass right after it was commissioned about a month ago (on the US Thanksgiving holiday). To those that celebrate it, Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays to everyone else! 73, John Brier KG4AKV P.S. I think my phone's tracking app was set for a location I was at the previous day about 40 minutes from where I live, so it was off slightly as far as timing and max elevation. The pass was actually about 72 degrees max elevation, not 67 or whatever I told Blair, and when I thought the bird was at 2 degrees during the last contact, it was actually about 4 or 5 degrees elevation.

2 2

polarisation switch
by Roland Zurmely 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

<http://www.qsl.net/py1ll/amtccy.pdf>

1 0

Seasons Greetings
by Bill Greene 25 Dec '17

25 Dec '17

Just wanted to take a moment to wish my friends all over the world Merry Christmas and Best Wishes Holiday Season! Best of 73, Bill Greene VE7WFG Falkland BC

1 0

Kenwood TS-2000X @38k4 Baud
by vimone＠alice.it 24 Dec '17

24 Dec '17

Hello, I'm a bit stuck by the world of radiant because of renovation of the house. In the meantime I took advantage of replacing my old Kenwood TS-790E with a new Kenwood TS-2000X. I had in the old TS-790 the Symek IFD card for receiving satellites at 38k4 baud. I wanted to know if there are still satellites transmitting at that speed and if it is worth to insert the same schedule into the TS-2000X. Thank you 73's de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 ************************************* ****** GSM +39 328 7110193 ****** ****** SMS +39 328 7110193 ****** *************************************

1 0

Yaesu G-5500 rotor
by JOEL KANDEL 24 Dec '17

24 Dec '17

Fellow AMSAT members, I’m about to install a never before used G-5500 rotor, and was wondering if there is any preventive maintenance I should do to it before I put it out in Florida weather (e.g., siliconing seams, greasing gears, etc). Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, Joel, KI4T Kandelj(a)bellsouth.net Traveling at 300,000,000 meters per second

3 2

ANS-358 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 24 Dec '17

24 Dec '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-358 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. In this edition: * AO73 / FUNcube-1 Happy Holiday Mode * Satellite Activity Planned From Solomon Islands * AMSAT CW Activity Day 2018 In Memory Of G3IOR * Another Radio Amateur Joins ISS Crew, Three Hams Now On Board * AMSAT Officed Closed For Holiday * 13 US Schools/Groups Move Into Phase 2 of ARISS Selections * Satellite DXCC Awarded to K8YSE * Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch * Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-358.01 ANS-358 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 358.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. December 24, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-358.01 AO73 / FUNcube-1 Happy Holiday Mode AO73/FUNcube-1 is now operating in full time transponder mode and will continue in this mode until the evening of Wednesday 3rd January 2018. Please enjoy the transponder during this happy holiday period! Season's greetings from the whole FUNcube team. [ANS thanks Graham, G3VZV for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Activity Planned From Solomon Islands H44, SOLOMON ISLANDS. Shane, VK4KHZ, will once again be active as H44DA from his holiday home in Busuone, Guadalcanal Island (OC-047), until sometime early January 2018. His main focus is on 6 meters, but he will also be active on various HF bands (80/40/20/15/10m) using SSB and also on the SO-50 satellite. Suggested 6m frequencies are: calling on 50.110 MHz, Shane will always QSY to 50.125 as his primary frequency and 50.135 as his secondary frequency (secondary frequency will only be used if primary is in use or too much QRM). QSL via his home callsign direct. NO Bureau. PLEASE NOTE: This is not a DXpedition, but Shane's annual holiday - he will be operating the radio only as time permits and when doing so, training the locals in the operation of the equipment so please be patient and courteous. [ANS thanks Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 1344 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT CW Activity Day 2018 In Memory Of G3IOR You are cordially invited to participate in AMSAT's second annual CW Activity Day. It will be held from 0001 to 2400 UTC on January 1, 2018. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of Pat Gowen, G3IOR. The rules are very simple: there aren't any. Just operate CW through any amateur radio satellite. Straight keys and "bugs" are encouraged, but not required. The important thing is to get on the air and have fun. [ANS thanks Ray W2RS for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Radio Amateur Joins ISS Crew, Three Hams Now On Board The International Space Station crew is back to its nominal complement of six members, after Scott Tingle, KG5NZA, Anton Shkaplerov, and Norishige Kanai arrived on board early this week. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin is the new Expedition 54 commander. The other crew members are Mark Vande Hei, KG5GNP, and Joe Acaba, KE5DAR. On December 17, Tingle, Shkaplerov, and Kanai headed into space on board a Soyuz MS-07 vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [ANS thanks ARRL for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Officed Closed For Holiday The AMSAT Office is closed from Friday, Dec 22 - Friday, Jan 5th. Please check the website (amsat.org) for information. HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a VERY HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR. [ANS thanks Martha for the above information --------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 US Schools/Groups Move Into Phase 2 of ARISS Selections The ARISS-US Team (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) is pleased to announce that 13 of the 25 schools or organizations submitting proposals have been selected to advance to the next stage of planning to host amateur radio contacts in July to December 2018. The contacts will be with International Space Station (ISS) crew members using the ARISS equipment on the ISS. A review team of educators from the new ARISS-US Education Committee selected proposals after the recent proposal window closed. The groups will go forward into Phase 2, the submitting of an amateur radio equipment plan to host a scheduled ARISS contact. ARISS's primary goal is to engage young people in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities, and involve them in activities related to space exploration, amateur radio, communications, and areas of associated study and career possibilities. ARISS anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for these US host organizations during the second half of 2018. These candidates must now complete an equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by the ARISS technical team, the final selected schools / organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities. The schools and organizations are: Allen Park Elementary School, Lee County School District Ft. Myers FL Ashford School Ashford CT Bishop O'Connell High School Arlington VA Delcastle Technical High School Wilmington DE Hudson Memorial School Hudson NH Kopernik Observatory & Science Center Vestal NY Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School Santa Ana CA Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School Palmer MA Pearl Technology STEM Academy Peoria Heights IL Pell Elementary School Newport RI St. Catherine of Bologna School Ringwood NJ Tallmadge Community Learning Center Lancaster OH Valley High School Albuquerque NM 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 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Find more information at www.ariss.org, and also www.amsat.organd www.arrl.org. [ANS thanks David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite DXCC Awarded to K8YSE Congratulations to John Papay, K8YSE, who has been awarded satellite DXCC with 101 entities verified. The satellite DXCC standings are available at http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings While there is no way to be certain, John's satellite DXCC is likely the first to be obtained without the use of either HEO satellites or sub-horizon Mode K propagation since prior to the launch of AO-10 in 1983. Starting on satellites in 2006, John did not even enjoy the advantage of FO-20's higher LEO apogee or RS-15's high LEO orbit in his quest to work and confirm 100 DXCCs via satellite.This is certainly a noteworthy achievement! [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch AO-91 is open to all and works great! Now is a good time to join AMSAT and receive a free digital copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites"! Visit https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-membership/ and help AMSAT Keep Amateur Radio in Space. AMSAT is making our "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 182 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite. Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option. While there, check out our other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Thank you, and see you soon on AO-91! [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2017? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between Ashbury College, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Astronaut Joe Acaba KE5DAR using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-11-27 18:39 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Telebridge via VK4KHZ. ARISS Mentor was Steve VE3TBD. + A Successful contact was made between Huntley Centennial Public School, Carp, ON, Canada and Astronaut Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA using Callsign IR0ISS. The contact began 2017-11-28 18:46 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Telebridge via IK1SLD. ARISS Mentor was Steve VE3TBD. + A Successful contact was made between S.G.B. De La Salle, Rome, Italy and Astronaut Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-11-30 08:04 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Telebridge via W6SRJ. ARISS Mentor was Francesco IKØWGF. + A Successful contact was made between Istituto Comprensivo Luigi Nono, Mira, Italy and Astronaut Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-11-30 08:04 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Telebridge via W6SRJ. ARISS Mentor was Gianpietro IZ2GOJ. + A Successful contact was made between Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick, RI, USA and Astronaut Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA using Callsign IZ0ISS. The contact began 2017-11-30 17:02 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Telebridge via IK1SLD. ARISS Mentor was John K4SQC. + A Successful contact was made between School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering (EETAC), Castelldefels, Spain and Astronaut Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP using Callsign OR4ISS. The contact began 2017-12-04 15:10 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Direct via EG3UPC. ARISS Mentors were Marcelo IKØUSO primary/ Francesco IKØWGF backup. + A Successful contact was made between Shirokawa Elementary School, Seiyo, Japan and Astronaut Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-12-11 11:06 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Direct via 8J5SS. ARISS Mentor was Satoshi 7M3TJZ. + A Successful contact was made between Antietam Elementary School, Woodbridge, VA, USA and Astronaut Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP using Callsign NA1SS. The contact began 2017-12-11 18:30 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Direct via KM4TAY. ARISS Mentor was Dave AA4KN. + A Successful contact was made between Summa-Aldapeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain and Astronaut Joe Acaba KE5DAR using Callsign OR4ISS. The contact began 2017-12-12 13:01 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Direct via EG2SMA. ARISS Mentors were Marcelo IKØUSO primary/ Francesco IKØWGF backup. + A Successful contact was made between Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C. and Astronaut Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP using Callsign OR4ISS. The contact began 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was Direct via BNØSM. ARISS Mentor was Satoshi 7M3TJZ. [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Because of current high interest, here is the link for AMSAT's list of Station and Operating hints. https://www.amsat.org/station-and-operating-hints/ + FM Satellites: Good Operating Practices for Beginning and Experienced Operators Sean Kutzko, KX9X, has written a helpful document explaining good operating practices for working FM satellites. It's been posted to the AMSAT website at https://tinyurl.com/ANS358-FMSats A PDF version is also available at https://tinyurl.com/ANS358-FMSatsPDF --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. 73, This week's ANS Editor, EMike McCardel, AA8EM aa8em at amsat dot org

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Satellite DXCC
by rsoifer1＠aol.com 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

I agree with everything John, K8YSE, said, except that he's being too modest about what he has accomplished. AFAIK, John is one of only three living people to have made LEO DXCC, and one of only nine to have made it at all. One thing I would add to John's comment about AO-7: the importance of using Mode A. To get the best use of this mode, a good beam antenna that covers the high end of 10 meters is highly desirable. It helps, too, if the beam is on a fairly high tower. When I was chasing DXCC on Mode A, my 3-element 10-meter monobander was mounted at about 30 feet, and Ben, W2BXA, had his beam on a 70-foot tower. He could consistently hear and work stations as much as 200 miles farther away than I could. A short session with a great-circle map will illustrate the importance of this increased range. Why is Mode A so helpful? If your receiving system is good enough, Mode A produces ionospheric scatter that enables stations as much as 100-200 miles below the horizon to be heard, especially on CW where the weak, fluttery signals can still be copied. Mode A seems to have become something of a lost art these days, but not for long. The US Naval Academy's HFSAT, with its 15-meter to 10-meter transponder, is coming! 73 Ray W2RS

