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Duchifat satellite software
by Steve Kristoff 20 May '15

20 May '15

Has anyone had any luck with the software from the Herzelia Space Center for Duchifat? When the recent announcement came out I downloaded and unzipped the software, but it won't run. Some of the files seem to have a .GGG extension which is not recognized by my computer. Will any other software (MixW?) work instead? Any help would be very much appreciated! Thank you. Steve AI9IN

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SO-50 this morning?
by Bill ACITO, W1PA 20 May '15

20 May '15

Steve, I was on that pass. I worked K8OE?, and I think one other station. I think I heard you as well. The last half of the the pass was quiet, just myself (I was dropping my call every 30 secs or so). I think I had to reset the timer myself, too. I have a log recording I can check at lunchtime. Bill W1PA

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LightSail -- Request to ARS Ground Stations
by Gregory Beat 20 May '15

20 May '15

The Planetary Society : LightSail Mission Blog, by Jason Davis, Twitter: @jasonrdavis http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150518-lightsail-first-da… We’re now able to release a timeline of events for LightSail’s first day in space. The chart on LightSail mission Page assumes a liftoff of 10:45 a.m. EDT, (14:45 UTC) at the start of the four-hour launch period. The actual window has not yet been released. We aren't sure when we'll hear from LightSail, but the first possible opportunity comes three hours, 14 minutes after liftoff (17:40 UTC). If you’re a member of the amateur radio community, YOU CAN HELP ! Our radio frequency is 437.435 MHz. Email me any data you collect from LightSail, including screenshots of the radio signal if you have them. I'll pass the information on to our engineering team, and we'll recognize your contribution on our blog. LightSail's automated telemetry chirps start after antenna deployment and continue throughout the mission. We’ll update our Mission Control Center to show the spacecraft’s current position, including pass predictions for your device’s current location (courtesy of N2YO.com). #LightSail telemetry info from our engineering team: 437.435 MHz, Encoding: FSK, Baud: 9600 bps, AX.25 ===== greg, w9gb ... send queries to jason davis or follow him on Twitter. Sent from iPad Air

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SO-50 this morning?
by Steve Kristoff 20 May '15

20 May '15

Was anyone on the 10:35 UTC pass of SO-50 this morning? I didn't hear a thing. I need to figure out if it's my rig, or the satellite, or if there just wasn't anybody else up talking this morning. Thank you! Steve Kristoff AI9IN skristof(a)etczone.com

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Psat, BRICKsat,USS Langley Launch 16:00 UTC on 20 May
by Robert Bruninga 20 May '15

20 May '15

Updated PSAT Launch announcement: Launch window begins at 1600z 20 May 2015, from Florida into a 55 degree inclined orbit. We welcome radio amateurs worldwide to tune into the downlinks and either IGate packets into the global APRS-IS system or email to Bruninga(a)usna.edu. We expect first PSAT telemetry at 1839z over Sydney and New Zealand followed 1910z pass over the USA. For any launch delay, slide these times later. Launch can delay up to 2.5 hours or so. Operations via PSAT or PSK31 are not authorized until on-orbit checkout is complete (may take many,many days). Downlinks (one or more packets per minute): PSAT: 145.825 MHz 1200 baud AX.25 APRS – http://aprs.org/psat.html BRICsat: 437.975 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry USS Langley: 437.475 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry PSK31: 435.350 MHz FM PSK31 telemetry Further info will be posted when available on the PSAT page above. Enjoy, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR - USNA Jin Kang, KB3UKS – USNA Mirek Kasal, OK2AQ - Brno University Tomas Urbanec, OK2PNQ - Brno University Petr Vagner, OK2CPV - Brno University

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EM38 / EM37
by Gail A Mcdaniel 19 May '15

19 May '15

Took a few days off and will be on SO-50 afternoon passes today and tomorrow (Tues&Wed) from EM38 Thursday I will work the afternoon passes from EM37 (Ha Ha Tonka State Park). Weather permitting... 73'sGail - KB0RZD

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EO-79
by Bob- W7LRD 18 May '15

18 May '15

I received a good copy of EO-79 beacon, did not decode. From what I have found we will get to use the transponder in 2016. Can anyone with "higher" knowledge confirm this? 73 Bob W7LRD

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DN07 demand?
by Bob- W7LRD 18 May '15

18 May '15

I will be in DN07 for a few days in mid July. Is there much demand for this square? If so I will attempt to accommodate. 73 Bob W7LRD

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FS: Diamond 70cm beam
by John Geiger 18 May '15

18 May '15

I have for sale a Diamond A430S15 15 element UHF beam. About 4 months old. Comes with box and manual as well. Still in great shape. You can read more about it here: http://www.diamondantenna.net/a430s15.html These sell new at Ham Radio Outlet for $90 plus shipping. I am asking $70 plus shipping or pickup in SW Oklahoma/Northern Texas. 73 John AF5CC

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Gamma match on Circular polarization antennas?
by Joe Leikhim 18 May '15

18 May '15

The old Cushcraft 144-20T CP antenna (Part of AOP-1) used Gamma Match on both phased yagis, on a common boom. This wasn't the greatest antenna in the world, it suffered precipitation static discharge because of the Gamma Match being ungrounded, among other mechanical deficiencies. But it did seem to have acceptable circularity, good directivity and plenty of gain I suspect the problem may be in achieving identical phasing between antennas. A phasing problem will affect circularity. See tuning discussion in the archive: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/200107/msg00595.html -- Joe Leikhim Leikhim and Associates Communications Consultants Oviedo, Florida JLeikhim(a)Leikhim.com 407-982-0446 WWW.LEIKHIM.COM

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Gamma match on Circular polarization antennas?
by Pavel Milanes Costa 18 May '15

18 May '15

Hi, I have read on numerous places that yaguis with gamma match must be avoided for circular polarization. But it's my case. I have access to cheap factory made 3 element yaguis for 2m with pretty good construction, and yes, it have gamma match. I plan to use two of them 1/2 lambda apart and 90 degree shifted on X (V/H) and feed them in order to get either RHCP or LHCP... Anyone has a real explanation of why I have to avoid gamma match for this? It's really so bad, pros, cons? Cheers to all. -- M.Sc. Pavel Milanes Costa, CO7WT SYSOP Nodo Gateway CO9JAZ Ciudad de Camagüey, Camagüey, Cuba. Cell: (+53) 53-847819

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ANS-137 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Joseph Spier 17 May '15