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ukube-1 transponder
by jack weimer 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

Ukube-1 transponder is working. I just had a contact with AA5PK Glenn in DM91 grid at 2127 Z when the beacon comes on it distorts the transponder downlink so you have to wait until the beacon quicks in order to hear the transponder downlink JACK KC7MG

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-22 20:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-22 20:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via BNØSM The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact was successful: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg (***) Exp. 52 back on earth! Congratulations to the crew for a job well done! (***) Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 54 on orbit Welcome aboard!. (***) Scott Tingle KG5NZA Norishige Kanai Alexander Skvortsov **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 127 (***) Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-22 20:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1200. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1149. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-22 20:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 52 back on earth! Congratulations to the crew for a job well done! (***) Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR Exp. 54 on orbit Welcome aboard!. (***) Scott Tingle KG5NZA Norishige Kanai Alexander Skvortsov **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Satellite DXCC Awarded to K8YSE
by Juan Antonio 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

A great effort is followed of a recognition, I am sure it is well-deserved. Thanks John for show us the right way. Enjoy it!! 73, Juan Antonio EA4CYQ --- El software de antivirus Avast ha analizado este correo electrónico en busca de virus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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ukube-1 tRANSPONDER
by alex weimer 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Ukube-1 transponder is working fine ! I just worked Glenn AA5PK at 2127 Z on Ukube-1 When the beacon transmits it takes over the transponder and you have to wait until the beacon stops to receive the downlink signal again !! JACK KC7MG

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UKube-1
by Frank G 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

HI all, Anyone know what happened to the linear transponder on UKube-1 ? Only the beacon has been on lately. Thanks Frank WA2NDV

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Satellite DXCC
by John Papay 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Thank you for all of the posts and emails regarding DXCC on the LEO's. But the credit really goes to all of the ops at the other end who were a part of those contacts. It's not always easy to work the low passes on AO-7, especially when that satellite is not having a good day. Thanks to those who listened in the noise and met for skeds day after day until a contact was finally made. And thanks to those that traveled to other countries with their satellite equipment to activate a new one. Many of these were family vacations and sacrifices were made to accommodate sat activities. Some operations were from areas that were not always safe; places where you did not venture out after dark, for example. There is always a risk when traveling. There are stories about many of the contacts, too many to detail. But the RI1F dxpedition to Viktoria Island in Franz Josef Land, Country Number 99, deserves mentioning. The team that traveled there in a small sailing vessel, spending days at sea, literally risked their lives to put that IOTA on the air. And the fact that they bothered to take EME/Satellite equipment with them, managing to work the birds from a most inhospitable island infested with polar bears and Walrus that viewed them as dinner is just amazing. In those situations you are on your own. Dialing 911 won't bring help. These are very brave operators! Thank you to everyone who helped make this DXCC possible. 73, John K8YSE John Papay john(a)papays.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Satellite DXCC
by Kevin M 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Right. The first seven were all issued prior to AO-10. For the record, the first to actually work 100 DXCC entities via satellite was Pat, G3IOR. He made heavy use of tropo scatter. Ever the good sport, Pat came over to the States and presented Ben, W2BXA, with Certificate No. 1 at the AMSAT AGM. 73 Ray W2RS Hey Ray... long time. I was AC5DK back on RS-12/13... I know we worked because as I recall you were on about every pass. X^D Anyway, I don't know if it was submitted for an official DXCC, but I seem to remember a CQ article about a DXer that worked 100 countries on RS-12/13 ALONE. Could be one of the guys that already had Sat DXCC and couldn't submit a second time. Just wondering if you remember that... Impressive use of the propagation skip tactic to work birds that were below local horizon. Quite an accomplishment by John!!! I'm not even sure I could figure out enough countries to work in any footprint to even reach 100! So good on him! 73, Kevin N4UFO

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WH6XM Hawaii
by alex weimer 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Bob, WH6XM in grid BK29 Hilo HI was on FO29 at 1729 Z .. Great signal although I only had a 7 degree max pass. Bob is looking for Stateside contacts and is usually on FO29 JACK KC7MG DM42 AZ.

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Satellite DXCC
by rsoifer1＠aol.com 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Hi Kevin, Yes, I was going hot and heavy back then, along with fellow members of NJDXA, all of us trying to work Satellite DXCC. Indeed, the whole idea of Satellite DXCC originated with Hayden Evans, K2BZT (SK), our club's man on the ARRL DXAC and in his professional life Director of Satellite Communications at Bell Labs. Unfortunately, Hayden passed away before he could get his SDXCC. If anyone actually worked DXCC on RS-12/13, it probably would have been Pat, G3IOR. As you said, Pat already had Satellite DXCC and was notoriously lax about collecting QSL cards. I know he was quite active on RS-12/13, but don't know for a fact how many he worked. As regular readers of AMSAT-BB know, we're going to get another Mode K satellite (15 up, 10 down), courtesy of Bob Bruninga's team at USNA. Maybe more DXCCs will be earned! 73 Ray W2RS

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Acknowledgment
by Stefan Wagener 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

I like to thank AMSAT, the board and the huge number of volunteers for a very successful, enjoyable, and enriching 2017. This organization has done a tremendous job in keeping "satellites in space". It allows us in enjoying a tremendous hobby and connecting with each other via satellites. Without leadership, satellites, and volunteers (and yes $$) this would not be possible. Thank you all! Have a Merry Christmas, a great holiday season and a successful 2018 to all of you! 73, Stefan, VE4NSA

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Office Closed
by Martha 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

The AMSAT Office is closed from Friday, Dec 22 - Friday, Jan 5th. Please check the website (amsat.org) for information. HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a VERY HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR. -- 73- Martha

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GAUSS - Season's Greetings
by GAUSS TEAM 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

*We wish you Happy Holidays and a Magnificent 2018, filled with prosperity! * *GAUSS Personnel* ----- *This email and any attachments to it are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed.* *If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone.* *Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error.* *GAUSS Srl* *Group of Astrodynamics for the Use of Space Systems* Via Sambuca Pistoiese 70 00138 Roma - ITALY +390697881440 website <http://www.gaussteam.com/> facebook <https://www.facebook.com/GaussSrl?fref=ts> twitter <https://twitter.com/gaussteam> linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/company/gauss-srl>

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Satellite DXCC
by rsoifer1＠aol.com 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

Not quite, Paul. At least eight Satellite DXCCs were earned without using HEO or Mode K. They were made using AO-6, AO-7 and the RS birds, some of which were slightly higher than AO-6/7. In the order they were issued, here are the first seven: W2BXA, W2LV, W1NU, G3IOR, WA2CBB, G6RH and W2YY. All are now SK except for CBB. The 8th one was mine, although I was slow to collect QSL cards and my certificate is No. 13. Congrats to John on being the next one! 73 Ray W2RS

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AO73 / FUNcube-1 Happy Holiday Mode
by Graham Shirville 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

Hi All, Just to report that AO73/FUNcube-1 is now operating in full time transponder mode and will continue in this mode until the evening of Wednesday 3rd January 2018. Please enjoy the transponder during this happy holiday period! Season's greetings from the whole FUNcube team. 73 Graham G3VZV General Info: AO-73 FUNcube-1 The transponder is normally operational only when the satellite is in eclipse, ie the solar panels are NOT being illuminated. During weekends (from pm Fridays UTC to PM Sundays UTC) the transponder is operational 24/7. When the transponder is switched off, the telemetry beacon is on full power, when the transponder is on the beacon it is on low power. The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.150 – 435.130 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.950 – 145.970 MHz USB Telemetry Tx: 145.935 MHz BPSK (The passband may be up to 15kHz higher depending on on-board temps. Lower temperatures give higher freqs!) FUNcube-2 (aka FUNcube on UKube) The FUNcube-2 sub-system continues to operate autonomously and, almost continuously, in amateur mode. The transponder is operational and the telemetry downlink is functioning with about 70mW output. The FUNcube-1 Dashboard does not correctly display the telemetry but it does correctly decode the data and uploads it to the FUNcube Data Warehouse from where it can be examined. Most of the real time data channels are operational and these include battery voltages, temperatures and ADCS data coming via the main On Board Computer (OBC). The transponder is interrupted for a few seconds every 2 minutes when the other transmitter sends its CW beacon and, occasionally, for a few seconds when the main OBC reboots (approx seven times each orbit). The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.080 – 435.060 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.930 – 145.950 MHz USB Telemetry Tx: 145.915 MHz BPSK (The passband may be up to 10kHz higher depending on on-board temps. Low temperatures give higher freqs!) EO79 Dec 2017 Update – As a result of on-board operational issues this transponder is NOT currently active. Due to power budget constraints the transponder cannot be operational 24/7 and an orbit specific schedule has been developed. The transponder will commence operation 27 minutes after the spacecraft enters sunlight and will stay on for a period of 25 minutes. This schedule may be modified in future months as a result of experience. The nominal transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.0723-435.0473 MHz LSB (Inverting) Downlink: 145.946-145.971 MHz USB EO88/Nayif-1/FUNcube-5 EO88 is presently operating in autonomous mode. The transponder is operational when the satellite is in eclipse, ie the solar panels are NOT being illuminated. When the transponder is switched off, the telemetry beacon is on full power, when the transponder is on the beacon it is on low power. The transponder frequencies are: Uplink: 435.045 – 435.015 MHz LSB (inverting) Downlink: 145.960-145.990 MHz USB Telemetry Tx: 145.940MHz

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more serial-USB adapter wars
by D. Craig Fox 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