17 May '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-137 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: * Fox-1 Development, Launch, and Frequency Coordination Status at Dayton * AMSAT FieldOps Team Fox-1 Operating Guide is Available * US Naval Academy CubeSat Launch to Include Next APRS Satellite * Iowa CubeSat students get ham radio licenses * Extreme DX satellite contact between UK and Texas * International Space Station Partners Adjust Spacecraft Schedule * AMSAT Events * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-137.01 ANS-137 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 137.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. DATE May 17, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-137.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Fox-1 Development, Launch, and Frequency Coordination Status at Dayton AMSAT Dayton Hamvention Annoucements (Saved) During the AMSAT Forum at the Dayton Hamvention, AMSAT Vice President Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, and AMSAT Vice President – Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, provided more information about the Fox-1 satellites under development. Buxton, N0JY, says Fox-1A has passed all environmental testing and is integrated into the P-POD deployment canister. "The 'remove before flight pin' has been pulled, the doors closed on the P-POD, and everything is aboard the shipping container now en route to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for launch", said Buxton. Previously Buxton had announced plans to incorporate an L band receiver in Fox- 1C and Fox-1D. The addition will allow ground commanded selection of the U/v (normal Fox-1 bands) or the new L/v 1.2 GHz (23 cm) mode. Both bands will operate as FM single channel. http://www.amsat.org/?p=4000 During the satellite operations segment of the AMSAT Forum Glasbrenner provided the details of the uplink and downlink frequencies for the Fox-1 FM cubesat fleet. Fox-1 Frequencies Uplink FM (67 Hz tone) Downlink FM Fox-1A 435.180 MHz 145.980 MHz RadFxSat/Fox-1B* 435.250 MHz 145.960 MHz Fox-1C* 435.300 MHz 145.920 MHz 1267.300 MHz ** 145.920 MHz Fox-1D* 435.350 MHz 145.880 MHz 1267.350 MHz ** 145.880 MHz * Pending IARU Coordination, If needed, changes will be announced ** U/v and L/v operations switchable by command station, not operational simultaneously According to Buxton, the team is planning to have an affordable L band uplink ground station available to amateurs by the time Fox-1C is on orbit. + Fox-1A will launch on a NASA ELaNa flight scheduled during the third quarter, 2015 from Vandenberg AFB. Fox-1A is a passenger aboard this launch driven by the schedule of the primary payload. When updates are available they will be announced via the ANS and in the AMSAT Journal. + Fox-1B will fly with the Vanderbilt University radiation experiments expected in 2016. + Fox-1C will launch on Spaceflight’s maiden mission of the SHERPA multi-cubesat deployer on a SpaceX Falcon 9 flight planned for late 2015. + Fox-1D is a flight spare for Fox-1C. If not needed as a spare it will fly with the University of Iowa HERCI radiation mapping experiment. + Fox-1E “Evolution” will carry a Mode J linear transponder. The transponder is planned to be 30 kHz wide and will also have a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon. Launch opportunities are being developed, to be announced at a later date. AMSAT has an immediate need to raise funds to cover both the launch contract and additional materials for construction and testing for Fox-1C. Please help us to continue to keep amateur radio in space. Donations may be made via the: + Paypal and credit card payment on the AMSAT website at http://www.amsat.org + Donation link in the AMSAT store: http://store.amsat.org/catalog/ + Call the AMSAT office at (888) 322-6728 [ANS thanks the AMSAT Engineering and AMSAT Operations Teams for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT FieldOps Team Fox-1 Operating Guide is Available AMSAT's Director of Field Operations, Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, invites you to view and download the "Fox-1 Operating Guide" which was released at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention. This color PDF file is designed to print double-sided. Two different resolution versions are available: + Low resolution PDF suitable for on-screen display (~400 KB size) + High resolution, press quality PDF for hard-copy printing (~2 MB size) To access these files visit the AMSAT web and follow the path: http://www.amsat.org --> Satellite Info --> Station and Operating Hints. The direct link is http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=2144 where you'll find the link to the Guide. [ANS thanks the AMSAT FieldOps Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- US Naval Academy CubeSat Launch to Include Next APRS Satellite Sometime on or about May 20, the next US Naval Academy satellites and Brno University PSK31 transponders head into space from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas 5 launcher and into an approximately 50° orbit. The launch will include the Psat APRS satellite — a pair of identical 1.5 U cubesats (A and B) — as well as the BRICsat and USS Langley (Unix Space Server Langley) nanosatellites. “Psat is a Naval Academy student satellite project named in honor of one of our graduates, Bradford Parkinson, of GPS fame, which contains an APRS transponder for relaying remote telemetry, sensor, and user data from remote users and Amateur Radio environmental experiments or other data sources back to Amateur Radio experimenters via a global network of Internet-linked ground stations,” explained APRS developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR. In addition to the data transponder, a secondary Brno University transponder will support multi- user PSK31 text messaging. The APRS downlink will be 145.825 MHz (1200 baud AX.25 APRS). “We welcome radio amateurs worldwide to tune into the downlinks and either IGate packets into the global APRS-IS system or to e-mail me,” Bruninga said. “After launch, the next several orbits will be over USA and Europe.” Bruninga said PSAT, including the PSK31 transponder, would not be available for use until all on-orbit checks are complete, a process he said could take “many, many days.” He also requested reports on any PSK31 (FM) heard on 435.350 MHz (the PSK31 uplink is 28.120 MHz). The PSK31 multi-user FDMA transponder experiment on Psat and BRICsat is similar to the one on RAFT and PCSAT2. It will allow messaging among up to 30 modest ground stations simultaneously, Bruninga said. Psat is one of five APRS-networked Amateur Radio satellites that will be in orbit during 2015, and all will appear on the live APRS downlink page. The others include PCsat-1, in orbit since 2001, QIKcom-1, set to launch in September, QIKcom-2, set to launch in December, and the ARISS packet radio system on board the International Space Station since 2007. BRICsat will carry a PSK31 transponder with a 28.120 MHz uplink (2.5 kHz bandwidth) and a UHF FM downlink on 435.350 MHz. Gunter’s Space Page describes USS Langley as “a proof-of-concept mission for providing global Internet access via a nanosatellite constellation.” The satellite will act as a web server and router in space, using Internet Protocol and Linux. Downlinks 437.475 MHz (9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry) with uplink at 145.825 MHz. The IARU coordination page said that while 28.120 MHz is not in the band plan as a satellite frequency, “the panel considered the motivation for this frequency as to give lower class license holders in the US the opportunity to participate in the project.” Bruninga said satellite experiments such as Psat “serve our educational and outreach goals for student projects encouraging young people to be interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.” He said he hopes other schools will build either additional 145.825 MHz relay satellites or experimental sensors. “We hope that Psat will be the ‘egg’ in this chicken-egg conundrum,” he added. [ANS thanks ARRL Letter for 5/14/2015 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Iowa CubeSat students get ham radio licenses The University of Iowa reports its students will conduct a Van Allen radiation belt experiment with the AMSAT Fox CubeSat Thanks to a proposal by the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy, a group of senior electrical and computer engineering students will reenact James Van Allen’s original experiment — this time with updated technology. Group members Kevin Klosterman KD9CPF, Bryan Senchuk KD9CPD, Tyler Dunkel KE0CHR, and Patrick Maloney KD9CPD took on the task as a part of their senior design project for the College of Engineering. The group is trying to figure out how much energy is emanating from the Van Allen belts at a specific altitude. To measure that, they’ve built a radiation sensor attached to a circuit board that will launch into space on a small satellite. There, the radiation sensor will detect energetic particles from the Van Allen belts. The satellite will sit in a low-Earth orbit and circle the globe every 90 minutes, some data will be transmitted in real time, but all of it is stored for later transmission. “I feel like we’ve learned something new every day,” Klosterman says. Not only did the students have to come up with a design concept, write the code to run the device, and build the circuit board by hand, they also had to learn and become licensed ham radio operators as well. The satellite that the students are using to launch into space is part of the CubeSat program — an initiative supported by NASA to help give students more hands-on experience with space research — and is being constructed by AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, whose mission is to foster amateur radio participation in space technology. The data from a full day of operating the experiment will be transmitted from the satellite as it makes a single pass over the CubeSat tracking station on top of Van Allen Hall. The final result will be a full mapping of the radiation levels at a low Earth orbit. It is hoped the Fox CubeSat with an FM voice transponder will be launched later this year. Read the full story at http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/05/seniors-reenact-van-allen-radiation-belt- experiments Each year 100’s of students are introduced to amateur radio through University CubeSat satellite programs with many going on to get their amateur license. AMSAT Fox http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=1113 [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA and University of Iowa for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Extreme DX satellite contact between UK and Texas On April 27, 2015 at 1901 GMT, Cuban radio amateur Hector Martinez W5CBF/CO6CBF achieved a 7537.8 km DX contact with UK amateur Peter Atkins G4DOL via FO-29. Hector reported, "I am pleased to report that Peter G4DOL and I had another extreme QSO on FO- 29. It is my furthest contact on the birds! Back on October 2013, Peter and I had a very nice contact between EL92sd, Cienfuegos, Cuba and IO80so, Weymouth area, UK. It was a 7286 km contact and probably the first contact between UK and Cuba on FO-29! Peter and I desired to try again on FO-29, this time between EM21hs, Texas, US and his habitual spot in IO80so. We were able to complete a very nice CW contact on the 92319 orbit of FO-29. Peter had just 0.1 degree as maxim elevation while I had 0.8 during the 80 seconds mutual window. As before, Peter did all the hard work by driving until his habitual spot at a cliff-top and setting up his “portable satellite station” (19 elements Yagi for 435 MHz and 10 elements Yagi for 145 MHz both with horizontal polarization). FO- 29 was sounding really good on these orbits. It was a solid 559 satellite contact, we were very impressed. We made the calculations using our 10 digit grid squares at http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html The distance between the stations was 7537.799 km (4683.77 mi). To my knowledge, the longest distance achieved on FO-29 until now had been 7,533.685 km between Frank, K4FEG and Erich, DK1TB http://www.qrz.com/db/k4feg UPDATE 2015-05-08: K4KEG has now revised his distance to 7,538.685 km. This puts his contact with DK1TB just ahead of that of W5CBF and G4DOL. It appears that an even longer distance is achievable. It has been reported that FO-29 has a “theoretical maximum range” of 7502 km, but I guess that at least 7600km is doable. We will try to break our own record! This contact was possible thanks to the great feature implemented on SatPC32 V12.8b. There is an option of seeing the frequency you are at the satellite receiver at any time during a pass. It allows the operators to tune the right frequencies and attempt a contact without having to search for each other. Thanks very much to Peter for his persistence, effort and all the fun!" 2013 FO-29 satellite contact between Cuba and the UK http://amsat-uk.org/2013/10/20/fo-29-satellite-contact-between-cuba-and-the… FO-29 information http://amsat-uk.org/satellites/two-way-comms-satellites/fuji-oscar-29-jas-2/ [ANS thanks Hector, W5CBF/CO6CBF and AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station Partners Adjust Spacecraft Schedule NASA and its international partners agreed Tuesday to set a new schedule for spacecraft traffic to and from the International Space Station. The partner agencies agreed to adjust the schedule after hearing the Russian Federal Space Agency's (Roscosmos) preliminary findings on the recent loss of the Progress 59 cargo craft. The exact dates have not yet been established, but will be announced in the coming weeks. Roscosmos expects to provide an update about the Progress 59 investigation on Friday, May 22. The return to Earth for NASA's Terry Virts, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov now is targeted for early June. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka will remain aboard the station to begin Expedition 44. The next Russian cargo craft, Progress 60, will launch in early July to deliver several tons of food, fuel and supplies. The space station has sufficient supplies to support crews until the fall of 2015. The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Expedition 44’s Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will launch in late July from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The date of SpaceX’s seventh resupply flight under its commercial resupply services contract with NASA still is under review but remains targeted for no earlier than June 19. The mission will deliver to station additional supplies and research that improve life on Earth and drive progress toward future space exploration. It also will deliver the first of two international docking adapters, which will enable future commercial crew vehicles to dock to the orbiting laboratory. Additional 2015 space station-related launch dates also are under review. NASA will continue to update the launch schedule online at: http://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station [ANS thanks NASA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Events Information about AMSAT activities at other important events around the country. Examples of these events are radio club meetings where AMSAT Area Coordinators give presentations, demonstrations of working amateur satellites, and hamfests with an AMSAT presence (a table with AMSAT literature and merchandise, sometimes also with presentations, forums, and/or demonstrations). *Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 15-17 2015, Dayton Hamvention in Dayton OH (Hara Arena) *Thursday, 21 May 2015 – International Microwave Symposium 2015 in Phoenix AZ *Saturday, 6 June 2015 – White Mountain Hamfest in Show Low AZ *Friday and Saturday, 12-13 June 2015 – HAM-COM in Irving TX (west of Dallas) *Thursday, 9 July 2015 – presentation for the Escondido Amateur Radio Society in Escondido CA *Friday and Saturday, 7-8 August 2015 – Austin Summerfest in Austin TX *Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 August 2015 – Boxboro Hamfest and ARRL New England Convention in Boxborough MA *Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 16-18 2015, AMSAT Symposium in Dayton OH (Dayton Crown Plaza) [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News Upcoming ARISS Contacts It is unlikely that there will be any contacts with the Columbus module station until after a crew change, which will probably occur in late June or July. Watch http://www.ariss.org/upcoming-contacts.html for information about upcoming contacts as they are scheduled. **************************************************************************** Latest ARISS News * Gagarin from Outer Space: A contact was successful Thu 2015-05-07 at 08:30 UTC with Ryazan State Radio Technical University, Ryazan, Russia, direct via RK3SWB. The ISS callsign was RSØISS, and the astronaut was Mikhail Korniyenko, RN3BF. * A contact was successful Sat 2015-05-09 08:20 UTC between Kursk, Russia, WWII veterans, direct via TBD. The ISS callsign was RSØISS, and the astronaut was Gennady Padalka, RN3DT. * Contacts on Sat 2015-05-09 09:52:06 UTC 27 deg with Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale “Enrico Fermi,” Lucca, Italy, direct via IQ5LU, and with Studi di Firenze – Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, direct via IQ5PO, were both successful. The ISS callsign was IRØISS, and the astronaut was Samantha Cristoforetti IZØUDF, who answered 22 questions. There were several hundred in attendance at both locations, along with newspaper and TV media. The event was streamed live on the Web. State Technical Industrial Institute is named for Enrico Fermi and is located in Lucca, Northern Tuscany. Five year courses are offered in Mechanics, Electrotechnics, Electronics, Information, and Communication Tecnology with several laboratories. There are about 700 students, aged 15 through 19. The school had an Amateur Radio Club with the callsign IK5YOI (license expired). [ANS thanks ARISS, and Charlie, AJ9N for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over * Reminder: Cambi-Hams DXpedition to Mull Island is Active May 15-21 The Cambi-Hams group is going to activate Mull, Inner Hebrides (IOSA NH15, SCOTIA CN10, WW Loc. IO76EJ) from May 15 to 21. They plan to be active on 80- 10m on SSB, CW, RTTY, and PSK; also on 6m, 4m, and 2m, and on satellites: AO-7 (Mode B), FO-29, SO-50, and AO-73. The group also hopes for short trips to Iona (EU-008) and Treshnish Island (EU-108), see their website for updates on that. QSL via ClubLog OQRS or via bureau. http://dx.camb-hams.com/ Watch AMSAT's Upcoming Satellite Operations page for late breaking news about DX and grid operations: http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3921 [ANS thanks the DXNL Newsletter 1936 for May 13, 2015 for the above information] First all CW 73 on 73 Award Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, reports, "Congratulations to Hideo Kambayashi, JH3XCU, for working 73 different stations on AO-73 since September 1, 2014. Notably, he is the first to work all 73 different stations using CW." For more information on the award see http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/73-on-73-award/ AO-73 was launched on November 21, 2013 and is the first spacecraft to have a primary mission of educational outreach to schools and the smallest ever satellite to carry a linear (SSB/CW) transponder for radio amateurs. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] New NASA Deputy Administrator is a Radio Ham Prof. Dava Newman KB1HIK was sworn in as NASA Deputy Administrator on May 15 from her MIT office. Her appointment had been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 27. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (formerly KE4IQB) said, “I am delighted with the Senate confirmation of Dr. Dava Newman to be the deputy administrator of NASA. The strong bipartisan support Dr. Newman received in the Senate is a reflection of her well-earned reputation and renown as a global leader in science and technology research and policy.” Newman is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems. On the MIT faculty since 1993, she directs the Institute’s Technology and Policy Program and MIT Portugal Program, and is co-director of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Man Vehicle Laboratory. She is a Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology faculty member, and a Margaret McVicar Faculty Fellow. Her research has included modeling human performance in low and micro-gravity conditions, examining the dynamics and control of astronaut motion, and the development of assisted walking devices for the physically handicapped. Perhaps her most prominent project has been development of the BioSuit, a skintight spacesuit that would give astronauts unprecedented comfort and freedom in exploration of planetary surfaces and extra-vehicular activity. After accepting the confirmation, Newman said, “It’s an enormous honor to serve at NASA in times when our country is extending humanity’s reach into space while strengthening American leadership here on Earth. I’m profoundly grateful to President Obama, the United States Senate, and Administrator Bolden — along with everyone at MIT. I can’t wait to come aboard.” http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/16/new-nasa-deputy-administrator-is-a-radio-ham/ [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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, Joe Spier, K6WAO k6wao at amsat dot org -- -73 k6wao Joe Spier k6wao(a)amsat.net

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Test
by Doug Kuitula 16 May '15

16 May '15

Sorry just a test.

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QSO on FO-29 with Dayton
by Art Charboneau 16 May '15

16 May '15

Hello All, This afternoon I worked a gentleman from the Dayton Hamvention running a demo on FO-29. I inadvertently neglected to write down the callsign, if anyone can help me out with the call it would be appreciated. The QSO was at 20:54Z on FO-29. 73 Art NM1A nm1a(a)arrl.net

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ANS-135 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - Fox-1 News From Dayton
by JoAnne Maenpaa 15 May '15

15 May '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE SPECIAL BULLETIN ANS-135 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: * Fox-1 News From Dayton * AMSAT FieldOps Team Fox-1 Operating Guide is Available SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-135.01 ANS-135 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 135.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. May 15, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-135.01 Fox-1 News From Dayton During the Dayton Hamvention, AMSAT Vice President Operations, Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, and AMSAT Vice President - Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, provided more information about the Fox-1 satellites under development. Buxton, N0JY, says Fox-1A has passed all environmental testing and is integrated into the P-POD deployment canister. "The 'remove before flight pin' has been pulled, the doors closed on the P-POD, and everything is aboard the shipping container now en route to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for launch", said Buxton. Previously Buxton had announced plans to incorporate an L band receiver in Fox-1C and Fox-1D. The addition will allow ground commanded selection of the U/v (normal Fox-1 bands) or the new L/v 1.2 GHz (23 cm) mode. Both bands will operate as FM single channel. (See: http://www.amsat.org/?p=4000) During the satellite operations segment of the AMSAT Forum Glasbrenner provided the details of the uplink and downlink frequencies for the Fox-1 FM cubesat fleet. Fox-1 Frequencies Uplink FM (67 Hz tone) Downlink FM Fox-1A 435.180 MHz 145.980 MHz RadFxSat/Fox-1B* 435.250 MHz 145.960 MHz Fox-1C* 435.300 MHz 145.920 MHz 1267.300 MHz ** 145.920 MHz Fox-1D* 435.350 MHz 145.880 MHz 1267.350 MHz ** 145.880 MHz * Pending IARU Coordination, If needed, changes will be announced ** U/v and L/v operations switchable by command station, not operational simultaneously According to Buxton, the team is planning to have an affordable L band uplink ground station available to amateurs by the time Fox-1C is on orbit. + Fox-1A will launch on a NASA ELaNa flight scheduled during the third quarter, 2015 from Vandenberg AFB. Fox-1A is a passenger aboard this launch driven by the schedule of the primary payload. When updates are available with firm dates they will be announced via the ANS bulletins and in the AMSAT Journal. + Fox-1B will fly with the Vanderbilt University radiation experiments expected in 2016. + Fox-1C will launch on Spaceflight's maiden mission of the SHERPA multi-cubesat deployer on a SpaceX Falcon 9 flight planned for late 2015. + Fox-1D is a flight spare for Fox-1C. If not needed as a spare it will fly with the University of Iowa HERCI radiation mapping experiment. + Fox-1E "Evolution" will carry a Mode J linear transponder. The transponder is planned to be 30 kHz wide and will also have a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon. Launch opportunities are being developed, to be announced at a later date. AMSAT has an immediate need to raise funds to cover both the launch contract and additional materials for construction and testing for Fox-1C. Please help us to continue to keep amateur radio in space. Donations may be made via the: + Paypal and credit card payment on the AMSAT website at http://www.amsat.org + Donation link in the AMSAT store: http://store.amsat.org/catalog/ + Call the AMSAT office at (888) 322-6728 [ANS thanks the AMSAT Engineering and AMSAT Operations Teams for the above information] -------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT FieldOps Team Fox-1 Operating Guide is Available AMSAT's Director of Field Operations, Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, invites you to view and download the "Fox-1 Operating Guide" which was released at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention. This color PDF file is designed to print double-sided. Two different resolution versions are available: + Low resolution PDF suitable for on-screen display (~400 KB size) + High resolution, press quality PDF for hard-copy printing (~2 MB size) To access these files visit the AMSAT web and follow the path: http://www.amsat.org --> Satellite Info --> Station and Operating Hints. The direct link is http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=2144 where you'll find the link to the Guide. [ANS thanks the AMSAT FieldOps Team for the above information] /EX

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Fox-1 September – Geo Sat on 5 and 10 GHz
by M5AKA 15 May '15

15 May '15

ARRL report on Dayton Hamvention - Fox-1 launch September – Geo Sat on 5 and 10 GHz http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/15/fox-1-launch-sept-geo-5-10-ghz/ Iowa CubeSat students get ham radio licenses http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/14/iowa-cubesat-students-get-ham-radio-licenses/ 73 Trevor M5AKA ---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK Flickr https://flickr.com/groups/AmsatUK YouTube https://youtube.com/AmsatUK Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube ----