First, congrats John, K8YSE on a remarkable accomplishment. Well done. I always enjoy connecting with you via space. I just finished a close to 2 week frustrating ordeal after my serial/usb adapter suddenly failed and SATPC stopped doing its magic. Im running a TS2K, SATPC and W7 pro on a Dell XPS with an I5 processor. Device manager showed a faulty Prolific driver. Many driver downloads later of the Prolific chip driver and the same for the driver in another Chinese chipped adapter, still no joy. I even ran other versions of SATPC. There has been much discussion in this forum about which are the best serial/usb adapters/chipsets. Some do well with prolific, others not so much. However, no one seems to have difficulty with the FTDI chipset. So I found a highly rated adapter with the FTDI chip on Amazon, loaded the drivers from the included disc, and.... no joy. I was ready to begin testing the serial port on my TS2K when I ran across a post on the TS2K yahoo group forum recommending use of the FTDI chip, but, most importantly, the writer recommended dumping the disc and downloading the most recent driver from www.ftdichip.com<http://www.ftdichip.com>. There it was. After re-booting everything, CAT kicked in and I was back in business. I write this because I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying different adapters, downloading drivers, rebooting in different order, and so forth until getting the right combination of FTDI chip and current driver for W7 pro. This issue has been discussed a lot here and on the TS2K yahoo group, but it bears repeating. If you are having similar issues, perhaps you can benefit from my time spent chasing this down. 73s and happy holidays to my many sat friends! Craig N6RSX Ps- I had the pleasure of being one of the contacts with NA1SS (Col. Doug Wheelock) in that NASA vid posted by KA2UPW/5

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Re: [amsat-bb] Has anyone made a satellite QSO with an orbiting ISS astronaut?
by Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

At 08:35 AM 12/21/2017 -0600, you wrote: >Has anyone ever had a successful two-way QSO with an orbiting ISS >astronaut through an amateur radio satellite transponder? > >Regards, >Douglas KA2UPW/5 I mis-read the question. Sorry,

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Satellite DXCC Awarded to K8YSE
by Paul Stoetzer 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

Congratulations to John Papay, K8YSE, who has been awarded satellite DXCC with 101 entities verified. The satellite DXCC standings are available at http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings While there is no way to be certain, John's satellite DXCC is likely the first to be obtained without the use of either HEO satellites or sub-horizon Mode K propagation since prior to the launch of AO-10 in 1983. Starting on satellites in 2006, John did not even enjoy the advantage of FO-20's higher LEO apogee or RS-15's high LEO orbit in his quest to work and confirm 100 DXCCs via satellite.This is certainly a noteworthy achievement! 73, Paul, N8HM (77 satellite DXCCs worked and counting!)

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satellite dxcc for K8YSE
by alex weimer 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

Congratulations John ! Great achievement ! JACK KC7MG

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Falconsat-3 software reload
by Andrew Glasbrenner 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

Falconsat-3 will be undergoing a software reload the next several days. The satellite will likely be off except for over the eastern US. Please do not transmit to the BBS or Digipeater until we let you know we've completed the reload. Thanks and 73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT VP Operations

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New QSL from Athenoxat-1
by Roland Zurmely 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

The transmission was made in two parts ! <http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/athenoxat.htm#h> 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ

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My old Oscar-10 documents
by Phil Karn 20 Dec '17

20 Dec '17

I've been scanning and categorizing my stacks of paper files, and I've been working on old AMSAT documents from the early 1980s. I have a good pile of stuff on Phase 3-B/Oscar-10 that might be of interest to the old-timers among you (and maybe of archeological interest to others). I'll be placing these documents in raw form on my personal website. There's no index or HTML framing at the moment, but hopefully the file names are at least slightly descriptive. Watch http://www.ka9q.net/amsat/Oscar-10 73, Phil

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P3E - progress ???
by Dale Kubichek 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

I read a few months ago that the P3E project has come back to life and it was closer to launching. I cannot find any data on AMSAT-NA web (in this reincarnation). What is the status of P3E (the semi-geosynchronous bird) to in affect replace AO-40? What is the status of FOX1C & D too? Best regards, Dale Kubichek, MS-EET, N6JSX

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C on 21 Dec.. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 08:49 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and BN0SM. The contact should be audible over Taiwan and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. In 1972, our school was established as branch of Nanmen Elementary School in response to the development of the city; and became an independent school in 1973. Our school is located in the center of the city, with convenient transportation, and is close to the City Hall and District Office. Our school district is home to the Municipal Bureau of Cultural Affairs and many other organizations, which make for surroundings rich in cultural resources. Education Concept Students First: Use Flipped Education to restore students of autonomy in learning and equip them with skills for the future. Teachers First: Use a high-quality education system to give teachers space to put all their talents and passion into play. Reform the education system to upgrade teachers of teaching. Parents First: Amid reforming policies, work with parents to improve education for the children. Turn parents into partners of the teachers on the journey of education. Environments First: Construct action learning, international vision, and independent studying to create a learning environment where students can learn anywhere anytime. Total Number of Pupils: 1445 (Grade 1~Grade 6) Total Number of Classes: 59 Total Number of Teachers & Staffs: 115 Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. Are there aliens in outer space? 2. How much time on earth is one hour in space? 3. If I want to be an astronaut, what do I need to do? 4. We know that the water in ISS is recycled from your urine, do you drink it? How does it taste like? 5. How do you train your body to stay healthy? 6. Which material is a space station made out of? 7. Do you get bored on the ISS? 8. How do you live and sleep in space? 9. What is the most difficult aspect of an astronaut? 10. What is the hardest thing you`ve experienced for the first time in ISS? 11. Does food taste the same in space? 12. Is it comfortable in a spacesuit? 13. What do you fear most in space? Why? 14. What is your daily work when you are in ISS? 15. What do you like to do in space in your leisure time? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD 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 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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PCSat32 Frequency Calibration.
by Jason Rearick 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

Group, I spent most of my weekend working on my little SSB satellite station. I am now up and running using a FT-817 for uplink, SRDPlay with SDR Console software for downlink, Arrow antenna, and PCSat32. It was a little bit of a struggle getting all communicating but I now have it working, and even made some contacts on AO-7, and one of the XW-2 sats. (thanks WU2M for working me on three different sats this weekend) I am having an issue with calibration on using PCSat32. One of the passes this weekend I noticed I was coming down about 800 - 1200 hz above the station I was receiving, another time I was about that same amount below. I read through the help file for PCSat and the next pass I raised my uplink freq. so it would lower my freq. in the downlink bandpass. I also then had to put in a correction for my downlink frequency. After doing this, I was really close to the zero beating the station I worked. The next satellite I tried, I was off again by 1000-1500 k! Hz. Is this something I will have to do every pass, for every satellite, or will this offset be saved in PCSat32 in the future passes. Right now I am running PCSat in Demo mode, and have paid for registration and waiting for my key to be emailed. Will things work better once I get it running as registered copy? Thank for your time and advice. 73 Jason Rearick N3YUG

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ARISS News Release No. 17-11
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 18 Dec '17

18 Dec '17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ARISS NEWS RELEASE No. 17-10 13 US Schools/Groups Move Into Phase 2 of ARISS Selections December 18, 2017 - The ARISS-US Team (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) is pleased to announce that 13 of the 25 schools or organizations submitting proposals have been selected to advance to the next stage of planning to host amateur radio contacts in July to December 2018. The contacts will be with International Space Station (ISS) crew members using the ARISS equipment on the ISS. A review team of educators from the new ARISS-US Education Committee selected proposals after the recent proposal window closed. The groups will go forward into Phase 2, the submitting of an amateur radio equipment plan to host a scheduled ARISS contact. ARISS's primary goal is to engage young people in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities, and involve them in activities related to space exploration, amateur radio, communications, and areas of associated study and career possibilities. ARISS anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for these US host organizations during the second half of 2018. These candidates must now complete an equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by the ARISS technical team, the final selected schools / organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities. The schools and organizations are: Allen Park Elementary School, Lee County School District Ft. Myers FL Ashford School Ashford CT Bishop O'Connell High School Arlington VA Delcastle Technical High School Wilmington DE Hudson Memorial School Hudson NH Kopernik Observatory & Science Center Vestal NY Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School Santa Ana CA Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School Palmer MA Pearl Technology STEM Academy Peoria Heights IL Pell Elementary School Newport RI St. Catherine of Bologna School Ringwood NJ Tallmadge Community Learning Center Lancaster OH Valley High School Albuquerque NM 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 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Find more information at www.ariss.org, and also www.amsat.organd www.arrl.org. ### Contact: David Jordan, AA4KN ARISS PR aa4kn(a)amsat.org (321) 662-9486 www.amsat.org --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Satellite tracking
by Francis Geraci 18 Dec '17

18 Dec '17

Gentlemen, Scholars and Sky Commanders, I have a rather perplexing issue with tracking AO-91. I have been enjoying Satellites since the RS series, and I earned the Amsat Achievement Award. So, I'm not a "noobee" I have been trying to copy AO-91 since she was launched using HRD sat tracker, with no success. It passes overhead, EL94MS, roughly the same time everyday, and have never heard it. Today, doubting HRD, I ran Amsat satellite tracking Web based tracker alongside HRD and AmsatDroid on my phone. I showed me HRD was "lagging" behind Amsat tracking by a full 3 minutes !! My "keps" are current, clock is "synched". As you all know, 3 minutes is a "lifetime" in satellite tracking. Amsat Web and Amsat Droid were "synched", probably using the same data set. WHO IS RIGHT ? I guess I'll set up another laptop and run SatPC32 and "pull" from some other Web trackers. I'm confined to trying to Listen for now. As You all know "If Ya can't hear Em, Ya can't work Em". Geezee, Am I showing My age. Best to You all "functioning Brains" out there. ESPECIALLY, the "Fox" Team. Thanks for a great Bird. Francis - De.. WB1FXX

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First QSL sent by ATX-1 !
by Roland Zurmely 18 Dec '17

18 Dec '17

Received today the first QSL card sent directly from Athenoxat-1 : <http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/athenoxat.htm#g> 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ

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The Unofficial AMSAT D-STAR net.
by Endaf Buckley 17 Dec '17

17 Dec '17

The Unofficial AMSAT D-STAR net Monday at 03:30 UTC on Reflector 9C. This is not affiliated with AMSAT and is just an informal round table type net discussing all things satellite and more.