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Flex 6000 Series Control Surface and Display
by Robert McGwier 15 May '15

15 May '15

This unit, called the Maestro, will eventually enable unprecedented performance in SO2R with other offerings from Flex but also eventually unparalleled full duplex operation.. http://www.flexradio.com/amateur-products/flex-6000-signature-series/maestr… -- Bob McGwier Co-Founder and Technical Director, Federated Wireless, LLC Research Professor Virginia Tech Senior Member IEEE, Facebook: N4HYBob, ARS: N4HY Faculty Advisor Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Assn. (K4KDJ)

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Reminder: Cambi-Hams DXpedition to Mull Island is Active May 15-21
by JoAnne Maenpaa 14 May '15

14 May '15

Good evening, This news item will also run over the weekend in the ANS bulletins. We're leaking it a bit early in case some may be able to take advantage of the DX opportunity before the bulletins come out on Saturday ... Reminder: Cambi-Hams DXpedition to Mull Island is Active May 15-21 The Cambi-Hams group is going to activate Mull, Inner Hebrides (IOSA NH15, SCOTIA CN10, WW Loc. IO76EJ) from May 15 to 21. They plan to be active on 80-10m on SSB, CW, RTTY, and PSK; also on 6m, 4m, and 2m, and on satellites: AO-7 (Mode B), VO-52, FO-29, SO-50, and AO-73. The group also hopes for short trips to Iona (EU-008) and Treshnish Island (EU-108), see their website for updates on that. QSL via ClubLog OQRS or via bureau. http://dx.camb-hams.com/ [ANS thanks the DXNL Newsletter 1936 for May 13, 2015 for the above information] -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org AMSAT VP User Services

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Re: [amsat-bb] FT847 satellite power output problem : solved
by ingejack＠cox.net 13 May '15

13 May '15

Are you using Satpc32 ?? If yes then check your COM PORT in SATPC32... Also Baud rate should be 57600 for the FT847.. restart your SATPC32 and try the FT847 again ... I am using the FT847 and have no problems with my power out even if not using SATPC32.. Is your Microphone plugged in and tightened ?? I once could not get my FT847 to transmit due to a short in the Microphone plug.. That's all I can think of 73 JACK/KC7MG ---- f6htj--- via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: > > > "Hello all; our F6KBR radio-club is almost ready to be active very soon via satellites with Yaesu FT847 rig but > we have a big problem: no power output on SAT position. Everything else is OK, any mode... > We tried full Reset (menu #39) but still same problem. > > Thanks for any help. > 73 de Michel F6HTJ" > > > > > > > > > > > > Hello all; now all is OK. The problem came from ALC mod. > I had to remove the final ALC 2009 mod (cut the wire) and it works on sat position. > > http://www.ok2kkw.com/00000104/ft847_alc_mod/alc_ft847_en_2.htm > > 73 de Michel F6HTJ > Amsat #7409 > Radio club F6KBR (JN12kq) > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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FT847 satellite power output problem : solved
by f6htj＠aol.com 13 May '15

13 May '15

"Hello all; our F6KBR radio-club is almost ready to be active very soon via satellites with Yaesu FT847 rig but we have a big problem: no power output on SAT position. Everything else is OK, any mode... We tried full Reset (menu #39) but still same problem. Thanks for any help. 73 de Michel F6HTJ" Hello all; now all is OK. The problem came from ALC mod. I had to remove the final ALC 2009 mod (cut the wire) and it works on sat position. http://www.ok2kkw.com/00000104/ft847_alc_mod/alc_ft847_en_2.htm 73 de Michel F6HTJ Amsat #7409 Radio club F6KBR (JN12kq) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Office Closed
by Martha 13 May '15

13 May '15

The AMSAT office will be closed until Tuesday, May 19th. I will be in Dayton! -- > 73- Martha (AMSAT's only employee)

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Need someone to call about Thursday AMSAT setup.
by Douglas Phelps 13 May '15

13 May '15

I am at the Brookville KOA. I have equipment related to the display. I need to know what time setup starts. I also need to find transportation. Keith Pugh please call me at 847-514-8566 today. If anyone can give me Keith's cellphone, that will work also.

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Sarah Brightman's ISS Mission Postponed
by M5AKA 13 May '15

13 May '15

Sarah Brightman – Space Flight Postponed http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/13/sarah-brightman-space-flight-postponed/ 73 Trevor M5AKA ---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK Flickr https://flickr.com/groups/AmsatUK YouTube https://youtube.com/AmsatUK Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube ----

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Circular or linear polarization for a cubesat - amateur preference?
by Peter Kazakoff 13 May '15

13 May '15

Hi folks, I'm currently working on finalizing the design of an undergraduate 3U cube satellite (ECOSat-II at the University of Victoria in Canada) which will retain some amateur satellite capabilities. The design won the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) in 2013, and the prize is a launch into a 600 km sun synchronous polar orbit, so it in all likelihood will actually fly. Current specifications are: - RX: 70cm amateur space band, < 1 dB noise figure, omnidirectional pattern - TX: 2m amateur space band, 2 watts maximum transmit power, omnidirectional pattern Supported modes: - Narrowband FM repeat - 40 kHz wide non-inverting linear transponder - 9600 baud DQPSK custom digital mode with forward error correction The satellite uses an SDR board with 200 kHz I-Q bandwidth that we've designed ourselves, so all the modes can run concurrently on the single communications system. The digital mode is something that we designed for our telemetry & control link, but we'll publish a specification so amateurs with SDRs can still play with anything that isn't critical for spacecraft operation (for example: amateurs can poll the status of various subsystems and read the telemetry files, but can't change the attitude control setpoint or update firmware). If there's time before launch we'll probably also implement some kind of message board service on this mode so amateurs can send store-and-forward text messages. Anyway, here's a SolidWorks render of the current design: http://on.fb.me/1cRkB4J. You can see that the satellite uses two dipole antennas, one for each band. The problem that I see with this is that amateurs are going to need circular polarized antennas for full-duplex transmission - as the antennas are mounted 90 degrees apart, pointing a linear Yagi at the satellite means that both linear polarizations can't be received at the same time. You can do it with a crossed Yagi (circular polarized) but at the expense of 3 dB of link margin in each direction. (This wasn't my design - it was designed before I joined the team). I'm considering trimming both dipoles down to half-wavelength for 70cm and then using them as a single turnstile antenna. I can then feed the antenna through a diplexer and 90 degree hybrid to give a circular pattern. I think this was unattractive before because the design was hard to model, but Keysight just gave us a copy of some pretty expensive high end RF design software and field simulators so I should be able to get it all working in software before building it. The advantage to this approach is that an amateur station on the ground can use a straightforward linear Yagi and only suffer 3dB of loss regardless of spacecraft orientation about the zenith-nadir axis. Amateur stations with crossed Yagis can get the full signal, provided they match the polarization and the satellite isn't tumbling. Thoughts? -- *Peter Kazakoff* ECOSat <http://csdc.uvic.ca/> Communications Lead 4th Year Electrical Engineering Student University of Victoria *(250) 920 - 6870*

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Periscope AO-73 Demo Tonight at 0155 UTC
by Paul Stoetzer 13 May '15

13 May '15

Good evening, As a test drive for Dayton, I will be demoing a pass of AO-73 tonight at 01:55 UTC via Periscope. Check my Twitter account (https://twitter.com/PRStoetzer) for the link about 5 minutes before the pass starts, or follow me on Periscope. This will be a short pass as the satellite will enter sunlight at 02:00:53 and the transponder will shut off. 73, Paul, N8HM

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Dayton Satellite Demos on Periscope
by Paul Stoetzer 12 May '15

12 May '15

Good evening, I plan to broadcast a few of the AMSAT satellite demos via Periscope. If you can't make it to Dayton, feel free to tune in and see the AMSAT demo station in action! Follow @PRStoetzer on Twitter and when the Periscope stream is live, a link to it will be tweeted (https://twitter.com/prstoetzer). I will try to remind everyone of specific passes that I will broadcast as we get closer to the date. This is, of course, dependent on adequate cell phone data service outside of Hara Arena. With that many people around, it may not be possible. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to livestream the AMSAT forum due to a lack of cell service inside the forum hall. I may also do Periscope streams of other things relevant to those interested in amateur satellites, so keep an eye on my Twitter account over the weekend. 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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Events of Interest at This Year's Hamvention
by E.Mike McCardel 12 May '15

12 May '15

Folks, Here is a list of Educational, Technical and Space Related events happening at Dayton's Hamvention over the weekend. Just in the event you might run out of things to do. Make sure you visit the AMSAT Booth, Booths 433-435 and 444-446 (Both sides of the aisle). This would be a great time to join AMSAT in this "YEAR OF THE FOX" EMike AMSAT Dinner @ Tickets Tickets Pub & Eatery, 7 West Main Street, Fairborn, OH 45324 The sixth annual AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.) "Dinner at Tickets" party will be held Thursday at 1800 EDT at Tickets Pub & Eatery at 7 W. Main St, Fairborn, OH. Great selection of Greek and American food and great company! No program or speaker, just good conversation. Food can be ordered from the menu; drinks (beer, wine, sodas and iced tea) are available at the bar. Leave room for dessert; there's an in-house ice cream shop! Come as you are. Bring some friends and have a great time the night before Hamvention. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 9:15-11:15 Room 1 TAPR Forum Moderator: Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI, past TAPR Director and past TAPR Vice President Speakers: Steve Bible, N7HPR, TAPR President Steve Ford, WB8IMY, QST Editor, Write for QST/QEX Bill Curtice, WA8APB, and Bob Dixon, W8ERD, Hamnet Mesh: Consider the Possibilities! High speed, digital, microwave mesh networks offer hams an exciting array of new communications possibilities supporting experimentation, remote sensing and control, and emergency communications. Mesh is the ultimate "experimenter's sandbox", serving as an ideal host for a wide variety of "maker" projects and applications. This presentation will introduce mesh, describing what it is, how it works, and how it's deployed. We will then address a variety of mesh applications, to include those hosted by Raspberry Pi and similar processors. Bryan Fields, W9CR, High Speed IP Radio A presentation on High-Speed IP radio with an emphasis on building regional highly available networks. Utilizing the same techniques which enable the Internet, Amateur Radio networks may be built; connecting projects to the Internet or other sites. These networks form a resilient backup to cable, DSL and phone commercial internet connections. Chris Testa, KD2BMH, Whitebox Project: New Charlie Prototype Come check out the third prototype of the Whitebox handheld SDR project. This is a software-defined transceiver that will be FCC-legal and can communicate using essentially any mode and protocol up to 1 MHz wide on frequencies between 50 and 1000 MHz. It pairs with your smartphone, and runs all Open Source Software on an embedded uClinux system. Mike Ossmann, Spectrum Monitoring with Software Defined Radio Many of the current crop of SDR platforms support a very wide range of operating frequencies covering more than a GHz of bandwidth, but most users of those platforms find themselves looking at waterfall displays showing a few MHz at most. Let's look at how we can use SDR to monitor activity over several GHz of spectrum and visualize the results over both short and long periods of time. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 10:30-12:00 Room 3 Instructors' Forum Moderator: Carole Perry, WB2MGP The Instructors' Forum is designed to inform and share ideas with teachers, instructors and leaders of youth groups that incorporate Ham Radio in their programs with young adults. Speakers: EMike McCardel,KC8YLD, VP for Educational Relations AMSAT-NA, AMSAT Educational Outreach and New ARISS Proposal Guidelines An overview of educational outreach opportunities and activities available through AMSAT and its educational partners, including the ARRL and ARISS. Stan Reubenstein, WA6RNU, president emeritus of Radio Club of America and on the RCA Youth Activities Committee, International Efforts to Promote Youth in Ham Radio A discussion of the efforts in recruitment in different countries and motivations to keep young hams involved and engaged in radio. Ed Engleman, KG8CX, co-founder of Y.A.C.H.T. (Young Amateurs Communications Ham Team) program, Promoting Ham Radio to Youth in a Boys and Girls Club Setting and Creating and Maintaining Activity and Interest through an Echolink Youth Group and Net. All presenters will provide handouts for the audience members. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 11:30-12:30 Room 1 APRS Speakers: Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, APRS Operating notes Byon Garrabrant, N6BG, Byonics Update Allen Lord, AF6OF, Microtrack Update Jason Rausch, KE4NYV, RPC Electronics Update Don Arnold, W6GPS, AVMAP G6 update Andrew Pavlin, KA2DDO, author of YAAC Bryan Hoyer, K7UDR, NW Digital Radio ------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 12:15-2:15 Room 2 Balloon Sat Moderators: Bill Brown, WB8ELK, & Doug Loughmille, W5BL Speakers: Bill Brown, WB8ELK, Miniature Trackers and Long Duration Flights Gene Swiech, WB9COY, Arizona Near Space Research Ballooning Brian Tanner, Spaceport Indiana STEM Activities Keith Kaiser, WA0TJT, Jurassic Pigs and Other Adventures in High Altitude Ballooning, Part 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 12:15-1:15 Room 3 Hams in Space Speakers: Randy Schulze, KD0HKD, and Eddy Paul, KY0F You don't need 100W of transmit power nor expensive antenna arrays to work the FM amateur satellites! Many hams already have the necessary equipment to "work the birds." The Hams in Space Presentation will walk you through ALL the steps needed to successfully work ham satellites. An emphasis of "Keep it Simple" and "Have Fun" is stressed throughout. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 9:15-12 Room 2 2015 Youth Forum (Note: AMSAT will be presenting Gould's Getting Started guide the presenters and a couple more for the Youth Drawing at this event) Moderator: Carole Perry, WB2MGP Come show support and join the fun by attending this forum that showcases our young, talented hams. Bring kids with you to inspire them by seeing role models having fun and being creative in ham radio activities. Lots of surprise guests will be stopping by. We will be having fabulous door prizes for adults and youth who are in attendance. Speakers: Tyler Hammond, KD8UAY, 13 years old, Contesting for Elementary Students Abbigail Wilson, KF5BEW, 18 years old, and Kendra Wilson, KF5FYS, 16 years old, Youth and the Future of Ham Radio Sam Case, KG7HBY, 11 years old, The Friday Night QSO Party Jesse Shulins, KB1YNK, 17 years old, Pneumatic Mast Systems for the Radio Amateur Faith Hannah Lea, WA4BBC, 10 years old, and Zechariah Lea, WX4TVJ, 12 years old, Experiences in Antenna Selection, Construction, and Use for VHF Applications Cameron Thurston, N8CAM, 16 years old, Contesting with N3FJP Software Saturday 11:15-1:30 Room 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------ AMSAT Forum Moderator: Alan Biddle, WA4SCA Speakers: Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT-NA President, AMSAT Status Report will highlight recent activities within AMSAT and discuss some of the challenges, accomplishments, and exciting projects of the organization. Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight, ARISS Report 2015 will discuss ARISS development & operations on the International Space Station. Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT-NA Engineering Vice President, AMSAT-NA Fox Satellite Program will discuss the upcoming launches of four Fox spacecraft and exciting new engineering developments. Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Operations Vice President, AMSAT Satellite Operations will discuss current satellites, as well as those planned for launch in the next year. Tom Clark, K3IO, AMSAT-NA President Emeritus, AMSAT's Skunk Works will discuss some innovated R&D items for future spacecraft. EMike McCardel, KC8YLD, AMSAT-NA Educational Relations Vice President, Amateur Satellites, Education, and You! will discuss the resources and equipment which supports the educational goals of AMSAT-NA. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 12-1 Room 3 Fast Scan ATV Moderator: Art Towslee, WA8RMC, Introduction and Wrap-Up Speakers: Gordon West, WB6NOA, Life After the P.C. Analog Tx/Rx Mel Whitten, K0PFX, Getting started in Digital Amateur Television Dr. Al Torres, KP4AQI, VSWR: Why It Does Not Mean As Much As You Think (For ATVers) Mike Collis, WA6SVT, ATV in Southern California, Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday 1:45-3:00 Room 5 ARRL Forum ARRL is honored to welcome NASA Astronaut Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (Colonel, US Air Force, retired) as our guest to Hamvention. Mike holds an Amateur Radio license, call sign KE5AIT, and operated ham radio equipment from aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 9 and 18 crews -- making radio contacts with students, teachers, and the general Amateur Radio community. In June 2004, Mike delighted many radio amateurs by making contacts during ARRL Field Day. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of ARRL, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA, and other international space agencies and international Amateur Radio organizations around the world. This forum is sponsored by ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Special Guest Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke, KE5AIT - NASA Astronaut ARRL is honored to welcome NASA Astronaut Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (Colonel, US Air Force, retired) as our guest to Hamvention (R). Mike holds an Amateur Radio license, call sign KE5AIT, and operated ham radio equipment from aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 9 and 18 crews -- making radio contacts with students, teachers, and the general Amateur Radio community. In June 2004, Mike delighted many radio amateurs by making contacts during ARRL Field Day. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of ARRL, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA, and other international space agencies and international Amateur Radio organizations around the world. You can meet and greet Mike in the ARRL exhibit area (times and locations will be posted). Mike has also been confirmed as a Hamvention (R) forum speaker ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunday 10:30-11:30 Room 3 Engaging Youth in Ham Radio through Informal Education Opportunities (Note that ARRL's Teachers Institute is a close ally and partner of AMSAT Education) Moderator: Larry Kendall, K6NDL, Instructor, ARRL's Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology Larry Kendall, K6NDL, is an Instructor for ARRL's Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology (TI) -- an outreach program that sponsors professional development seminars for educators, motivating teachers and schools to use radio electronics and related technologies to inspire students studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Larry has been an educator and curriculum developer since 1981 and teaches middle school Technology and Robotics at Sitting Bull Academy in Apple Valley, California. Before becoming a TI Instructor, Larry participated in ARRL's TI-1, TI-2: Space in the Classroom, and TI-2: Remote Sensing workshops. Larry will share some best practices and resources, including experiences from participating in Scouting's Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) through his involvement as a board member of the Victor Valley Amateur Radio Club. This forum is sponsored by ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. ------------------------------------------------------------------ AMSAT: Amateur Satellite Demonstrations Fri, May 15,and May 16 Sat 9am - 4pm Sun, May 17, 9am - 11am Hara Arena Conference & Exhibition Center Door 1 Description Amateur Satellite operation demonstrations will be held outside the Ball Arena entrance. AMSAT will be demonstrating actual contacts with the operational amateur satellites every day. We especially want to invite youth to make a contact via an amateur satellite. All are invited to observe, participate and ask questions. Satellite pass times will be posted at the AMSAT booth (433-435, 444- 446) and in the demo area. ------------------------------------------------------------------ AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Fri, May 15, 6:30pm - 9:00pm Kohler Presidential Banquet Center, 4572 Presidential Way, Kettering, OH 45429 TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE FROM AMSAT STORE The ninth annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be held on Friday night, May 15, at 1830 EDT. This dinner is always a highlight of the AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.) and TAPR (Tucson Amateur Packet Radio) activities during the Dayton Hamvention. This year's speaker will be Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, "Adventures of a Hacker Turned Ham" Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, grew up as a computer nerd embracing the hacker ethos. Eventually Michael became very interested in the security of wireless systems such as remote keyless entry, garage door openers, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. He designed Ubertooth One, a Bluetooth sniffer that was successfully funded on Kickstarter. Not one to rest, Michael later designed and successfully funded HackRF One, an open source SDR platform that attracted the attention of the amateur radio community. Michael will talk about his unique perspective on the community as an outsider looking in, why he resisted getting a license for years, and why he finally decided to join. Michael will also share his thoughts on what it means to be a hacker, what it means to be a ham, and what amateur radio may look like in the decades to come. Tickets ($35 each) must be purchased online in advance on the AMSAT website at www.amsat.org through the AMSAT Store tab. Tickets will not be sold at the Hamvention or at the door. Tickets purchased online may be collected at the AMSAT booth (433-435, 444-446). The Banquet will take place at the Kohler Presidential Banquet Center, 4572 Presidential Way, Kettering, OH 45429 (just south of Dayton). The cash bar will open at 1830 EDT, with the dinner commencing around 1900 EDT. ------------------------------------------------------------------ SPACE FEST Visit the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force on May 15-16 for a multitude of exciting space-related activities! The museum and a number of partner organizations will offer hands-on activities for all ages, including special appearances by astronauts, a 5K fun run/walk and 1-mile kids' race, a star-gaze with telescopes, a chance to see the museum's Space Shuttle Exhibit, model rocket building and launching, and much more. Admission to most activities is FREE! More information, including a detailed schedule is available at www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/ spacefest.asp. E. Michael McCardel, KC8YLD V.P. for Educational Relations, AMSAT-NA Have you donated to get your Fox-1 Challenge Coin Yet? http://www.amsat.org/?p=3275

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Re: [amsat-bb] WinKeps - Smoothed Keps
by Clint Bradford 12 May '15

12 May '15

I think the only programs he offers are on his page at ... http://www.keplerian.com/ Clint K6LCS

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WinKeps - Smoothed Keps
by Fabio Azzarello IZ5XRC 12 May '15

12 May '15

Hello, I was reading again: http://www.keplerian.com/AO-10.html at the bottom of the page there's a reference to "WinKeps" sw program. Does anybody know if this sw is still around? I'm interested in smoothing keplerians for tracking/decay predictions. Thanks. best 73 Fabio iz5xrc

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Re: [amsat-bb] LOTW For Satellite Operators Tutorial
by Sean K. 12 May '15

12 May '15

Hi Mark- For satellite QSOs, you need to enter BOTH xmit and receive bands, since they are different. >From the presentation: "Logging QSOs made through the Amateur satellites is not much different than logging any other QSO on the air. The standard QSO information - callsign, date, time, band and mode are logged. But to receive proper credit for a satellite QSO, the log entry must also include the receive band, propagation mode ("satellite"), and the satellite name." Sean Kutzko Amateur Radio KX9X From: Mark Johns <mjohns166(a)yahoo.com> To: "kx9x(a)yahoo.com" <kx9x(a)yahoo.com>; "amsat-bb(a)amsat.org" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015 8:41 PM Subject: RE: [amsat-bb] LOTW For Satellite Operators Tutorial | The PowerPoint on LoTW advises logging and uploading the receive (downlink) band. When I did this, I was regularly chastised and told that the correct procedure was to designate the transmit (uplink) band. So which is correct? -- Mark D. Johns, K0MDJ Decorah, Iowa USA EN43 At May 11, 2015, 14:09:00, Sean K. via AMSAT-BB wrote:Hi all- ARRL has provided a PowerPoint presentation on Logbook of The World focused on satellite operation in the ARRL Online Library. There is also an Intro to LoTW PowerPoint available. Both may be found at www.arrl.org/library, in the PowerPoint area. Sean Kutzko Amateur Radio KX9X _______________________________________________ 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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FUNcube Data Warehouse Maintenance
by David Johnson 12 May '15

12 May '15

Hi, Just a quick heads up that we will be taking the warehouse offline for about 20 minutes between 16:00 and 16:30 UTC 13th May 2015 to do some maintenence on the database. If this is goint to cause you a problem, please shout.. 73 Dave, G4DPZ

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Re: [amsat-bb] Digi QSO via ISS? (use >)
by Robert Bruninga 12 May '15

12 May '15

If packet stations simply put a ">" as the first character of their packet then they instantly become "APRS Sttus" messages and will show on the front panel of ALL APRS radios and handhelds. Without that, the packet is undefined and not displayed as being non-APRS. So packet stations desiring to be seen by most of the others on ISS, should remember that if they want to be seen by others begin with a">". Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) Sent: Monday, May 11, 2015 5:52 PM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Digi QSO via ISS? Sean (and others), That looks good. The initial "CQ" call could start with receiving a station's beacon containing the location or other text that is sent through the ISS digipeater. Sometimes I'll see only a signal report from the other station (59 or 599), since the location has already been received from a beacon packet with that information. This would be similar to sending only a "59" when working a DXpedition, where they really don't care to hear too much when making lots of QSOs. I don't normally send a CQ when on ISS passes (or, when it's behaving, NO-44 passes), but will enable a beacon with my position and my two call signs when I'm at the radio. By using APRS messaging instead of just typing free-form text, you will be able to make packet QSOs with stations that may only have radios like the Kenwood TH-D72A or TM-D710 (or their predecessors), as well as those using programs like UISS that speak APRS messaging, or simpler terminal programs that don't speak APRS messaging. These radios can receive the APRS messages, and - using the DTMF pads - send APRS messages. My TH-D72A will see the call of a station that sends me a free-form line of text like: WD9EWK-9 UR 599 (grid) but not the text. I might be able to see this packet on ariss.net, but that would not be receiving it on my radio, so no QSO. If that free-form text line includes a colon before the text: WD9EWK-9 :UR 599 (grid) (my call with -9, space, colon, then text) my TH-D72A would interpret that as an APRS message directed to me, from whoever sent it to me. The sender's call and a date/time stamp would be stored with the received message, and then I can view this message on the HT. From there, I can quickly send a reply without having to enter the other station's call. I'm typing out messages like we would on an old flip-style mobile phone, pressing the buttons repeatedly to get certain characters on the screen. This works, and provides a way to interact with other stations without the need for a computer or other device connected to the radio. I do not enable any automatic responses when I receive messages, other than the ACK responses if I receive an APRS message that expects one. Some will enable an automatic response that may say something like "Thanks, 73!", and I think the Kenwood radios will put an "AA:" before the response if it is generated by the radio and not the operator. Other than my position packets, I try not to add to the clutter from the unattended stations that squawk during every ISS pass. Whether I'm at home or on the road, using my Elk antenna or even a long telescoping whip, I find I can get through the ISS digipeater with my TH-D72A at just 5 watts. From Arizona, I have worked stations on the ISS as far away as Wisconsin, Indiana, and east Texas. On NO-44, I have worked stations from home as far as Mississippi. I am also working stations at hamfests or other demonstrations, and on my recent grid expeditions to Las Vegas and New Mexico. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 2:15 PM, Sean Kutzko via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: > There needs to be an exchange of info and acknowledgement from both stations that reports were received on both ends. > > Kx9x: CQ KX9X > Kc0bmf: KX9X de KC0BMF EM29 > Kx9x: KC0BMF R FN31 > Kc0bmf: KX9X R 73 > Kx9x: 73 QRZ KX9X > > UISS software can handle this quite easily. > > That's my opinion, anyway. > > Sean KX9X > > Sent from Sean's iPad > > > >> On May 11, 2015, at 4:02 PM, John Fickes <kc0bmf(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Steve >> Sure you can. What are you using for software ? I use UISS and what >> I do is send call sign, some sort of signal report (it could be >> 59,599,grid or combination of report and grid ) and then a 73. I >> think as long as there is protocol similar to JT65 where the three >> things are sent and received in back and forth order, other stations >> call,a report and 73, this way your pretty sure there is someone on >> the other end and your not just getting someones automatic announcement. Hope to see you on. >> >> 73 John KC0BMF >> >> 1:16 Minutes:Greatest commercial EVER >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxU1ZhINaHk >> >> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Steve Kristoff >> <skristof(a)etczone.com> >> wrote: >> >>> I apologize if this has been dealt with in a previous thread, but if >>> it was, I missed it. >>> Can we do a valid QSO by ISS digipeater? It seems to me that a >>> message directed from one station directly to another station with a >>> callsign, name and grid square and a directed reply in the same >>> format would constitute a valid QSO. >>> I'd like to hear other's thoughts. >>> Even it doesn't constitute an "official" QSO, I'd like to try it anyway. >>> I've been sending messages to specific stations on the Heard list >>> via the UISS software, but have never received a reply specifically addressed to me. >>> If anyone is interested in doing that, I will probably be on >>> Tuesday, May 12, around 1005 UTC and again around 1632 UTC. >>> >>> Steve Kristoff AI9IN >>> EM79ji >>> skristof(a)etczone.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-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

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Re: [amsat-bb] Digi QSO via ISS?
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 11 May '15