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Fwd: AMSAT CW ACTIVITY DAY
by rsoifer1＠aol.com 17 Dec '17

17 Dec '17

-----Original Message----- From: rsoifer1 <rsoifer1(a)aol.com> To: ans-editor <ans-editor(a)amsat.org> Sent: Mon, Dec 11, 2017 7:25 am Subject: AMSAT CW ACTIVITY DAY AMSAT CW ACTIVITY DAY 2018 IN MEMORY OF G3IOR \ You are cordially invited to participate in AMSAT's second annual CW Activity Day. It will be held from 0001 to 2400 UTC on January 1, 2018. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of Pat Gowen, G3IOR. The rules are very simple: there aren't any. Just operate CW through any amateur radio satellite. Straight keys and "bugs" are encouraged, but not required. The important thing is to get on the air and have fun. CU on January 1st! 73 Ray W2RS

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ANS-351 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Chris Bradley 17 Dec '17

17 Dec '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-351 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * November/December 2017 Apogee View Column Posted on the AMSAT Web * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC * Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch * Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA * Satellite Activity From Azores Islands on Christmas * December 20 Launch for HA-1 CubeSat with FM transponder and SSTV * Information for Requesting UT1FG/MM QSL Cards * Two-Part Video Demonstration Working AO-91 from Down Under * AMSAT Awards Update * KG5CCI and F4DXV 7,634.775 km QSO Sets New Distance Record on FO-29 * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-351.01 ANS-344 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 351.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE December 10, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-351.01 November/December 2017 Apogee View Column Posted on the AMSAT Web The November/December 2017 edition of Apogee View, a comprehensive bimonthly update of AMSAT's activities written by AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, has been posted on the AMSAT website. https://www.amsat.org/apogeeview/ [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via BNØSM (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg ********************************************************************* ******* ** 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 http://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? 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 ********************************************************************* ******* ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 ********************************************************************* ******* 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. 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 2017-12-13 09:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1199. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1148. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS ********************************************************************* ******* The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_cor rection .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 ********************************************************************* ******* Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch AO-91 is open to all and works great! Now is a good time to join AMSAT and receive a free digital copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites"! Visit https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-membership/ and help AMSAT Keep Amateur Radio in Space. AMSAT is making our "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 182 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite. Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option. While there, check out our other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Thank you, and see you soon on AO-91! [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2017? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Activity From Azores Islands on Christmas Pedro, CU2ZG says he will be active on satellites from grid square HM58 on Christmas. His equipment will include an Alaskan Arrow antenna, Yaesu FT-817ND, Yaesu FT-857D, Kenwood TS-2000 and a Wouxun KG-UV9DPlus. Most of the operation will be done using the TS-2000. Expected operating days are December 23 and 24, plus December 25 during the afternoon/evening hours. Pedro says this will be a family holiday and skeds will be accepted depending on his availability. His exact location will be HM58qm, at the CU7BC QTH (check QRZ.com) Watch his twitter account (@pdsousa) for updates. [ANS thanks Pedro, CU2ZG for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- December 20 Launch for HA-1 CubeSat with FM transponder and SSTV The IARU has announced frequency coordination has been completed for HA-1, a 2U CubeSat developed by the Teenagers Amateur Radio Center of Activity in Huaian, China. HA-1 is planned for launch on December 20. HA-1 will be mainly used for teenagers in Huaian to carry out activities related with amateur radio and aerospace science education. The cubesat is equipped with amateur radio repeater and SSTV(Slow Scan Television) component, which is to validate still image transmission in narrowband voice channel. There is an SSTV beacon, which puts Date/Time/Location information/temp- erature etc on a SSTV picture. Amateurs worldwide can also use HA-1 to test SSTV via the cubesat. Uplink: 145.930 MHz FM Downlink: 436.950 MHz FM Telemetry: 437.350 MHz 9k6 BPSK [ANS thanks the IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Information for Requesting UT1FG/MM QSL Cards John, K8YSE, posted a message on the amsat-bb on behalf of Yuri, UT1FG/MM currently at sea aboard the MV Seahorse, "Yuri has asked that anyone who has not received confirmations from this year and previous year's operations to prepare logsheets so that he can mail them out when he arrives in New Orleans." John has posted an Excel Spreadsheet for you to enter your log data plus an example of a completed log sheet at: http://www.papays.com/sat/ut1fgqsl.html John's web page includes instructions to prepare your logsheet of QSO's that Yuri can print, verify, sign and mail from one of his destination ports. E-mail your logsheet to John at the address he lists in his instructions. John will send an acknowledgement email when he receives your request. This way you will know that Yuri will have your logsheet. Marinetraffic.com anticipates a December 15-16 arrival in New Orleans. John requests you send your logsheet QSL request as soon as possible so Yuri will have time to get them ready for mailing. Yuri's current ship, Seahorse, is a relatively new ship and is wider than previous vessels he has captained so it cannot go through the locks in the Great Lakes. On this voyage he will be more restricted as to possible destinations than he was last season. John concluded, "Yuri has been very busy with his duties and has had little time for anything else. He sends his regards to all." [ANS thanks John Papay, K8YSE for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two-Part Video Demonstration Working AO-91 from Down Under Peter Parker, VK3YE, has published two excellent introduction to amateur satellites videos. Note that some of the QSO customs shown are a little different than the common practice in Europe and North America, but the tips are still generally applicable. Peter, VK3YE, describes his two-part video demonstration as, "A new amateur satellite has just gone up and it's super easy to work. You just need a pair of handhelds on 2m & 70cm FM. Watch this video to find out how to make contacts through AO91 with equipment you probably already have." Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astteV2umOg Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNB7Nc4HFYs&feature=youtu.be [ANS thanks Peter Parker, VK3YE, and Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Awards Update We have a good list of recipients this time for the AMSAT Awards. This will also be the last update for 2017. With the new satellites this year and a crop of new ones coming in 2018 there will be a lot of operating going on. AMSAT Satellite Communicators Award for making their first satellite QSO Perikles Monioudis, HB9IQB Tae-Ryon Kim, DS5DNO Lawrence Witker, KE8BHX Adam Zabrowski, W8OOO Robert Twigg, KE8GDD Dan Howard, VA3MA ------ AMSAT Communications Achievement Award Ed Poccia, KC2LM, #579 ------ AMSAT Sexagesimal Award Adrian Liggins, VA3NNA, $180 Mac Cody, AE5PH, #181 ------ AMSAT Century Club Award George Carr, WA5KBH, #53 ------ AMSAT Robert W. Barbee Jr., W4AMI Award Carlo Morandi, IK4JQQ, #93 Mac Cody, AE5PH, #94 ------ Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards [ANS thanks Peter Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- KG5CCI and F4DXV 7,634.775 km QSO Sets New Distance Record on FO-29 David Swanson, KG5CCI, and Jerome Lecuyer, F4DXV completed a 7,634.775 km QSO on December 12 via FO-29. This eclipses their previous record on that satellite by 26.62 km and greatly exceeds the theoretical maximum range of the satellite, which is calculated at 7,502 km. Video of the QSO as recorded by F4DXV can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPe9wSOvAY&feature=youtu.be [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Did you know you can help AMSAT by logging into your Amazon account using http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-0888529 to designate AMSAT-NA as the organization of your choice. When shopping on-line you must use the URL http://smile.amazon.com for AMSAT to receive the donation from your purchases. + 2017: FUNcube Status and New Developments - Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG walks us through the whole FUNcube family of spacecraft at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Milton Keynes, October 15th 2017. Watch on-line at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELFoLtm44Kc&feature=share + While waiting for the next satellite pass have a listen at http://www.livemeteors.com/ to hear meteor pings as they happen. The pings are a bit more frequent during the popular meteor showers. + Hackaday posted an article showing how to build your own azimuth- elevation rotor: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344-HackadayRotor (via Bernhard, VA6BMJ) + The 3Y0Z DXpedition Team on Bouvet Island is asking the amateur radio community to help with flying costs. See the details on the web: http://www.bouvetdx.org/news-and-updates/ + European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA, is compiling TimeLapseADay videos and is sharing them on-line. These can be found on his playlist posted on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344TimeLapseADay + The December 2017 issue of SatMagazine has been posted at: http://www.satmagazine.com/ Vytenis Buzas LY1ZY features in this issue, see pages 76-77. + Read about new analysis of the famous Hubble Deep Field images and watch a video scan across the Deep Field. Each of those blobs and dots is a galaxy. See: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344-UniverseToday --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. And, with that consider that bowling is more advantageous than golf since you rarely lose a bowling ball. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Chris Bradley, AA5EM aa5em at amsat dot org

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ANS-351 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Chris Bradley 17 Dec '17