11 May '15

Sean (and others), That looks good. The initial "CQ" call could start with receiving a station's beacon containing the location or other text that is sent through the ISS digipeater. Sometimes I'll see only a signal report from the other station (59 or 599), since the location has already been received from a beacon packet with that information. This would be similar to sending only a "59" when working a DXpedition, where they really don't care to hear too much when making lots of QSOs. I don't normally send a CQ when on ISS passes (or, when it's behaving, NO-44 passes), but will enable a beacon with my position and my two call signs when I'm at the radio. By using APRS messaging instead of just typing free-form text, you will be able to make packet QSOs with stations that may only have radios like the Kenwood TH-D72A or TM-D710 (or their predecessors), as well as those using programs like UISS that speak APRS messaging, or simpler terminal programs that don't speak APRS messaging. These radios can receive the APRS messages, and - using the DTMF pads - send APRS messages. My TH-D72A will see the call of a station that sends me a free-form line of text like: WD9EWK-9 UR 599 (grid) but not the text. I might be able to see this packet on ariss.net, but that would not be receiving it on my radio, so no QSO. If that free-form text line includes a colon before the text: WD9EWK-9 :UR 599 (grid) (my call with -9, space, colon, then text) my TH-D72A would interpret that as an APRS message directed to me, from whoever sent it to me. The sender's call and a date/time stamp would be stored with the received message, and then I can view this message on the HT. From there, I can quickly send a reply without having to enter the other station's call. I'm typing out messages like we would on an old flip-style mobile phone, pressing the buttons repeatedly to get certain characters on the screen. This works, and provides a way to interact with other stations without the need for a computer or other device connected to the radio. I do not enable any automatic responses when I receive messages, other than the ACK responses if I receive an APRS message that expects one. Some will enable an automatic response that may say something like "Thanks, 73!", and I think the Kenwood radios will put an "AA:" before the response if it is generated by the radio and not the operator. Other than my position packets, I try not to add to the clutter from the unattended stations that squawk during every ISS pass. Whether I'm at home or on the road, using my Elk antenna or even a long telescoping whip, I find I can get through the ISS digipeater with my TH-D72A at just 5 watts. From Arizona, I have worked stations on the ISS as far away as Wisconsin, Indiana, and east Texas. On NO-44, I have worked stations from home as far as Mississippi. I am also working stations at hamfests or other demonstrations, and on my recent grid expeditions to Las Vegas and New Mexico. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 2:15 PM, Sean Kutzko via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> wrote: > There needs to be an exchange of info and acknowledgement from both stations that reports were received on both ends. > > Kx9x: CQ KX9X > Kc0bmf: KX9X de KC0BMF EM29 > Kx9x: KC0BMF R FN31 > Kc0bmf: KX9X R 73 > Kx9x: 73 QRZ KX9X > > UISS software can handle this quite easily. > > That's my opinion, anyway. > > Sean KX9X > > Sent from Sean's iPad > > > >> On May 11, 2015, at 4:02 PM, John Fickes <kc0bmf(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Steve >> Sure you can. What are you using for software ? I use UISS and what I do >> is send call sign, some sort of signal report (it could be 59,599,grid or >> combination of report and grid ) and then a 73. I think as long as there >> is protocol similar to JT65 where the three things are sent and received in >> back and forth order, other stations call,a report and 73, this way your >> pretty sure there is someone on the other end and your not just getting >> someones automatic announcement. Hope to see you on. >> >> 73 John KC0BMF >> >> 1:16 Minutes:Greatest commercial EVER >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxU1ZhINaHk >> >> On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Steve Kristoff <skristof(a)etczone.com> >> wrote: >> >>> I apologize if this has been dealt with in a previous thread, but if it >>> was, I missed it. >>> Can we do a valid QSO by ISS digipeater? It seems to me that a message >>> directed from one station directly to another station with a callsign, name >>> and grid square and a directed reply in the same format would constitute a >>> valid QSO. >>> I'd like to hear other's thoughts. >>> Even it doesn't constitute an "official" QSO, I'd like to try it anyway. >>> I've been sending messages to specific stations on the Heard list via the >>> UISS software, but have never received a reply specifically addressed to me. >>> If anyone is interested in doing that, I will probably be on Tuesday, May >>> 12, around 1005 UTC and again around 1632 UTC. >>> >>> Steve Kristoff AI9IN >>> EM79ji >>> skristof(a)etczone.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-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

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Digi QSO via ISS?
by Steve Kristoff 11 May '15

11 May '15

I apologize if this has been dealt with in a previous thread, but if it was, I missed it. Can we do a valid QSO by ISS digipeater? It seems to me that a message directed from one station directly to another station with a callsign, name and grid square and a directed reply in the same format would constitute a valid QSO. I'd like to hear other's thoughts. Even it doesn't constitute an "official" QSO, I'd like to try it anyway. I've been sending messages to specific stations on the Heard list via the UISS software, but have never received a reply specifically addressed to me. If anyone is interested in doing that, I will probably be on Tuesday, May 12, around 1005 UTC and again around 1632 UTC. Steve Kristoff AI9IN EM79ji skristof(a)etczone.com

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LOTW For Satellite Operators Tutorial
by Sean K. 11 May '15

11 May '15

Hi all- ARRL has provided a PowerPoint presentation on Logbook of The World focused on satellite operation in the ARRL Online Library. There is also an Intro to LoTW PowerPoint available. Both may be found at www.arrl.org/library, in the PowerPoint area. Sean Kutzko Amateur Radio KX9X

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VP2MKV pass plan
by Jim White 11 May '15

11 May '15

Tentative satellite pass plan for VP2MKV operation: We will attempt to be on the first two FO-29 ascending node passes June 11 through 20. If time allows we may be on the third ascending node those days. Those passes happen in late morning to mid afternoon Montserrat time. On those passes we will look first for South America when the satellite is South of us, then North America, then Europe during the short mutual window. If there are 2 meter or 6 meter terrestrial openings during the VHF contest June 13 and 14 we will not be on satellite at those times. Jim

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Video of my first SO-50 contact with K4FEG
by John Brier 11 May '15

11 May '15

Thanks to all for welcoming me on the bird on the early morning pass. I made a short video of my contact with K4FEG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ3pvpVERFQ Here's a quick video of my first contact on SO-50, with K4FEG in Millington, TN. I didn't want to edit the whole thing because that takes even more time, but I also made contacts with the following stations: N2PPL, Long Island, NY W2HRO, Titusville, NJ WI9I, Springfield, IL And maybe KD8ATF in Fort Ashby, WV depending on if it's okay to confirm something by listening to the recording. :-) Thanks to all on the bird for making my first 2-way contacts so fun and easy! 73, John, KG4AKV, FM05

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73 on 73 Award #19 - JH3XCU
by Paul Stoetzer 11 May '15

11 May '15

Good morning, Congratulations to Hideo Kambayashi, JH3XCU, for working 73 different stations on AO-73 since September 1, 2014. Notably, he is the first to work all 73 different stations using CW. For more information on the award see http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/73-on-73-award/ 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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Updates to the AMSAT Upcoming Satellite Operations Page
by Paul Stoetzer 11 May '15

11 May '15

Good evening, I just wanted to let everyone know that there are 16 operations to many rare grids and a couple of rare countries over the next two and a half months now listed on the AMSAT Upcoming Satellite Operations page ( http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3921 ). I encourage everyone to bookmark the page and/or follow @AMSAT on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/AMSAT) to see notifications when operations are added to the page. Please send me any updates, corrections, or new operations to add to the page. 73, Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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SO50 pass today
by John Geiger 10 May '15

10 May '15

Who was the station on from FM09 on SO50 today on the 2131Z pass? 73 John AF5CC

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FUNcube-1 Mode change
by Graham Shirville 10 May '15

10 May '15

Hi All, Just to report that FUNcube-1 was switched back to autonomous mode around 20:25 UTC this evening. We have received a request to provide an extended period of continuous amateur mode this coming weekend from Friday morning 15th May until Sunday evening 17th May. This will support AMSAT transponder operations during the whole of the Dayton Hamvention event. Unless we hear that this change will interfere with any planned schools activities during Friday 15th we will arrange for the transponder to switch on during the first suitable pass over EU on Friday morning. 73 Graham – G3VZV for the FUNcube Ops Team

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ANS-130 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by Lee McLamb 10 May '15

10 May '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-130 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: * Deadline for 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet ticket is Tuesday, May 12th at 1800 EDT * AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention 2015 * Work Fox-1A at Dayton * Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton * 7th European CubeSat Symposium * ISS Ham Video transmitter now transmitting * NASA Hosts Media Call on Draft Solicitation for New Class of Launch Services SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-130.01 ANS-130 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 130.01 From AMSAT HQ Kensington, MD. May 10, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-130.01 Deadline for 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet ticket is Tuesday, May 12th at 1800 EDT The speaker at the 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet will be Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, on "Adventures of a Hacker Turned Ham." Tickets ($35 each) MUST be purchased online in advance at the AMSAT Store no later than 1800 EDT (2300 UTC) Tuesday, May 12th. Tickets will not be sold at the Hamvention or at the door. Tickets purchased online may be collected at the AMSAT booth (433-435, 444-446). More information may be found at http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=190. [ANS thanks Alan, WA4SCA, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention 2015 The AMSAT theme for this year is "Year of The Fox", as we expect to launch both Fox-1A and Fox-1C in 2015 and we're announcing the plans for Fox-1D and Fox-1E. The AMSAT booth is in the same location inside the Ball Arena as last year, in booths 433-435 and 444-446. The Tracking Software Demos (433) and Engineering & Education (434-435) are across the aisle from the Beginner's Corner (444) and Membership, Books & Shirts (445-446). The closest entrance to the AMSAT booth is the Ball Arena entrance (Door 1) at the southeast corner of the building. The satellite QSO demonstrations will be outside across from the entrance to the Ball Arena. AMSAT Forum ----------- The AMSAT forum will be Saturday morning from 11:15 a.m. through 1:30 p.m. in Forum Room 5, close to the AMSAT booth. See the commercial vendor layout map in the Hamvention program or the Hamvention website for the location of Forum Room 5 (same as the last few years). The following speakers will be presenting at the AMSAT Forum: + Moderator: Alan Biddle, WA4SCA + "AMSAT Status Report." Barry Baines, WD4ASW, AMSAT-NA President, will highlight recent activities within AMSAT and discuss some of the challenges, accomplishments, and exciting projects of the organization. + "ARISS Report 2015" Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT-NA Vice President for Human Spaceflight, will discuss ARISS development & operations on the International Space Station. + "AMSAT-NA Fox Satellite Program." Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT-NA Engineering Vice President, will discuss the upcoming launches of four Fox spacecraft and exciting new engineering developments. + "AMSAT Satellite Operations." Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT-NA Operations Vice President, will discuss current satellites, as well as those planned for launch in the next year. + "AMSAT's Skunk Works." Tom Clark, K3IO, AMSAT-NA President Emeritus, will discuss some innovative R&D items for future spacecraft. + "Amateur Satellites, Education, and You!" EMike McCardel, KC8YLD, AMSAT-NA Educational Relations Vice President, will discuss the resources and equipment which supports the educational goals of AMSAT-NA. On-the-air Satellite Demonstrations ----------------------------------- Keith Pugh, W5IU and other volunteers will be conducting satellite demonstrations during the Hamvention. They will be demonstrating satellite operation using a manual station to work all the currently available FM satellites and SSB satellites. Hamvention has provided us a nice fenced area right outside the Ball Arena entrance in which to do our satellite demonstrations. A schedule of satellite passes for the Hamvention will be available in the Beginner's Corner and in the demonstration area. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Dayton Hamvention Posse for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Work Fox-1A at Dayton Bring your HT to Dayton Hamvention, you can work each other on the Fox-1 engineering unit repeater at the AMSAT Engineering Booth! Uplink: 435.180 MHz FM, CTCSS 67.0 Hz Downlink: 145.980 MHz FM ± Doppler (which should be minimal) [ANS thanks Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT VP Engineering, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Top 10 Reasons to Come to Dayton 10. Rub shoulders with 25,000 of your best friends at the largest hamfest in the United States, including nearly all of the AMSAT Directors and senior officers. 9. Find out how to organize a contact with the astronauts on the International Space Station for your local school or youth group from our Education and ARISS experts. 8. Pickup the latest AMSAT golf shirts, T-shirts, and hats. Get your copy of the updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart) and Gould Smith's just revised "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" (book). We'll also have assembled wide-band preamps that are great for portable operation. 7. See the latest equipment from Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Flex, Alinco, M2, Arrow, and many other manufacturers of amateur radio equipment and accessories. Take advantage of discounted pricing you won't find anywhere else. 6. See demonstrations of SatPC32 and MacDoppler satellite tracking software, and get your operational questions answered. Meet Don Agro, author of MacDoppler (Friday & Saturday, 2-3 p.m.). See a demonstration of the LVB Tracker, a computer interface to the Yaesu azimuth-elevation rotors. Talk with Mike Young, who has built more LVB Trackers than anyone else. Assembled LVB Trackers will be available. 5. Hear the latest on the *five* Fox satellites, the geosynchronous rideshare opportunity, the International Space Station, other current and future satellites, Education news, and an AMSAT update at the AMSAT Forum Saturday, from 11:15 to 1:30. 4. Get one-on-one guidance on setting up your satellite station and making contacts at our "Beginner's Corner". Witness live demonstrations of contacts through satellites AO-7, FO-29, SO-50, AO-73, and the Fox-1C engineering model using handheld antennas. 3. Bring your dual-band HT and listen (on 2m FM) to the Fox-1A engineering model, and transmit through the model on 70cm. Meet and interact with some of the Engineering Team members working on the Fox-1 satellites. 2. Get satellite station and operating tips from some of the best satellite operators in the country, including John Papay K8YSE (1,405 grids confirmed), Doug Papay KD8CAO (1,045 grids), Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA (1,036 grids), Paul Stoetzer (444 grids), and Keith Pugh W5IU (ARISS Mentor). 1. Receive special premiums when you join or renew your AMSAT membership at Dayton, including an updated "Amateur Satellite Frequency Guide" (laminated frequency chart), an AMSAT pen/stylus, and special pricing on the SatPC32 satellite tracking software. [ANS thanks Steve, N9IP, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th European CubeSat Symposium 7th European CubeSat Symposium that will take place at Liège (Belgium) on 9-11 September 2015. The Symposium is co-organized by the von Karman Institute and the University of Liege (Space Structures and Systems Laboratory). As in the previous years, the Symposium is open to all CubeSat community around the World. For more information and deadlines, please visit the symposium website www.cubesatsymposium.eu Please remember to submit your abstract before the 15th June 2015. If you are a student, please apply for the sponsorship before that date. The Symposium will be followed by a short course in astrodynamics organized by the University of Liège (more information at this link). [ANS thanks Dr. Masutti for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ISS Ham Video transmitter now transmitting Friday May 1st, 2015 the Ham Video transmitter on board the Columbus module of the International Space Station was powered on and started transmitting in "Blank Transmission" (BT) mode. In this mode, the transmitter is operated without camera. The digital TV signal is fully formatted, but the content of the video is black and the content of the audio is at zero level. From a technical perspective, the BT signal is all that is needed for testing and fine tuning ground stations. The European network of chained ground stations is presently nearly complete. Six ground stations span the continent in "X" formation. For each ascending pass over Europe, four stations provide about ten minutes of solid copy and the same is true for descending passes: - Ascending passes: Lisbon (Portugal ==> Poitiers (France) ==> Casale Monferrato (North Italy ==> Kolo (Poland) - Descending passes : Cork (Ireland) ==> Poitiers (France) ==> Casale Monferrato (North Italy ==> Matera (South Italy. The chained ground stations are streaming the digital video to the BATC server (British Amateur Television Club). BATC set up a multiviewer page, accessible at: http://www.batc.tv/iss/ The page shows all six streams from the chained ground stations. Each view can be maximized to full screen and the audio of each stream can be set to level or muted. Presently, active stations stream technical data provided by the software developed by Jean Pierre Courjaud F6DZP. Several data are most interesting to observe: - the "constellations", which visualize the QPSK (quaternary PSK) modulated signal - the digital Signal/Noise ratio = MER (dB) (Modulation Error Ratio) - the control LEDs that change from red to green on decoding the digital signal. The Ham Video transmitter frequency is 2395MHz and the symbol rate is 2.0Ms/sec. More information is available at: http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm The Ham Video transmitter will stay on as long as on board operations permit. When the ground stations will be operating reliably, the Ham Video transmitter will be used to enhance ARISS school contacts. Uplink will remain VHF audio only. This operational mode is dubbed ARISS Ham TV. [ANS thanks Gaston, ON4WF, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Hosts Media Call on Draft Solicitation for New Class of Launch Services NASA's Launch Services Program has issued a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS), which would be commercial launch services for small satellites and experiments on science missions using a smaller than currently available class of rockets. NASA Logo NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, May 11 to discuss this strategic initiative, the RFP and the expectation for this class of launch services. At present, launch opportunities for small satellites -- often called CubeSats or nanosatellites -- and small science missions are mostly limited to ride-share type arrangements, flying only when space is available on NASA and other launches. The Launch Services Program seeks to develop alternatives to this approach and help foster other launch services dedicated to transporting smaller payloads into orbit. The services acquired through such a contract will constitute the smallest class of launch services used by NASA. Participants in the media briefing are: Mark Wiese, chief, Flight Projects Branch, Launch Services Program Business Office, NASA's Kennedy Space Center Garrett Skrobot, mission manager, Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa), Launch Services Program, NASA's Kennedy Space Center This solicitation, and resulting contract or contracts, is intended to demonstrate a dedicated launch capability for smaller payloads that NASA anticipates it will require on a recurring basis for future science and CubeSat missions. CubeSats already are used in markets, such as imagery collection and analysis. In the future, CubeSat capabilities will include abilities, such as ship and aircraft tracking, improved weather prediction, and broader Internet coverage. NASA intends to award one or more firm fixed-price VCLS contracts to accommodate 132 pounds (60 kilograms) of CubeSats a single launch or two launches carrying 66 pounds (30 kilograms) each. The launch provider will determine the launch location and date, but the launch must occur by April 15, 2018. To listen to the media teleconference, call 321-867-1220, 321-867-1240 or 321-867-1260 or listen online at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio Media may participate in the briefing by calling the Kennedy Space Center news center at 321-867-2468 within 15 minutes prior to the start of Monday's teleconference to obtain a passcode for voice access. The draft RFP is open for written questions and comments from industry entities until Wednesday, May 20. The final RFP, if issued, is anticipated to be released in June. The draft RFP may be accessed at: http://go.nasa.gov/1KMTeDR For more information about NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CubeSats_initiative.html NASA's Launch Services Program is focused on assuring the availability of long- term launch services for NASA while also promoting the continued evolution of the U.S. commercial space launch market. The capability anticipated to meet the requirement for a smaller launch vehicle represents an emerging category of launch services. For more information about NASA's Launch Services Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/index.html [ANS thanks NASA for the above information] /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, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org

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Sorry about my Packet
by Tom Lubbers K8TL 09 May '15

09 May '15

Due to inattention on my part I was transmitting packets on several orbits of SO-50. The good news is the number of operators who were able to determine what was going on and inform me of it. Sorry for the QRM Tom K8TL

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Cargo Ship
by Joe 08 May '15

08 May '15

I know somewhat off topic, but does anyone know of a tracking page for that supply ship that is coming down? Joe WB9SBD -- Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com

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TAPR/AMSAT Banquet Tickets Must be Purchased by 1800 EDT Tuesday, May 12th
by Alan 08 May '15

08 May '15

All, The speaker at the 2015 TAPR/AMSAT Banquet will be Michael Ossmann, AD0NR, on "Adventures of a Hacker Turned Ham." Tickets ($35 each) MUST be purchased online in advance at the AMSAT Store http://store.amsat.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=38&products_id=88 no later than 1800 EDT (2300 UTC) Tuesday, May 12th. Tickets will not be sold at the Hamvention or at the banquet door. Tickets purchased online may be picked up at the AMSAT booth (433-435, 444-446) by Friday afternoon. More information on the speaker, menu, and location may be found at http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=190. 73s, Alan WA4SCA

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Orbitron Prediction Output - More than three lines?
by John Brier 08 May '15

08 May '15

You can select Brief or 3 lines (AOS, MET, LOS) but what I would like is a line for every minute or two during the pass, maybe selectable. Also, can I get directions instead of AZM? I haven't gotten used to that yet. All this would be very helpful to me instead of having to bring my laptop, which will be hard to see outside anyway. Something I can just print out, and look at my watch to know where it is, and where to point, would be more convenient, I think. PS, I got into SO-50 this morning and this evening, meaning I could hear myself clearly on the downlink. someone in a Delta grid square came back to me this morning, but I didn't have the bird well enough to receive very well and had to apologize for that. This evening I heard myself multiple times but everyone was trying to work W4T. I got a good audio recording of the evening pass too. If someone wants it, let me know. My next attempt at SO-50 will be the Thursday morning pass and the evening pass too perhaps if I don't get anything in the morning. I must say, working this bird is very hard with such a low power signal. It is still very fun, but I am definitely thinking about a preamp! Hah! 73, KG4AKV, Raleigh, NC, FM05

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Probably FO-29 world distance record; QSO between US and UK
by Hector W5CBF/CO6CBF 08 May '15

08 May '15

Hello to all I am pleased to report that Peter G4DOL and I had another extreme QSO on FO-29. It is my furthest contact on the birds! Back on October 2013, Peter and I had a very nice contact between EL92sd, Cienfuegos, Cuba and IO80so, Weymouth area, UK. It was a 7286 km contact and probably the first contact between UK and Cuba on FO-29! Peter and I desired to try again on FO-29, this time between EM21hs, Texas, US and his habitual spot in IO80so. We were able to complete a very nice CW contact on the 92319 orbit of FO-29. Peter had just 0.1 degree as maxim elevation while I had 0.8 during the 80 seconds mutual window. As before, Peter did all the hard work by driving until his habitual spot at a cliff-top and setting up his "portable satellite station" (19 elements Yagi for 435MHz and 10 elements Yagi for 2m both with horizontal polarization). FO-29 was sounding really good on these orbits. It was a solid 559 satellite contact, we were very impressed. We made the calculations using our 10 digit grid squares at http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html The distance between the stations was 7537.799 km (4683.77 mi). To my knowledge, the longest distance archived on FO-29 until now had been 7,533.685 km between Frank, K4FEG and Erich, DK1TB. http://www.qrz.com/db/k4feg It appears that an even longer distance is achievable. It has been reported that FO-29 has a "theoretical maximum range" of 7502 km, but I guess that at least 7600km is doable. We will try to break our own record! This contact was possible thanks to the great feature implemented on SatPC32 V12.8b. There is an option of seeing the frequency you are at the satellite receiver at any time during a pass. It allows the operators to tune the right frequencies and attempt a contact without having to search for each other. We have some pictures, recording and GPS screen shoots. I will try to post everything online. I will be happy to email everything, also. Thanks very much to Peter for his persistence, effort and all the fun! 73! Hector, W5CBF/CO6CBF

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Probably FO-29 world distance record; QSO between US and UK ---follow-up
by Hector W5CBF/CO6CBF 08 May '15

08 May '15

Hi to all Just a quick follow-up on my earlier message about my QSO with Peter, G4DOL on FO-29. I received an email from Frank, K4FEG; He let me know He misprinted the distance of his contact in his QRZ web page. The correct distance of his contact is 7,538.685 km. He already fixed it in his web page. My contact with Peter is 886 m down their mark. You can see a couple of pictures and listen to the recording at http://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/06/uk-texas-extreme-dx-contact/ 73! Hector, W5CBF/CO6CBF -----Mensaje original----- De: Hector W5CBF/CO6CBF [mailto:[email protected]] Enviado el: Wednesday, May 06, 2015 9:51 AM Para: 'amsat-bb(a)amsat.org' CC: 'Peter Atkins' Asunto: Probably FO-29 world distance record; QSO between US and UK Importancia: Alta Hello to all I am pleased to report that Peter G4DOL and I had another extreme QSO on FO-29. It is my furthest contact on the birds! Back on October 2013, Peter and I had a very nice contact between EL92sd, Cienfuegos, Cuba and IO80so, Weymouth area, UK. It was a 7286 km contact and probably the first contact between UK and Cuba on FO-29! Peter and I desired to try again on FO-29, this time between EM21hs, Texas, US and his habitual spot in IO80so. We were able to complete a very nice CW contact on the 92319 orbit of FO-29. Peter had just 0.1 degree as maxim elevation while I had 0.8 during the 80 seconds mutual window. As before, Peter did all the hard work by driving until his habitual spot at a cliff-top and setting up his "portable satellite station" (19 elements Yagi for 435MHz and 10 elements Yagi for 2m both with horizontal polarization). FO-29 was sounding really good on these orbits. It was a solid 559 satellite contact, we were very impressed. We made the calculations using our 10 digit grid squares at http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html The distance between the stations was 7537.799 km (4683.77 mi). To my knowledge, the longest distance archived on FO-29 until now had been 7,533.685 km between Frank, K4FEG and Erich, DK1TB. http://www.qrz.com/db/k4feg It appears that an even longer distance is achievable. It has been reported that FO-29 has a "theoretical maximum range" of 7502 km, but I guess that at least 7600km is doable. We will try to break our own record! This contact was possible thanks to the great feature implemented on SatPC32 V12.8b. There is an option of seeing the frequency you are at the satellite receiver at any time during a pass. It allows the operators to tune the right frequencies and attempt a contact without having to search for each other. We have some pictures, recording and GPS screen shoots. I will try to post everything online. I will be happy to email everything, also. Thanks very much to Peter for his persistence, effort and all the fun! 73! Hector, W5CBF/CO6CBF

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Montserrat expedition announcement
by Jim White 07 May '15

07 May '15

N0KV, W0ZA, W0ETT, and WD0E will be operating from Gingerbread Hill, St. Peters, Montserrat (VP2M) (grid square FK86) from June 10^th to June 19^th .Operation will be on 80-6 meters (SSB/CW/RTTY) with participation in the June VHF contest on 6 and 2 meters and some satellite operation by WD0E. The two primary radios will be Elecraft K3’s with 500 watt amplifiers.Antennas include a Mosley Classic 33 on 10/15/20, a folding hexbeam by Folding Antennas (Germany) on 20-10 meters, verticals on 30 and 40 meters, a dipole on 75-80 meters, and an M2 5 element 6 meter beam.We will run 500 watts on 6M SSB/CW and FSK441.A 6 meter beacon is planned and will be on 50.102 when the station is not manned, and receive will be active between beacon transmissions to listen for calls. The primary call sign for the operation will be VP2MKV, and VP2MTT will probably be used on 6 meters.Near 24 hour operation is planned.Logs will be uploaded to LOTW soon after the group returns to the US.Paper QSL’s via N0KV, direct or via the bureau.US addressees send SASE; addressees outside the US send SASE plus $2 US for return postage. Use of Club Log has not been finalized at this time.Additional information will be posted under VP2MKV on QRZ.com. Satellite operation: VP2MKV will operate FO-29 only on selected passes.We will attempt the long hops to the edges of coverage if the equipment performs well at low elevations and obstructions allow.We will attempt to post passes we plan to work 24 hours in advance on amsat-bb.The uplink frequency will be 145.925 and we will tune our downlink for stations calling. The location is 16.776924N 62.214474W in grid FK86vs.Equipment is an ICOM 910H and Arrow antenna.Uplink power will be about 20W.Stations are asked to work us only once on the satellite.If we respond with your call you are in the log.