17 Dec '17

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-351 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * November/December 2017 Apogee View Column Posted on the AMSAT Web * Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC * Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch * Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA * Satellite Activity From Azores Islands on Christmas * December 20 Launch for HA-1 CubeSat with FM transponder and SSTV * Information for Requesting UT1FG/MM QSL Cards * Two-Part Video Demonstration Working AO-91 from Down Under * AMSAT Awards Update * KG5CCI and F4DXV 7,634.775 km QSO Sets New Distance Record on FO-29 * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-351.01 ANS-344 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 351.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE December 10, 2017 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-351.01 November/December 2017 Apogee View Column Posted on the AMSAT Web The November/December 2017 edition of Apogee View, a comprehensive bimonthly update of AMSAT's activities written by AMSAT President Joe Spier, K6WAO, has been posted on the AMSAT website. https://www.amsat.org/apogeeview/ [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via BNØSM (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg ********************************************************************* ******* ** 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 http://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? 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 ********************************************************************* ******* ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 ********************************************************************* ******* 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. 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 2017-12-13 09:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1199. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1148. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS ********************************************************************* ******* The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_cor rection .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 ********************************************************************* ******* Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Special Membership Offer Continues for RadFxSat/AO-91 Launch AO-91 is open to all and works great! Now is a good time to join AMSAT and receive a free digital copy of "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites"! Visit https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-membership/ and help AMSAT Keep Amateur Radio in Space. AMSAT is making our "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book available for a limited time as a download with any paid new or renewal membership purchased via the AMSAT Store. This offer is only available with purchases completed online, and for only a limited time. A perennial favorite, Getting Started is updated every year with the latest amateur satellite information, and is the premier primer of satellite operation. The 182 page book is presented in PDF format, in full color, and covers all aspects of making your first contacts on a ham radio satellite. Please take advantage of this offer today by visiting the AMSAT store at https://www.amsat.org/shop/ and selecting any membership option. While there, check out our other items, including the M2 LEOpack antenna system, Arrow antennas, AMSAT shirts, and other swag. Thank you, and see you soon on AO-91! [ANS thanks Paul N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA Are you over 70-1/2 years of age and need to meet your IRA's Required Minimum Distribution for 2017? Consider making a donation to AMSAT! Under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, individuals over 70-1/2 years of age may make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from a traditional IRA to an eligible charity without increasing their taxable income. Consult your tax advisor or accountant to make certain you are eligible. AMSAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational and scientific organization whose purpose is to design, construct, launch, and operate satellites in space and to provide the support needed to encourage amateurs to utilize these resources. AMSAT's federal tax ID is 52-0888529. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Activity From Azores Islands on Christmas Pedro, CU2ZG says he will be active on satellites from grid square HM58 on Christmas. His equipment will include an Alaskan Arrow antenna, Yaesu FT-817ND, Yaesu FT-857D, Kenwood TS-2000 and a Wouxun KG-UV9DPlus. Most of the operation will be done using the TS-2000. Expected operating days are December 23 and 24, plus December 25 during the afternoon/evening hours. Pedro says this will be a family holiday and skeds will be accepted depending on his availability. His exact location will be HM58qm, at the CU7BC QTH (check QRZ.com) Watch his twitter account (@pdsousa) for updates. [ANS thanks Pedro, CU2ZG for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- December 20 Launch for HA-1 CubeSat with FM transponder and SSTV The IARU has announced frequency coordination has been completed for HA-1, a 2U CubeSat developed by the Teenagers Amateur Radio Center of Activity in Huaian, China. HA-1 is planned for launch on December 20. HA-1 will be mainly used for teenagers in Huaian to carry out activities related with amateur radio and aerospace science education. The cubesat is equipped with amateur radio repeater and SSTV(Slow Scan Television) component, which is to validate still image transmission in narrowband voice channel. There is an SSTV beacon, which puts Date/Time/Location information/temp- erature etc on a SSTV picture. Amateurs worldwide can also use HA-1 to test SSTV via the cubesat. Uplink: 145.930 MHz FM Downlink: 436.950 MHz FM Telemetry: 437.350 MHz 9k6 BPSK [ANS thanks the IARU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Information for Requesting UT1FG/MM QSL Cards John, K8YSE, posted a message on the amsat-bb on behalf of Yuri, UT1FG/MM currently at sea aboard the MV Seahorse, "Yuri has asked that anyone who has not received confirmations from this year and previous year's operations to prepare logsheets so that he can mail them out when he arrives in New Orleans." John has posted an Excel Spreadsheet for you to enter your log data plus an example of a completed log sheet at: http://www.papays.com/sat/ut1fgqsl.html John's web page includes instructions to prepare your logsheet of QSO's that Yuri can print, verify, sign and mail from one of his destination ports. E-mail your logsheet to John at the address he lists in his instructions. John will send an acknowledgement email when he receives your request. This way you will know that Yuri will have your logsheet. Marinetraffic.com anticipates a December 15-16 arrival in New Orleans. John requests you send your logsheet QSL request as soon as possible so Yuri will have time to get them ready for mailing. Yuri's current ship, Seahorse, is a relatively new ship and is wider than previous vessels he has captained so it cannot go through the locks in the Great Lakes. On this voyage he will be more restricted as to possible destinations than he was last season. John concluded, "Yuri has been very busy with his duties and has had little time for anything else. He sends his regards to all." [ANS thanks John Papay, K8YSE for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two-Part Video Demonstration Working AO-91 from Down Under Peter Parker, VK3YE, has published two excellent introduction to amateur satellites videos. Note that some of the QSO customs shown are a little different than the common practice in Europe and North America, but the tips are still generally applicable. Peter, VK3YE, describes his two-part video demonstration as, "A new amateur satellite has just gone up and it's super easy to work. You just need a pair of handhelds on 2m & 70cm FM. Watch this video to find out how to make contacts through AO91 with equipment you probably already have." Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astteV2umOg Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNB7Nc4HFYs&feature=youtu.be [ANS thanks Peter Parker, VK3YE, and Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Awards Update We have a good list of recipients this time for the AMSAT Awards. This will also be the last update for 2017. With the new satellites this year and a crop of new ones coming in 2018 there will be a lot of operating going on. AMSAT Satellite Communicators Award for making their first satellite QSO Perikles Monioudis, HB9IQB Tae-Ryon Kim, DS5DNO Lawrence Witker, KE8BHX Adam Zabrowski, W8OOO Robert Twigg, KE8GDD Dan Howard, VA3MA ------ AMSAT Communications Achievement Award Ed Poccia, KC2LM, #579 ------ AMSAT Sexagesimal Award Adrian Liggins, VA3NNA, $180 Mac Cody, AE5PH, #181 ------ AMSAT Century Club Award George Carr, WA5KBH, #53 ------ AMSAT Robert W. Barbee Jr., W4AMI Award Carlo Morandi, IK4JQQ, #93 Mac Cody, AE5PH, #94 ------ Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards [ANS thanks Peter Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- KG5CCI and F4DXV 7,634.775 km QSO Sets New Distance Record on FO-29 David Swanson, KG5CCI, and Jerome Lecuyer, F4DXV completed a 7,634.775 km QSO on December 12 via FO-29. This eclipses their previous record on that satellite by 26.62 km and greatly exceeds the theoretical maximum range of the satellite, which is calculated at 7,502 km. Video of the QSO as recorded by F4DXV can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPe9wSOvAY&feature=youtu.be [ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Did you know you can help AMSAT by logging into your Amazon account using http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-0888529 to designate AMSAT-NA as the organization of your choice. When shopping on-line you must use the URL http://smile.amazon.com for AMSAT to receive the donation from your purchases. + 2017: FUNcube Status and New Developments - Wouter Weggelaar, PA3WEG walks us through the whole FUNcube family of spacecraft at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Milton Keynes, October 15th 2017. Watch on-line at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELFoLtm44Kc&feature=share + While waiting for the next satellite pass have a listen at http://www.livemeteors.com/ to hear meteor pings as they happen. The pings are a bit more frequent during the popular meteor showers. + Hackaday posted an article showing how to build your own azimuth- elevation rotor: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344-HackadayRotor (via Bernhard, VA6BMJ) + The 3Y0Z DXpedition Team on Bouvet Island is asking the amateur radio community to help with flying costs. See the details on the web: http://www.bouvetdx.org/news-and-updates/ + European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, IZØJPA, is compiling TimeLapseADay videos and is sharing them on-line. These can be found on his playlist posted on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344TimeLapseADay + The December 2017 issue of SatMagazine has been posted at: http://www.satmagazine.com/ Vytenis Buzas LY1ZY features in this issue, see pages 76-77. + Read about new analysis of the famous Hubble Deep Field images and watch a video scan across the Deep Field. Each of those blobs and dots is a galaxy. See: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-344-UniverseToday --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information. And, with that consider that bowling is more advantageous than golf since you rarely lose a bowling ball. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Chris Bradley, AA5EM aa5em at amsat dot org

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SATPC32
by radiomb 17 Dec '17

17 Dec '17

Does the current version of SATPC32 run on Windows 10? Thanks and 73, Mike K4MIA

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Wouxun KG-UV8D
by jim＠beeson.cc 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

Does anyone use the Wouxun RG-UV8D handie for any sats? If so would you mind sharing your program (.KG) file? Thanks! 73's Jim WA5QAP

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Satellite radio's query
by Francis Geraci 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

>From WB1FXX - Marathon, Fla. In the past there had been a discussion about different satellite radio's, who produces them and their availability. I recently purchased a IC-9100 just for satellite operations. I have not seen much discussion about this radio on the Amsat BB. I am curious why this radio has hardly been mentioned. It seems to be the perfect replacement for my aging IC-821. Even has the "funny" little knobs, like the 821, that control the RF power and mic gain. The IC-9100 has the look and feel of a "real" radio. Is it the price ? $2100.00 USD ? Not the cheapest rig out there. The IC-7610 is "flying" off the shelves at $3900.00 USD. Can't be about the price ! Thanks for any comments - WB1FXX

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Rocket Lab Launch Analysis from Tuesday's attempt
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

Rocket have released their analysis from Tuesday. “Analysis of yesterday's launch attempt is complete. Launch was aborted due to rising liquid oxygen temperatures - the result of a LOx chilldown bleed schedule not compatible with the warm conditions of the day. The fix is simple. Next attempt tomorrow! #StillTesting “. Well it was about 30 degrees C (86 F) at the Launch site and the rocket is black. The weather forecast for the launch site today is for showers this morning but clearing this afternoon. First rain for about a month. See: https://twitter.com/RocketLab for updates. 73, Terry ZL2BAC

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APRS birds
by Sean Waite 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

Hi all, There was a comment on the recent experimenters thread about using the APRS birds. I'm new at this game - I've made 2 satellite QSOs so far - and would love to know more. Is there a good document on how to use these satellites, and maybe some tips on how to get a TH-D72A to do it? I've only used it to beacon APRS, messaging with the service isn't something I've tried. Thanks and 73, Sean WA1TE

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Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT Embroidered Cap ?
by Stephen E. Belter 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

Stan, We normally sell embroidered caps at the Dayton Hamvention. Inventory not sold at the Hamvention is then sold on the AMSAT store. The hat was very popular this year; the few not sold at the Hamvention went quickly from the store. If you’re not going to Hamvention, pay close attention to the store in late May. 73, Steve N9IP -- Steve Belter, seb(a)wintek.com On 12/14/17, 6:10 PM, "AMSAT-BB on behalf of Stan Musick" <amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org on behalf of W5PDQ(a)outlook.com> wrote: >Hello, > >Has AMSAT ever had an embroidered cap available? >Does anyone know if they have plans in the future to have any available? > > Thanks, > Stan, W5PDQ > >_______________________________________________ >Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available >to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. >Opinions expressed >are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of >AMSAT-NA. >Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! >Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on AO-91
by radiomb 16 Dec '17

16 Dec '17

I have only made a few contacts on the FM birds, so a very newbie. Ramping up quickly with my Christmas wish list for linear birds. If SSTV has run its course, please do not stop all together. Maybe can rotate different weeks of the month for experimental day. I have only heard one SSTV picture on the bird a few weeks back but remember it well. Still remember my 1st HF SSTV contact Ivory Coast. I think keeping SSTV some weeks may get a few more people interested in satellites, just like ISS SSTV. Sure wish the US would send as many ISS pictures as the Russians. I do not understand that either. 73 Mike K4MIA