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Kenpro rotors question
by Jerry Ehlers 07 May '15

07 May '15

Hi: I have a rotor motor for Azimuth that looks like a 5400B . The model number on it says 7501-002 When I went to Google it wouldn,t cross. It looks like a KR 400 or 600 control might work on it Is anyone familiar with this model or seen one ?????? This looks like the rotors I have used like the 800 and 1000 Yaesu and 5400B. Jerry w0sat

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Satellite Demonstration Passes for Dayton Hamvention
by Keith Pugh 07 May '15

07 May '15

An Amateur Radio Satellite Demonstration Station will again be active at Dayton Hamvention this year on 15-17 May. I have included the planned schedule of passes below. Times are in UTC - you can convert it to your own time zone. I have also included this as a text file in case there are formatting problems. We plan to work as many of these passes as possible. Our station is outdoors so weather can give us problems and we only have a limited number of operators so - we will work as many as possible. I might also note that we do have obstructions due to vehicles in the parking lot and parts of the Hara Arena buildings from about 300 deg. through North and on around to about 70 deg. The plan only includes passes with peak elevations above 10 deg. Lower elevations of any of the passes may be obstructed - be patient. 73 - Keith, W5IU AMSAT DAYTON HAMVENTION DEMOS - 2015 TZ = UTC N 39.820328 W 84.255224 ELEV. 296 M MIN PEAK ELEV. = 10 DEG GRID = EM79ut * = Listen Only Pass - Telemetry, Doppler, Ant. Perf, etc. WinAos QTH: -84.3/39.8 T#: 13648 Sat.: 7 [Standard] ---------------------------------------------------------- Day Objects AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ ---------------------------------------------------------- 15.05.2015 ISS 12:15 12:22 07 11 308 - 056 15.05.2015 AO-07 12:41 12:55 14 11 359 - 271 15.05.2015 SO-50 13:31 13:40 09 10 280 - 018 15.05.2015 ISS 13:52 14:00 08 15 319 - 084 15.05.2015 HO-68 * 14:01 14:20 19 52 020 - 182 15.05.2015 AO-73 14:27 14:36 09 13 039 - 147 15.05.2015 ISS 15:28 15:37 09 66 309 - 123 15.05.2015 HO-68 * 15:50 16:07 17 30 003 - 230 15.05.2015 MO-76 * 15:58 16:08 10 32 026 - 174 15.05.2015 AO-73 16:02 16:14 12 54 007 - 205 15.05.2015 ISS 17:05 17:12 07 12 283 - 174 15.05.2015 MO-76 * 17:33 17:42 09 17 349 - 229 15.05.2015 AO-07 18:05 18:19 14 10 084 - 357 15.05.2015 SO-50 18:39 18:51 12 17 340 - 104 15.05.2015 FO-29 19:52 20:09 17 41 141 - 355 15.05.2015 AO-07 19:53 20:12 19 46 137 - 349 15.05.2015 SO-50 20:20 20:33 13 77 326 - 153 16.05.2015 SO-50 12:14 12:26 12 26 245 - 024 16.05.2015 ISS 12:58 13:06 08 13 312 - 071 16.05.2015 HO-68 * 13:45 14:03 18 40 024 - 175 16.05.2015 ISS 14:35 14:44 09 37 313 - 110 16.05.2015 AO-73 14:46 14:57 11 21 028 - 161 16.05.2015 HO-68 * 15:33 15:50 17 39 005 - 223 16.05.2015 MO-76 * 15:54 16:04 10 29 027 - 172 16.05.2015 ISS 16:12 16:20 08 23 292 - 156 16.05.2015 AO-73 16:22 16:34 12 32 002 - 216 16.05.2015 MO-76 * 17:28 17:38 10 19 355 - 227 16.05.2015 AO-07 18:55 19:13 18 21 110 - 352 16.05.2015 FO-29 18:59 19:13 14 17 114 - 005 16.05.2015 SO-50 19:05 19:18 13 33 336 - 125 16.05.2015 FO-29 20:41 21:00 19 84 165 - 347 16.05.2015 AO-07 20:45 21:06 21 87 161 - 344 16.05.2015 SO-50 20:46 20:58 12 31 316 - 175 17.05.2015 ISS 12:06 12:13 07 11 313 - 062 17.05.2015 AO-07 12:34 12:49 15 12 360 - 266 17.05.2015 SO-50 12:41 12:52 11 13 266 - 021 17.05.2015 HO-68 * 13:28 13:46 18 30 027 - 168 17.05.2015 ISS 13:43 13:51 08 23 318 - 097 17.05.2015 AO-73 15:06 15:18 12 34 022 - 174 17.05.2015 HO-68 * 15:15 15:34 19 50 010 - 215 17.05.2015 ISS 15:19 15:28 09 46 302 - 142 17.05.2015 MO-76 * 15:49 16:00 11 26 025 - 170

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Enrico Fermi", Lucca, Italy and Studi di Firenze - Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 06 May '15

06 May '15

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Enrico Fermi", Lucca, Italy, direct via IQ5LU and Studi di Firenze - Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy on 09 May. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:52 UTC. It is recommended that you start listening approximately 10 minutes before this time. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The event will be direct between the ISS using call sign IR0ISS and ground stations IQ5PO (who will initiate the contact) and IQ5LU (who will end the contact). The contact should be audible over Italy and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in Italian. Presentation Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Enrico Fermi": State Technical Industrial Institute is named to Enrico Fermi and is located in Lucca, Northern Tuscany. 5 years courses in Mechanics, Electrotechnology, Electronics, Information and Communication Technology with several laboratories. About 700 students aged 15-19. They had an Amateur Radio Club with the callsign IK5YOI (license expired). Presentation Università degli Studi di Firenze - Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia: In the Scientific Campus ("Polo Scientifico") of the University of Florence activities for secondary school's students are organized by OpenLab. OpenLab, which has been active since 2002, is the service of education and communication of the University of Florence and it is dedicated to science popularization in different areas (physics, chemistry, biology .). OpenLab includes interactive laboratories, conferences, stages, visits to research laboratories. For Physics we have more than 1000 students every year (primary and secondary school). Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: I = Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale "Enrico Fermi" U = Università degli Studi di Firenze 1U. Quali sensazioni si provano durante la fase di lancio? 2I. Quale sistema operativo è utilizzato sui computer della ISS? Perché questa scelta? 3U. Dopo quanto tempo si è abituata all' assenza di gravità? 4I. Ci sono mai state collisioni con detriti orbitali? 5U. Come reagiscono le piante alla vita sulla stazione? Come vengono curate? 6I. Quando hai deciso di fare l'astronauta? Perché? 7U. In che modo ti curi quando ti ammali? 8I. in cosa consiste la manutenzione della stazione? 9U. Sulla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale sono presenti dispositivi che sfruttano le correzioni relativistiche dello spazio e del tempo, simili ai nostri GPS? 10I. quando dormi sogni? 11U. Qual è stato il momento più difficile o la paura più grande affrontata durante l'addestramento? 12I. E' difficile per una donna diventare astronauta? 13U. Sulla ISS ci sono correnti parassite indotte dalle variazioni del campo magnetico terrestre sulla stazione stessa? 14I. Chi e che cosa ti manca di più della tua vita quotidiana? 15U. Che tipo di esperimenti fate? Qual è il loro fine? 16I. Quali studi ti hanno condotto alla carriera di astronauta? 17U. Come avviene l'ossigenazione della stazione spaziale? 18I: Da astronauta, pensi ci possano essere forme di vita extraterrestri? 19U. Qual è la sua paura più grande sull' ISS? 20I. cosa comporta dal punto di vista fisico e mentale vivere sulla ISS? 21U. In cosa consiste il vostro lavoro? Qual è la tua funzione all'interno della stazione spaziale? 22I. Qual è la tua giornata tipo come astronauta? 23U. Cosa si prova a vedere la terra, l'alba, il tramonto e l'universo dallo spazio? 24I. Come si vedono i pianeti del sistema solare dalla ISS? 25U. Credi che sia giusto spendere tanti soldi per le missioni spaziali nonostante tutte le situazioni di povertà presenti sul nostro pianeta? 26I. Quali effetti ha l'assenza di forza di gravità sul corpo umano? Translation: 1) How do you feel during the launch? 2) Which operating system is used on the computers of the iss? Why this choice? 3) How soon you got used to the absence of gravity? 4) Have collisions with orbital debris ever happened? 5) How plants react to the station life conditions? How are they cared? 6) When did you decide to be an astronaut? Why? 7) How do you take care of yourself when you get sick? 8) How is made the maintenance of the station? 9) Are there, on the ISS, devices that use the relativistic corrections of space and time, like our GPS devices do? 10) when sleeping, do you dream? 11) Which was the hardest time or the biggest fear faced during training? 12) Is it difficult for a woman to be an astronaut? 13) Are there, on the ISS, eddy currents induced by changes in the Earth's magnetic field on the station itself? 14) Who and what do you miss more about your daily life? 15) What kind of experiments are you doing? What is their purpose? 16) Which schools did you attend to become an astronaut? 17) How is carried out the oxygenation of the space station? 18) As an astronaut, do you think extraterrestrial life forms exist? 19) What is your deepest fear on the ISS? 20) What entails in terms of physical and mental life on the ISS ? 21) In what consists the crew job? What is your role inside the space station? 22) How is your typical day as an astronaut? 23) How it feels to see the earth, sunrise, sunset and the universe from space? 24) How do you see our solar system's planets from the ISS? 25) Do you think it is right to spend so much money for space missions despite all situations of poverty on our planet? 26) Which effects has the absence of gravity on human body? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Sign up for the SAREX maillist at http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/sarex 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 ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the volunteer support and leadership from AMSAT and IARU societies around the world with the ISS space agencies partners: NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS program is available on the website http://www.ariss.org/ Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

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Re: [amsat-bb] Psat, BRICKsat, USS Langley Launch Announcement (correction)
by Robert Bruninga 06 May '15

06 May '15

Corrections (year and Freqs): Subj: Amateur Satellite Launch Notice: On (or about) 20 May 2015, the next US Naval Academy satellites and Brno University transponders will be launched on the AFSPC ULA Atlas-5 mission from the Cape into a 50 something degree orbit. We welcome radio amateurs worldwide to tune into the downlinks and either IGate packets into the global APRS-IS system or email to Bruninga(a)usna.edu. After launch, the next several orbits will be over USA and Europe. Operations via PSAT or PSK31 are not authorized until on-orbit checkout is complete (may take many,many days). Downlinks (one or more packets per minute): PSAT: 145.825 MHz 1200 baud AX.25 APRS – http://aprs.org/psat.html BRICsat: 437.975 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry USS Langley: 437.475 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry PSK31: 435.350 MHz FM PSK31 telemetry Further info will be posted when available on the PSAT page above. Enjoy, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR - USNA Jin Kang, KB3UKS – USNA Mirek Kasal, OK2AQ - Brno University Tomas Urbanec, OK2PNQ - Brno University Petr Vagner, OK2CPV - Brno University

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Psat, BRICKsat,USS Langley Launch Announcement
by Robert Bruninga 05 May '15

05 May '15

Subj: Amateur Satellite Launch Notice: On (or about) 20 May 2014, the next US Naval Academy satellites and Brno University transponders will be launched on the AFSPC ULA Atlas-5 mission from the Cape into a 50 something degree orbit. We welcome radio amateurs worldwide to tune into the downlinks and either IGate packets into the global APRS-IS system or email to Bruninga(a)usna.edu. After launch, the next several orbits will be over USA and Europe. Operations via PSAT or PSK31 are not authorized until on-orbit checkout is complete (may take many,many days). Downlinks (one or more packets per minute): PSAT: 145.825 MHz 1200 baud AX.25 APRS – http://aprs.org/psat.html BRICsat: 435.975 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry USS Langley: 435.475 MHz 9600 baud AX.25 packet telemetry PSK31: 435.350 MHz FM PSK31 telemetry Further info will be posted when available on the PSAT page above. Enjoy, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR - USNA Jin Kang, KB3UKS – USNA Mirek Kasal, OK2AQ - Brno University Tomas Urbanec, OK2PNQ - Brno University Petr Vagner, OK2CPV - Brno University

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Re: [amsat-bb] Announcing EO-79 transponder testing for one full orbit
by Wouter Weggelaar 05 May '15

05 May '15

Hi All, I can hereby confirm Tomorrows intended activation of the AMSAT-NL FUNcube-3 transponder on QB50p1 / EO-79. Date and time:Monday 4th of May, activation around 0830 UTC for one orbit. TLEs are in the normal repositories, COSPAR 2014-033-R, Object# 40025 We would like people to try the following frequencies if possible: DOWNLINK: 145.960 USB UPLINK: Tune to match downlink +/- 435.065 LSB The transponder is linear inverting, nominally 30kHz wide, and approx. 500mW output. Also, If you find the transponder busy on those frequencies, feel free to move around and use the entire transponder passband. The passband seems to have a "dip" in the middle which is bigger than expected, but we do welcome feedback about the usability. Also, please limit your uplink power, as it looks like this transponder is as sensitive as FUNcube-1. The spacecraft antenna is a monopole, so we would also be interested in signal fading reports. The comissioning of the transponder done to date is very limited, three activations for 5, 10 and 8 minutes respectively. So your reports are greatly appreciated. We do understand this is a very short notice, but hope that some of you will be able to participate. This was a take-it-or-leave-it opportunity offered by the ISIS engineers for our consideration, and we are again very grateful to ISIS and VKI to give us this opportunity. Wouter PA3WEG FUNcube team On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 12:28 AM, Wouter Weggelaar <wouterweg(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > I would like to inform you all that tomorrow, Monday 4th of may, there is > a fairly high chance we will be allowed to test the AMSAT-NL transponder > for one full orbit. > > Details will be made available on short notice, but we are aiming for an > activation starting at ~08:30 UTC and lasting until ~10:10 UTC. > > The aim is to characterize the power budget on board EO-79. So we > encourage the usage of this new transponder. Please also report the QSOs > and signal reports to pa3weg(a)amsat.org > > Wouter PA3WEG > AMSAT-NL >

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EL84 Dry Tortugas
by Clayton Coleman 04 May '15

04 May '15

W4T has been heard making contacts on SO-50 and FO-29 this afternoon from grid EL84. This is one of the rarer of the 488 grids needed in all of the lower 48 states. He should be there another few days. 73 Clayton W5PFG

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My New Mexico road trip, Saturday (2 May) afternoon/evening - report
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 04 May '15