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A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on AO-91
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hi! Now that AO-91 has been going strong for about 3 weeks, maybe it is time to come up with something for it on Experimenter's Wednesdays, like we have seen with SSTV on AO-85. Although I think the SSTV has run its course and maybe something else should be tried, I'm not suggesting any particular change to AO-85 on Wednesdays. This is only intended as a suggestion for AO-91. After Sean KX9X published his recent document with a list of good operating practices for FM satellites: https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellites-good-operating-practices-for-beginning-… my suggestion would be a way to encourage this, especially focusing on one item. I tweeted a little earlier this afternoon the following: "An AO-91 Experimenter's Wednesday suggestion: 5W or less, ideally using HTs or portable setups & handheld directional antennas or whips/duckies. Let's take full advantage of how well this satellite hears & can be heard on the ground." One comment I received on Twitter questioned having something for Experimenter's Wednesdays on both AO-85 and AO-91, suggesting that another day of the week should be used for AO-91. I disagreed with that, given that it is "Experimenter's Wednesday". Unlike with AO-85 where the focus has been SSTV, my suggestion would still allow for FM voice QSOs on AO-91 - but with a focus on using less power and smaller stations. This would also go directly to the recommendations that were recently published. For those who may be concerned about doing something like this on 2 of the 3 FM satellites, there has been Experimenter's Wednesday SSTV activity for a while now. Most of the time, this has been done when we only had two working FM satellites (AO-85, SO-50). Maybe we could see some coast-to-coast QSOs on AO-91 where both stations are using power levels at 50mW or 100mW, for example. Thanks, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for ... Emergency Comms - 1200 bd 10m uplink.
by Robert Bruninga 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Actually, why wait till Experimental Wednesdays. 1200 baud AX.25 packet is legal uplink for PSAT's 28.120 USB uplink and 435.350 downlink (unless I misread the rules). SO I will say that such experiments are welcome on PSAT as long as there is little to no other PSK31 activity in the 1000 to 2400 Hz tones on the air at the time of the experiment. Doppler during a 1 second packet burst will be insignificant.... OOPS, insignificant, but critical. One has to pre-shift your uplink so that your downlink does come down at the standard 1200 baud AFSK tones of 1200,2200 Hz. I guess the key there is to transmit your PSK31 "pilot" signal for a few seconds at say 500 Hz on the uplink, adjust your uplink Transmitter RF to verify you see it at 500 Hz in the downlink and then transmit the packet. I'd love to see this transponder used more. But again, the uplink is shared with terrestrial PSK31, so share the band. You can verify a clear band by looking (or listening) in the downlink if there are ANY PSK31 users in the 1000 to 2400 Hz bandwidth prior to transmitting. Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: Robert Bruninga [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 10:03 AM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Cc: Robert Bruninga Subject: A suggestion for ... Emergency Comms - APRS... Such a highly compressed method of satellite encoding exists called APRS. >> ... the limiting factor for using LEO satellites as an Emergency >> Response of any scale, would the short amount of time of a given pass >> and the limited number of usable passes a day... > But, us ingenious ham radio operator types perhaps have the basis of > sending compressed data which conveys a lot of information. > Packed into the bytes of telemetry messages ... > How about a predefined disaster status data stream that all shelters... Use the APRS Object for a SHELTER. Just one packet can contain the position, time and date of the report, and up to 47 bytes of useful info such as 1) head count of staff 2) head count of victims 3) electrical power 4)drinking water 5) more supplies needed 6) need critical assistance. > Conversely, if multiple LEO satellites support a disaster-status protocol.. They do. APRS is currently on 3 sateliltes... PSAT, ISS and PCSAT and soon to be QIKCOM2 and PSAT2 and BRICSAT2... And TJHS hicghschool cubesat, etc > We'd need future cubesat missions capable of supporting a disaster telemetry stream. We have it. See the SATT4 single card APRS transponder. We invite every school or university that is contemplating a CUBESAT to consider using this transponder for their command and control which also provides the APRS transponder as well. Cost is under $300 or so. See http://aprs.org/satt4.html Bob, WB4aPR

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AO73/FUNcube-1 Mode
by Graham Shirville 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hi All, Just to confirm that AO73/FUNcube-1 is now in continuous transponder mode for the weekend as usual. Have FUN 73 Graham G3VZV

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Odd TH-D74 behavior
by Brent Taylor 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hi everyone, Yesterday (Thursday), while on my whirlwind FN87/77 grid activation trip, I ran into a frustrating thing with my TH-D74. Wanting to use (Bose QC15) noise cancelling headphones for my downlink audio, I used a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adapter pigtail to take the "SP" audio off the side of the radio and feed it into the headphones, while using my VX-8GR for full duplex transmit (for AO-91). The problem: every time I plugged the pigtail into the side of the D74, its frequency would change and the ability to QSY back to the intended downlink frequency would be severely limited or even prevented altogether. I wanted to be in VFO mode, for instance, and plugging the pigtail into the speaker jack immediately took me to memory channel recall mode, on an apparently random channel, and then prevent the selection of another memory or a return to VFO mode. So I thought I'd fix that problem by locking the radio with the long press on the "F" key. No change in behaviour. The frequency change still happened every time I plugged in to the speaker jack. The problem sometimes occurred immediately upon plugging in, but sometimes it would work fine on VFO mode for a few seconds before the changeover. I will continue to fiddle with it to set put exact behaviors in varying circumstances. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar problem. What I ended up doing was going without headphones altogether and just listening to the D74 out of its own speaker, in the wind, with feedback on the uplink when I transmitted. Sorry about that mess! 73 Brent -- Brent Taylor, VY2HF / W1PJ Stratford, PEI, Canada

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WD9EWK from DM23/DM24 line tomorrow (& maybe a little more...)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hi! Tomorrow (Saturday, 16 December) morning, I will head out to western Arizona and operate on the DM23vx/DM24va grid boundary. This spot is north of the AZ-72/AZ-95 junction, north of Quartzsite and southeast of Parker. I plan on being here from mid-morning into the afternoon, working FM, SSB, and - if available - packet passes. Sometime in the mid- to late-afternoon, I am probably going to drive north to Kingman and the DM25/DM35 grid boundary for some passes up there. Ideally, I might be able to get in on some of the XW-2 "train" for the east coast, but would stay there for a couple of hours before returning home. If there is snow in or around Kingman, I will not head this way, and may look at an alternative loop for the drive home (i.e., returning via Yuma AZ and the DM22/DM32 boundary near I-8). For the night owls, I might still be up for at least one AO-91 pass late Saturday evening. For that pass, I might be home at that point, but I will make note of the AO-91 pass times to make sure I don't forget them. While on the road, I'll run APRS from my car as WD9EWK-9. There should be decent coverage for most of my planned road trip on sites like (among a few others) http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9 . I will also use my @WD9EWK Twitter account to send updates, and - depending on the mobile data network - pictures from where I am operating. After the road trip, I will upload my log to Logbook of the World. For those that would like to receive a QSL card for a contact with me, please e-mail me directly with the QSO details. If you're in the log, I'll get a card out to you. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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Re: [amsat-bb] Kenwood TH-D72 SAT users
by KG5GJT 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

I use the Kenwood D-72 for Sats. I currently use a 2.5 to 3.5 audio cable from the radio to a digital recorder and then plug a set of Sony headphones into the recorder. Be warned you need to follow the following procedure or the radio will "freak out". If you unplug the audio cable after radio is on it affects it as well. 1. Plug everything together 2. Power on recorder 3. Start recorder 4. Power on radio 5. Work pass 6. Power off radio 7. Power off recorder Hope that helps I am attaching a link to the audio cable I use and a picture of my set up below. Hope this helps hope to catch you on a pass! 73, Brian D. Karcher KG5GJT https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0185X0CDI/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=151335… Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 14, 2017, at 8:33 PM, amsat-bb-request(a)amsat.org wrote: > > [amsat-bb] Kenwood TH-D72 SAT users

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A suggestion for ... Emergency Comms - APRS...
by Robert Bruninga 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Such a highly compressed method of satellite encoding exists called APRS. >> ... the limiting factor for using LEO satellites as an Emergency >> Response of any scale, would the short amount of time of a >> given pass and the limited number of usable passes a day... > But, us ingenious ham radio operator types perhaps have the basis > of sending compressed data which conveys a lot of information. > Packed into the bytes of telemetry messages ... > How about a predefined disaster status data stream that all shelters... Use the APRS Object for a SHELTER. Just one packet can contain the position, time and date of the report, and up to 47 bytes of useful info such as 1) head count of staff 2) head count of victims 3) electrical power 4)drinking water 5) more supplies needed 6) need critical assistance. > Conversely, if multiple LEO satellites support a disaster-status protocol.. They do. APRS is currently on 3 sateliltes... PSAT, ISS and PCSAT and soon to be QIKCOM2 and PSAT2 and BRICSAT2... And TJHS hicghschool cubesat, etc > We'd need future cubesat missions capable of supporting a disaster telemetry stream. We have it. See the SATT4 single card APRS transponder. We invite every school or university that is contemplating a CUBESAT to consider using this transponder for their command and control which also provides the APRS transponder as well. Cost is under $300 or so. See http://aprs.org/satt4.html Bob, WB4aPR

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Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on (PSAT?)
by Robert Bruninga 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

An Experiment I would like to see done is experimental DATA and RTTY modes on PSAT's PSK31 Linear transponder. I rarely hear anyone using PSK31 and so it is quite available. It has a linear receiver for any modulation going up on 28.120 MHz and then the demodulated audio comes down on FM on UHF 435.350 MHz. But the uplink is SHARED with terrestrial RTTY and DATA modes (though very rarely are there signals there)... The only catch is that there does need to be at least one PSK31 signal in the passband to cause the transponder to come up. But once up, it is a clean bent pipe for all the rest of the 3 KHz bandwidth. I read Part 97.307(f)4 and 309(a) as saying any digital mode that is less than 1 Khz FSK or under 1200 baud symbol rate can be used? One other catch. (my fault)... It Recycles every 20 seconds. Which means the carrier will drop for a few seconds as the processor is reset and then it waits for the 31 Hz detect to come up again. So time your exchanges in the 20 second repeating windows... Bob -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [ On Behalf Of E.Mike McCardel Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on AO-91 It seems to me that the limiting factor for using LEO satellites as an Emergency Response of any scale, would the short amount of time of a given pass and the limited number of usable passes a day over an area needing the response. I’m not sure experimentation would find ways around this limitation. But of course experimentation is just that. Perhaps we need to get out of the box for how Experimenter’s Wednesdays work. What modes can we adapt? Can we incorporate an educational initiative, similar to ISS school contacts? Remote control APRS messaging as Mark Spencer demonstrated with MAREA? I know these seem like we are limiting contacts to just a few people, but they can reach hundreds of students and introduce satellite and radio enthusiasm to another generation of school children and millennial. 73 EMike EMike McCardel, AA8EM Rotating Editor AMSAT News Service Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 15, 2017, at 1:26 AM, Mac A. Cody <maccody(a)att.net> wrote: > I'm embarrassed to say that I've never done anything personally with > NBEMS. What I knowabout it isfrom a presentation at my radio club. > We have had a group that was experimenting with NBEMS on the club > repeater. Don't know whether they are still doing it, though. They > weren't using any special interface between radios and computers - > speaker output to microphone input in both directions. I'd like to > try NBEMS on the FM birds simply as a way of experimenting with using LEO > birds for emergency response. > > As you mentioned, there is a lot of sites out there describing how to > use NBEMS using Fldigi/Flmsg. I have not seen anything specific, yet, > regarding to using NBEMS over a satellite. I'm sure that there are > attendant challenges and opportunities doing so. > Doppler shift and signal quality will be the main challenges. MT65 > appears to be the modulation scheme of choice. Full duplex operation > would be helpful, as you could monitor your own signal to verify its > quality and how well the message got through. > > I'll have to investigate further. > > Mac Cody - AE5PH > >> On 12/14/2017 11:38 PM, Scott wrote: >> I've always been curious about NBEMS as well, Mac. >> >> There is a fair amount of info on the subject online, but could you point >> me to any particular orientation how-to that might be geared to someone >> using it in a more informal setting such as how we might use it via an FM >> satellite? >> >> -Scott, K4KDR ======================== >> -----Original Message----- From: Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) >> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 12:29 AM >> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Experimenter's Wednesdays on >> AO-91 >> >> Now that's a good idea. Otherwise, Wednesdays on AO-85 could be >> called SSTV Wednesdays, if that's the extent of "Experimenter's >> Wednesdays" for that satellite. I would be inclined to try NBEMS, >> something I've never used. >> >> Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK >>> On Thursday, December 14, 2017, Mac A. Cody <maccody(a)att.net> wrote: >>> >>> If, as you stated, SSTV has run its course, maybe Experimenter's >>> Wednesdays on AO-85 could be changed to experiment with EMCOMM using >>> NBEMS, thereby keeping AO-91 as free as possible. Once that has run >>> its course, then move on to another experiment. That would keep >>> things fresh. I think a report on each experiment would be an >>> interesting series of articles in the AMSAT Journal. I think >>> continuous experimentation is a good thing! >>> >>> Mac Cody - AE5PH

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FUNcube Warehouse Outage
by David Johnson 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hi, Sorry if you experienced a short outage of the display pages, we were fixing up a problem with the channel MinMax values. 73 - Dave

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Images received from ATHENOXAT-1
by Roland Zurmely 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Incons and jpeg thumbnails received from new Athenoxat-1 beacon : <http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/athenoxat.htm#f> 73 de Roland PY4ZBZ

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Re: [amsat-bb] Behavior on FM Satellites
by Roy Dean 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

AMSAT BB archive shows this email as being posted: *Mon Dec 11 03:26:32 UTC 2017* I received it in Digest via my gmail account on the 11th. Sounds like you've got a problem on your end. K3RLD WTH? This msg was sent 12/10 at 10:05 PM. WHY is it just > coming out NOW - 4 DAYS LATER? ? ? ? ? ? > Bob K8BL

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Re: [amsat-bb] Wouxun KG-UV8D
by John KI4RO 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

I don't have a Wouxon Jim, but I use CHIRP to program my Baofengs and a BTech....would you be interested in those files? 73 John KI4RO

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Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for experimenters Wednesday on AO-91
by Tom Schuessler 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

I think Patrick's suggestion is wonderful. I think especially the idea also presented that we add our power level to the normal Grid Square. It would really reinforce the mandate from the FCC rules that we should only be using the minimum power required to affect communications. Tom. N5HYP Message: 7 Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 22:38:49 +0000 (UTC) From: Ken Alexander <k.alexander(a)rogers.com> To: "amsat-bb(a)wd9ewk.net" <amsat-bb(a)wd9ewk.net>, "amsat-bb(a)amsat.org" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] A suggestion for Experimenter's Wednesdays on AO-91 Message-ID: <1781544429.3431151.1513291129846(a)mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sounds interesting!? How about (for the day) we add our transmitter power to the exchange, for example "FN03 100mW".? It will help reinforce the concept that only minimal power is required. 73, KenVE3HLS

2 2

Kenwood TH-D72 SAT users
by Peter 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

A SAT newbie here. I would like to set my HT(TH-D72) up pulling audio off the HT for recording and also use a headset. The connectors for the HT are unusual (for me). I would like to have users contact me off list (k8pt(a)arrl.net) and tell me what adapters, headsets you are using to accomplish this. Thanks. Sorry for off topic questions. Thanks and 73, Peter-K8PT -- B. Peter Treml, K8PT 4425 Spruce St. Philadelphia,PA 19104 k8pt(a)arrl.net --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com

3 2

AMSAT Embroidered Cap ?
by Stan Musick 15 Dec '17

15 Dec '17

Hello, Has AMSAT ever had an embroidered cap available? Does anyone know if they have plans in the future to have any available? Thanks, Stan, W5PDQ

1 0

Behavior on FM Satellites
by Paul Stoetzer 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

Good afternoon, During the last AO-91 pass, there were many interesting stations on, but in particular there were two low power rovers in rare grids: FG8OJ was in FK95 and C6AWD/MM (AC0RA) was in FL25 (an entirely wet grid that the ship will only be in for a short period of time). Yet, even while those two were in the footprint, stations were calling other fixed stations that they can work on any pass of any satellite, day or night. Right now, we have 14 satellites where you can make a QSO with a guy next door. There's no need to work a hundred stations on every pass of AO-91, especially when two guys in rare grids with low power equipment are attempting to hand them out. It's all about situational awareness. Pay attention to what grid ops are going to be on a pass (monitoring Twitter, Facebook, and the BB prior to a pass are handy for this), listen before you transmit, noting anything that seems rare, and wait to make other QSOs until the rare stations are out of the footprint. And please don't keep calling stations when they are out of the footprint. Learn your geography and/or look at a map, please! This is how I approached the pass: From monitoring Twitter, I was well aware that there would be two rare rovers on (the two I mentioned before). I did not need FG8OJ in FK95, so I did not call him. However, FL25 is a hole in my map. When I heard C6AWD/MM in FL25, I made my call, worked him, and then didn't attempt any more QSOs until he was out of the footprint (this included not responding to a person that called me). I know this is not the first time this topic has been raised, but behavior has been especially terrible since the launch of AO-91. Eventually, I and others will be forced to name and shame stations engaged in poor behavior. FM satellites are wonderful in that the simple, inexpensive equipment required to work them opens up the amateur satellite hobby to a large number of people. However, since they are a single channel covering a wide area, they also demand a good amount of situational awareness and courtesy when operating. 73, Paul, N8HM

17 22

Falconsat BBS Turned Off
by Tony 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

Looks like Falconsat's BBS has been turned off. Something we can expect to happen now and then? Tony -K2MO

2 1

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-14 03:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-14 03:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via BNØSM The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-14 03:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1199. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1148. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

1 0

Re: [amsat-bb] FM Satellites: Good Operating Practices for Beginning and Experienced Operators
by John KI4RO 14 Dec '17

14 Dec '17

Just like rare DX Zach...you must be a great operator on HF too...Ugh! 73 John KI4RO

22 31

Operating suggestions
by Chris Bradley 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

My apologies for taking it to far over the last 24 or so hours. I felt and continue to feel like the operating suggestions were well written but to me seemed a little like a rant from a serious DXer and seemed like it would have been better served being written and posted when the author was not complaining about the poor practices of others. What made this matter worse is when my opinion was immediately shouted down because I do t operate the birdies. When in fact I said early on in this thread that on three occasions while still under my previous call sign KG5jUP (now AA5EM) that I had went through the time and expense to make a contact on the birds and was unsuccessful because of I am sure my nubbie-curve and the very problem that the suggestions are aimed to relive >From my perspective the suggestions were written a little in favor of the DXers in our community which would make sense considering the author is into this part of this niche' hobby. I will just be bold and say it. I mentioned a vote because as an incorporated organization AMSAT allowing someone to post a set of suggestions to their official site to the unknowing individual looks as if it is the AMSAT way. It was a matter of perception for me. I admit, the vote comment was actually dark sarcasm based on the goings on from the previous string of messages that in my opinion were passive aggressive and someone called the authors out on the matter. When I said I didn't get a vote I was being sarcastic about those operators who feel entitled and superior to operators like myself who are not on the birds daily. \ All of this went to far with Dave Swanson and his unabashedly rude comments to and about me. So for the record I do not think that Sean's suggestions should have been arbitrarily posted to the AMSAT homepage because in my humble opinion the suggestions offer my protectionism for dxers. Though I do agree that something needs to be done. Amateur radio is supposed to be a self governing body because Lord knows we do not want the Federal government regulating us. Finally, I have NOT worked a satellite and I am not in anyone's logs but as a member of this organization I believe that EVERY MEMBER should have an opinion and not shouted down by the dxers when they are questioned. If this is not the case then please by all means send my refund to my QTH until such time please be kind to all and less like a bully. IF there are any questions please feel free to pose them I will never shout you down. PS. AMSAT was the first organization I joined after becoming a ham even before my local ARC. At each ARC meeting I present AMSAT related news and updates to the sigrin on the membership. Their eyes roll at me and I still present the latest I am proud to be a member of this group and had even considered attempting to build local interest and start a net and/or a club locally. I am a disabled veteran (still working full time but barely) and my wife is extremely illl as she needs a kidney transplant so for now I am not "active' but I volunteer for the ANS to help do my part and learn from you all. Thank you, AA5EM Chris Bradley Christopher R. Bradley, M. Ed MS IT KMCO 101.3 FM | KTMC 105.1 FM AA5EM - Extra Class Amateur Radio Op - A.R.R.L. Oklahoma Section Traffic Mgr - A.R.E.S. Emergency Cooridinator Pittsburg County, Oklahoma - AMSAT News Service Rotating Editor 624 Krebs Housing McAlester, Oklahoma 74501 (918) 558 - 5369 <(918)%20558-5369> (Home) (918) 424 - 7879 <(918)%20424-7879> (Mobile)

1 0

Rocket Lab abort
by Howie DeFelice 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

Since there seemed to be some interest in this, this article explains what happened. I'm looking forward to their success ! http://satnews.com/story.php?number=932255626&menu=1 Howie AB2S

1 0

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-13 09:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via BNØSM (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-13 09:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1199. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1148. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

1 0

Re: [amsat-bb] FM Satellites: Good Operating Practices for Beginning and Experienced Operators
by Paul Andrews 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

I think that satellite DX is very exciting. The challenge of selecting the perfect orbit to complete a long distance QSO at the extreme limits of the satellite footprint. Two station completing a QSO at less than 1 degree Elevation. Exciting! 73 - Paul - W2HRO On Dec 12, 2017 19:38, "Sean Waite" <waisean(a)gmail.com> wrote: I'll bite. As far as I can tell, there are 2 main reasons for working the satellites. Chasing grids and making contacts via space. This includes both these acts as well as the fun of overcoming the challenges of doing the same. Maybe Zach has a third option that we haven't considered, one that is contrary to the grid hunt. Rag chews aren't really viable due to the limited resource and short time, but there could be something else. 73, Sean WA1TE On Tue, Dec 12, 2017, 19:05 Jeff Johns <jeff30339(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I don’t have him on my logs either. > > Jeff WE4B > > On Tuesday, December 12, 2017, David Swanson <dave(a)druidnetworks.com> > wrote: > > > Zach, > > > > Do you avoid Satellites too? I've looked thru my logs and I don't have > your > > call in there. I've asked a few other prolific ops and they lack a QSO > with > > you as well. Just curious why the strong feelings on Item 6 if you're not > > active on the birds. > > > > 73, > > > > Dave, KG5CCI > > > > On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 4:30 PM, Zach Metzinger <zmetzing(a)pobox.com> > > wrote: > > > > > On 12/12/17 14:25, John KI4RO wrote: > > > > Just like rare DX Zach...you must be a great operator on HF > too...Ugh! > > > > > > > > 73 > > > > John KI4RO > > > > > > John, > > > > > > I generally avoid 160 meters, as there are too many on there who resort > > > to disparaging insults. > > > > > > 73, > > > > > > --- Zach > > > N0ZGO > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > > Opinions > > > expressed > > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views > of > > > AMSAT-NA. > > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > > program! > > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions > > expressed > > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > > AMSAT-NA. > > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite > program! > > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions > expressed > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of > AMSAT-NA. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

1 0

Re: [amsat-bb] IC-970A -for sale-
by Stefan Wagener 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Thanks for the interest! The radio has been sold, 73, Stefan VE4NSA On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 3:25 PM, Stefan Wagener <wageners(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I am selling my pristine Icom IC-970A 2m/70cm all mode base transceiver > including the following options: > > CR-293 (high stability option) > UX-97 (1.2GHz module) > UX-R96 (50-905Mhz receive module) > UT-34 (tone squelch unit) > SP-20 (brand new external speaker) > USB interface cable to use with SatPC32 (works great) > > The unit is build like a tank and its receive characteristics are > legendary. This is not only a fully functioning stationary satellite radio > but also a true collector radio. Just finished a few contacts on AO-91 but > it really shines on the linear birds. > > Asking $1500 plus shipping. Photos on request. > > Please contact me off the list. My callsign(a)gmail.com > > Stefan, VE4NSA >

1 0

FM Satellites: Good Operating Practices for Beginning and Experienced Operators
by Paul Stoetzer 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Sean Kutzko, KX9X, has written a helpful document explaining good operating practices for working FM satellites. It's been posted to the AMSAT website at https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellites-good-operating-practices-for-beginning-… A PDF version is also available at https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/FM-Satellites-Be… 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM Executive Vice President Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA)

11 10

Rocket Lab launch nowlive streaming
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

See: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream/ 73, Terry ZL2BAC

2 2

IC-970A -for sale-
by Stefan Wagener 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Hi folks, I am selling my pristine Icom IC-970A 2m/70cm all mode base transceiver including the following options: CR-293 (high stability option) UX-97 (1.2GHz module) UX-R96 (50-905Mhz receive module) UT-34 (tone squelch unit) SP-20 (brand new external speaker) USB interface cable to use with SatPC32 (works great) The unit is build like a tank and its receive characteristics are legendary. This is not only a fully functioning stationary satellite radio but also a true collector radio. Just finished a few contacts on AO-91 but it really shines on the linear birds. Asking $1500 plus shipping. Photos on request. Please contact me off the list. My callsign(a)gmail.com Stefan, VE4NSA

1 0

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Summa-Aldapeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain, direct via EG2SMA The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Joe Acaba KE5DAR Contact was successful: Tue 2017-12-12 13:01:28 UTC 84 deg (***) Watch for live stream at http://www.summa-aldapeta.com/ISS/ Taipei Municipal Ximen Elementary School, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C., direct via TBD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP (***) Contact is a go for: Thu 2017-12-21 08:49:07 UTC 72 deg (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-12 18:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1199. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1148. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-12 18:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

1 0

u110 rotor
by mikflathead＠aol.com 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Is it possible to use a U110 rotor with a tracking program? I am in the planning stages and would like to have the computer track the birds. Thanks Mike

3 2

LVB Tracker
by radiomb 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Does Amsat plan on producing the LVB tracker in the future? Tnx Mike K4MIA

1 0

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-12 05:00 UTC
by AJ9N＠aol.com 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2017-12-12 05:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Shirokawa Elementary School, Seiyo, Japan, direct via 8J5SS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Paolo Nespoli (***) Contact was successful: Mon 2017-12-11 11:06:25 UTC 70 deg (***) Antietam Elementary School, Woodbridge, VA, direct via KM4TAY The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP (***) Contact was successful: Mon 2017-12-11 18:30:10 UTC 36 deg (***) Summa-Aldapeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain, direct via EG2SMA The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Joe Acaba KE5DAR Contact is a go for: Tue 2017-12-12 13:01:28 UTC 84 deg Watch for live stream at http://www.summa-aldapeta.com/ISS/ (***) **************************************************************************** ** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 126 (***) Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 100 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2017-12-06 06:30 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1196. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1145. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: Arkansas, Delaware, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2017-12-05 07:00 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 52 on orbit Randy Bresnik Paolo Nespoli IZØJPA Sergey Ryazanskiy Exp. 53 on orbit Mark Vande Hei KG5GNP Alexander Misurkin Joe Acaba KE5DAR **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Yaesu FIF-232C for sale
by Andrew Glasbrenner 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

I have a FIF-232C CAT level adapter and 6 pin DIN cable available to anyone who needs it. This came from a local AMSAT member who passed on, and I believe it was in use with his FT-736. It works with these rigs: FT-650, FT-736, FT-747GX, FT-757GXII, FT-767GX, FT-840, FT-890, FT-990, FT-1000D, <https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/commrxvr/2786.html> FRG-100, FRG-8800 and FRG-9600. It powers on, but I have no way to further test it. $40 shipped USPS in the US. 73, Drew KO4MA

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Rocket Lab Launch Update
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Launch window now at 16:00 NZDT (03:00 UTC) at he earliest. See: https://twitter.com/RocketLab Live stream from here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_oAGlhFezo&feature=youtu.be Starting at 15:30 NZDT (02:30 UTC). 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

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Re: [amsat-bb] FM Satellites: Good Operating Practices for Beginning and Experienced Operators
by Burns Fisher 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Good work Sean! Number 6 seems to be the most controversial. I do believe that many new folks are still interested in catching the "rare" QSO. I'd suggest, though, that instead of prioritizing "rare grids" you prioritize "special short term stations". You might give as examples rare grid squares, portable stations and special event stations (easily recognizable by their 1x1 calls). Maybe even suggest giving priority to weak-sounding stations. Any other ideas about priorities? 73, Burns W2BFJ

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Summa-Aldapeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Summa-Aldapeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain on 12 Dec. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 13:01 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and EG2SMA. The contact should be audible over Spain and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English and Spanish. Summa Aldapeta is a Catholic co-educational school owned by three religious orders, The Society of Mary - (Marianist brothers and priests), The Daughters of Mary Immaculate (Marianist sisters) and the Order of the Company of Mary our Lady and operated by agreement with the educational authorities. Through a unique collaboration, it has served the city for more than a hundred years. The school is located in three close premises in the city centre of San Sebastian- Donostia, north of Spain. These three buildings give us the possibility of adapting to the needs of today's students and allow us to have a much closer relationship with students and their families. Nowadays there are around 2,000 students from the age of 1 up to the age of 18 at Summa Aldapeta, with a dedicated staff, truly dedicated to the spirit of educating the whole student, engaged in innovation and new methodologies. We offer our students, families and society an integral and quality education. Our goal in education is to develop every student as a person, educating them to interact and communicate with others, stimulating their abilities, educating them in healthy lifestyles and equality. We share these goals with our families and society. The city has been selected as European Capital of Culture for 2016 (shared with Wroclaw, Poland). Communication in its different ways plays a key role in Cultural exchange among nations. Amateur radio operators have been, since their very beginnings 100 years ago, a perfect example of the idea of culture "solidarity". They have played an active role in many humanitarian interventions in natural disasters, medicine searches or missing people. These are values we want to share in Summa Aldapeta. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What did you have to study to be an astronaut? 2. Por qué motivo decidiste ir al espacio? 3. If you had to go to the space forever, would you do it? 4. Resulta difícil convivir con personas de otros países y culturas en la Estación Espacial? 5. What do you do when you feel sick or get injured in the ISS? 6. Qué hacéis cuando tenéis problemas técnicos en la nave? 7. What kind of experiments do you conduct up there? 8. Cómo pasáis el tiempo libre en la Estación Espacial? 9. How often do you contact with your families? 10. Piensas que algún día viviremos en otro planeta? 11. How do you treat the rubbish you produce in the ISS? 12. Cómo recibís las noticias de lo que está ocurriendo en la Tierra? 13. What is the most exciting sensation while you are in the vacuum of space? 14. Habéis vivido alguna vez una situación peligrosa en la soledad del espacio? 15. Is the ISS a comfortable place? 16. Qué es lo que más echarás en falta de la Estación Espacial cuando regreses a la Tierra? 17. How do you have a shower or clean your clothes in the ISS? 18. Cuál es el olor que predomina en la Estación Espacial? 19. When you need surgery, does any of your co-workers do it? 20. Cuál es la misión más complicada a la que os habéis enfrentado en el espacio? 2. Why did you decide to go to space? 4. Is living together with people from different countries difficult? 6. What do you do if you have technical problems in the spaceship? 8. How do you have fun in the ISS? 10. Do you think we will live in another planet someday? 12. How do you catch up with the news on Earth? 14. Have you ever lived a dangerous situation being alone in the space? 16. What will you miss most when you come back to Earth? 18. What does the ISS smell like? 20. Which mission has been the most difficult one in the ISS? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD 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 Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Moxon vs. Turnstile
by KD4ZGW 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

What would be the better antenna: moxon or a turnstile?

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Re: [amsat-bb] Behavior on FM Satellites
by Burns Fisher 11 Dec '17

11 Dec '17

I'll probably be sorry to get myself involved in this morass, but I think it is worth saying/repeating: Many operators are in QRZ. If you think they are behaving inappropriately why not send them a note rather than calling out individuals on the bb? I know one of the operators mentioned here and I did in fact send him a note. He had not received anything from anyone previously. He was apologetic and unaware of his transgressions, and also unaware of the bulletin board so he had not seen this conversation. In addition, I know him to be a good guy and generally a good operator on DX and a good contester and thus normally aware of rare grids etc. My points are: 1) Good people make mistakes. 2) Good operators are happy to be corrected. 3) Calling out on a particular social medium does not always reach the person in question. Why not assume they are of good faith and try to make a friendly personal connection? Back to lurk mode---73, Burns W2BFJ

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