04 May '15

Hi! After the Cochise Amateur Radio Association's hamfest wrapped up on Saturday (2 May) morning, I made a stop for lunch and then proceeded on my plan to work some passes from New Mexico. I had asked on Twitter for possible destinations on my post-hamfest drive, and I had just visited two grid boundaries in southeastern Arizona (DM51/DM52, DM52/DM53) in late March after a hamfest in Tucson. One request was made - New Mexico. So I went there... After stopping for lunch, it took about an hour and a half to make the drive just over the Arizona/New Mexico state line. I stopped at the small "town" of Road Forks, New Mexico. The name of the town says it all - it is where the old US-80 highway makes a turn to the south, away from what is now I-10. Not much is here - a small motel with restaurant, and a fireworks shop. I parked at an abandoned truck stop across the road from those businesses, which was in grid DM52mf. I worked two passes from there - FO-29 at 2115 UTC, and AO-7 at 2135 UTC. I worked 9 stations on the FO-29 pass, but was shut out of the AO-7 pass. I could hear some loud and strong CW signals through AO-7, and could occasionally hear my own 5W CW and SSB signals, but no contacts. After those two passes, I got back on I-10 and drove another 63 miles (just over 100km) in the next 50 minutes to reach a truck stop west of Deming at exit 68. This truck stop is a few hundred yards/meters east of 108 degrees West longitude, also known as the DM52xf/DM62af grid boundary. I parked along the side of the south frontage road along I-10, and worked a few passes from here before sunset (and a bad thunderstorm). I started on FO-29 at 2300 UTC. This was another good pass, and I logged 9 QSOs with stations from coast to (almost) coast. The AO-7 pass that came by a few minutes later was also good for me at this location. Unfortunately, after a minute or two of some strong CW, the mode B downlink shut off. Just as the AO-7 downlink shut off, I was visited by a sheriff's deputy. The deputy was curious about what I was doing with radios on the roof of my car, waving an antenna skyward. I explained what I was doing, and the deputy told me that this area was a common route for people after illegally crossing the US/Mexico border south of that area. I told the deputy I had no plans on staying out here into the night, and that satisfied him. He left, and I still didn't hear AO-7 in the last couple of minutes of that pass. There was an ISS pass coming over just before 0000 UTC, so I set up my Kenwood TH-D72A to use that. I saw a few call signs coming through, and was able to make one QSO. I was able to exchange APRS messages with Brad KG7NXH in the Phoenix area. This was a bonus, although I am finding I can make a QSO or two on many ISS passes with just my TH-D72A lately. One of these days, I will set up my laptop or one of my tablets so I can use a larger keyboard and screen for those passes. Until then, I'll have fun making packet QSOs with just the HT and antenna. After the ISS made its pass, I planned on working two SO-50 passes from here. The first of the passes, around 0045 UTC, went across the northern and eastern sky, covering the continental USA. I logged 8 QSOs on this pass, including one with KG7NXH who I worked on the earlier ISS pass. After that, the later SO-50 pass around 0225 UTC that covered the west coast added 3 more QSOs. As this later pass started, a strong wind and rain started. After logging the last QSO on that pass, I quickly put my gear in the back seat of my car, and drove back to the truck stop. I did a better job of stowing my gear, with the cover over the gas pumps shielding me from the rain. Including a stop for fuel and a late dinner, it took about 4 hours to drive home from Deming. I was "treated" to a thunderstorm complete with strong winds and rain for the first 30 minutes of the drive. I wish I had a video camera running for this part of my drive, because the light show was awesome. By the time I reached the Arizona state line, the rain and strong winds stopped. Except for some road construction on I-10 as I reached the edge of the Phoenix area, I was able to set the cruise control and make good time on the drive home. I have uploaded all of my QSOs from Saturday - at the hamfest, and from these two locations in New Mexico - to Logbook of the World. If you worked me and would like to receive a QSL card, please e-mail me off-list with the QSO details. If you are in my log, I will gladly send a QSL card. No need to first send me a card and/or SASE. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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What preamp to use for SO-50 and Arrow II antenna?
by Bill ACITO, W1PA 04 May '15

04 May '15

Late, but... I have an ARR (Advanced Receiver Research) 432 RF-switched pre-amp hanging from the UHF side of my Arrow with its own 12V NiMH pack. I went "switched" in case I do something stupid. I wear a mic-headset (YH2) and run the FT-530 in my right hand, and hold the Arrow in my left. I've rigged up patch cables that run HT audio (thru a 60db pad) into one side of my stereo digital recorder, and ambient audio (from a mic) into the other so I can isolate what I said and what I heard. Some of my log recordings are a great argument for full-duplex; e.g. I can hear clearly and immediately if a letter got lost and I need to repeat my grid a second time --- especially running 5W. The FT530 does not de-sense and I can clearly hear my own downlink in the headset. With the pre-amp, clean sky and polarization match, SO-50 is full scale into the FT-530 RX. Where it helps is when I have trees and a less than optimal horizon (pretty common in New England). I ran the same on AO-51 and AO-27 and could copy right down to the horizon, easily working into Europe. Bill W1PA

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Cochise A.R.A. hamfest on 2 May 2015 - report
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 04 May '15

04 May '15

Hi! On Saturday, 2 May 2015, I had an AMSAT table at the Cochise Amateur Radio Association's annual hamfest in Sierra Vista, Arizona. This hamfest is held at the club's property on the edge of Sierra Vista, where there are a couple of buildings, some towers, and an empty lot that was divided between parking and space for sellers to display their equipment. In past years, the lot had lots of empty space. This year, it was almost full. A good turnout for the half-day event. During the morning, I had satellite demonstrations on SO-50, AO-73, and the packet/APRS digipeater on the ISS. There were good crowds for the passes I worked - three on SO-50, two on AO-73, and one ISS pass. It is always nice to have AO-73 available for daytime passes on the weekends, since that helped to show the differences between working it and FM satellites - in particular, equipment and operating techniques. Thanks to everyone who called and worked WD9EWK during those passes. For the ISS, I was able to complete two quick QSOs using APRS messages from my TH-D72A HT with KO6TZ in southern California and N7NEV near Phoenix. I'm finding that there are some who actually are at their keyboards/radios for ISS passes, beyond the automatic beacons that seem to dominate the passes. I wasn't the only satellite operator at the hamfest. Leo W7JPI had a table set up to sell some old gear. John K8YSE was also at the hamfest, and he worked WD9EWK from each of his stations (K8YSE in Ohio/EN91, K8YSE in Arizona/DM43) using a laptop and a WiFi hotspot not far from my table. It was fun - and funny - to point him out to the crowd ("Did you hear K8YSE/7 and K8YSE on that pass? He's sitting over there, using each of his stations remotely."). Talking about the recent announcements for the transponders on all 5 Fox-1 satellites, plus the plans for a geosynchronous payload, made for great conversation throughout the morning. With Fox-1A's launch approaching, the Fox-1A flyer was a popular item at my table. My "job" is much easier with all of these satellite projects to talk about. :-) Thanks to Kurt Edelman KF7PDV and the Cochise Amateur Radio Association for their hospitality. I have been making the trip to Sierra Vista and hosting an AMSAT table at this hamfest since 2008, and it is nice to see the hams in that part of Arizona every year. Thanks also to John K8YSE for using both of his stations to work me during that SO-50 pass. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

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EO-79 Report
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 04 May '15

04 May '15

Hi all, Report on EO-73 transponder operation 0830 hrs UTC 4/515 ( My location Wales -UK -IO81EM. At 0833 hrs UTC, I heard Peter 2E0SQL calling CQ on downlink frequency 145.964 Mhz. He was 5/9 but I could also hear some other burst of noise? - Due to my terrain and obstructions I could not get access into the satellite but will try again on the next pass which is a much higher elevation. Congratulation to the team and to Peter of course for his success. Ken Eaton GW1FKY

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Further Report EO-79
by GW1FKY＠aol.com 04 May '15

04 May '15

Hi , Further report EO-79 from here in Wales 1000 hrs pass ( aprox) . I hear Peter ( 2E0SQL ) and Mike ( G0MJW ) both 5/9 but again with noise. As they checked out with one another at 1005 hrs zulu - Appeared to lose any activity, I was not expecting to shut down on the transponder until 1010 GMT as per schedule. Not able to get into the transponder for some reason. My gear is OK and I am accessing AO-7 and FO-29. Strange also using the same transponder frequencies as AO-73 ?? Well done once again to those involved. Ken GW1FKY

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FODTrack with G-5500 Rotator
by Gary Mayfield 03 May '15

03 May '15

Well, I saw my last message so I will try again. I have FODTrack controller that I use with SatPC32 v12.6 on a WindowsME laptop. Old, I know, but it works just fine and has worked fine for many years with a G-5400 rotator.. Newer versions of SatPC32 do not like WindowsME and newer operating systems do not like the FODTrack. We intend to drag it out to Field Day for the ooh and awe factor of automatic rotator control. Unfortunately I will be working with kb0lcr's G-5500 rotators instead of my G-5400 rotators as I am too lazy to take the 5400 down. Is there a way to make the FODTrack work with the G-5500 rotator and its different azimuth scale? Thanks and 73, Joe kk0sd

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Help decoding/understanding terrestrial packet heard on ISS freq 145.825 MHz
by John Brier 03 May '15

03 May '15

Thanks for all the responses on SO-50 preamps and portable setups. I'm still digesting the info. TL;DR: I heard automated packet transmissions on the ISS packet frequency when the ISS wasn't in sight and recorded them to try and figure out who/what they are, but my software isn't decoding anything. Can you help me understand what they were, or even better, decode them yourself? http://cupcakecarnival.net/sites/default/files/New_Jersey_Terrestrial_Packe… http://cupcakecarnival.net/sites/default/files/New_Jersey_Terrestrial_Packe… Here's another question that has me excited: Yesterday after having visited with family in Maplewood, New Jersey for several days, I drove home to North Carolina. I knew there was an ISS pass at 10:26 AM/1426 UTC, right when I started my trip, so I tuned to 145.825 MHz and heard its digipeater easily. Then I left the radio on. I'm not sure where I was in NJ, but about one hour later, around 11:33 AM local/1533 UTC, I heard packet on the frequency again but I was confused because there weren't supposed to be any more passes for a while. I confirmed on my phone that the ISS was over some far away ocean at the time I was hearing these new transmissions, so I knew they must be terrestrial. Still, it seemed odd that someone or something was transmitting when the ISS wasn't in sight... Maybe it's an internet gateway I thought. Or do people leave their stations on the ISS frequency 24/7 so they can "work" any pass that happens? I tried recording videos of the transmissions for later decoding to figure out who or what it was. Eventually I realized it was transmitting every 2 minutes. It was almost certainly an automated setup, adding credence to the idea that this was an internet gateway. Unfortunately, before I realized that, and after recording one video of it, the best reception I received during my drive by "pass," I wasn't recording. As I drove further away it only got weaker and weaker. I did manage to get two half way decent recordings of it, but I have tried decoding them with Soundmodem on Windows and it's not printing out anything like it normally does. I am very new to packet, only becoming interested in it because the ISS uses it, so I thought maybe someone else might be more equipped to decode it. Or certainly someone could shed some light on what I heard, maybe the operator in NJ is on this list. I used Audacity to record the audio off the videos I made as well trim and amplify the audio, but I haven't done anything else, though if someone wants the unedited videos I can put them up too. http://cupcakecarnival.net/sites/default/files/New_Jersey_Terrestrial_Packe… http://cupcakecarnival.net/sites/default/files/New_Jersey_Terrestrial_Packe… John Brier, KG4AKV, Raleigh, NC, FM05

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A good day
by Steve Kristoff 03 May '15

03 May '15

Digipeated through the ISS, QSOs on SO-50, and downloaded telemetry from AO-73 all before noon today. It's been a good amateur radio satellite day. Update for those who were part of a past thread: I put up an M2 Eggbeater on top of my house. It works better for me on the ISS and AO-73 than did my 5/8 wave vertical. Basically, it's doing what I hoped it would do. (SO-50 is still a backyard with the Arrow antenna adventure.) Someday in the future I will likely go full bore and get myself a rotor, etc., but, for now, I'm a happy camper. Steve Kristoff AI9IN skristof(a)etczone.com

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Planetary Society light sail project
by Bob- W7LRD 03 May '15

03 May '15

Hello-Does anyone know of any collaboration between AMSAT and The Planetary Society's efforts with their light sail project? Scheduled for launch this May, sponsored by NASA's ELaNa program. They (Planetary Society) mention there are only two monitoring stations one in at Cal Poly and the other at Georgia Tech. whereas we (AMSAT) have potential world wide monitoring capability. This light sail effort is the first of two. Could a light sail be in our future? More information about all this can be googled. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle

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Announcing EO-79 transponder testing for one full orbit
by wouter weggelaar 03 May '15

03 May '15

Dear all, I would like to inform you all that tomorrow, Monday 4th of may, there is a fairly high chance we will be allowed to test the AMSAT-NL transponder for one full orbit. Details will be made available on short notice, but we are aiming for an activation starting at ~08:30 UTC and lasting until ~10:10 UTC. The aim is to characterize the power budget on board EO-79. So we encourage the usage of this new transponder. Please also report the QSOs and signal reports to pa3weg(a)amsat.org Wouter PA3WEG AMSAT-NL

4 3

Failed Messages
by Gary Mayfield 03 May '15

03 May '15

I was able to beat the bounce out of my SPAM filter. Reporting-MTA: dns; lansing182.amsat.org X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 5225C8818 X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; kk0sd(a)tnics.com Arrival-Date: Sat, 2 May 2015 05:07:14 +0000 (UTC) Final-Recipient: rfc822; amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Action: failed Status: 5.0.0 Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; User unknown in virtual alias table

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ANS-123 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 03 May '15

03 May '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-123 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: * Announcing EO-79 transponder testing for one full orbit - May 4 * EO-79 / QB50p1 First Transponder Test Success * 2015 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice * "Where Over the World Is Astronaut Scott Kelly?" Geography From Space Trivia Contest * Delfi-C3 has been in orbit 7 years * $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2 Update * 2015 ARRL/TAPR DCC (Digital Communications Conference) Announced * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention - Fourth call for volunteers * AMSAT Plans Dayton Rollout for 2015 "Getting Started" Satellite Book * AMSAT FieldOps Team SO-50 Operating Guide is Available * AMSAT-SM donates $1600 USD for the FOX satellite project * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-123 ANS-123 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 123 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. May 3, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-123 Announcing EO-79 transponder testing for one full orbit - May 4 Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG from AMSAT-NL reported via the AMSAT-BB that on Monday May, there is a fairly high chance that the AMSAT-NL transponder will be tested for one full orbit. Details will be made available on short notice, but the target time for an activation starts at approximately 08:30 UTC and may last until about 10:10 UTC. The aim of the test is to characterize the power budget on board EO- 79. Usage of the transponder is being encourage. Please also report the QSOs and signal reports to pa3weg at amsat.org [ANS thanks Wouter Wouter PA3WEG for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- EO-79 / QB50p1 First Transponder Test Success AMSAT-NL is delighted to announce that an initial series of tests of the FUNcube transponder payload aboard the QB50p1 CubeSat have been successfully completed. QB50p1 is one of two QB50 precursor spacecraft that were launched from Yasny in Russia in June 2014. The primary science payloads are still being extensively tested but it has now been possible to undertake a short test of the transponder payload as well. The transponder is intended as a long term secondary mission following the initial technology demonstration and de-risking phase. After spending ten months in space, the transponder was commanded on for short periods during each of the three morning passes over Europe on Monday 27th April 2015. A number of FUNcube team members in the Netherlands and in the UK were standing by to run through a predefined test plan. The transponder has a similar performance to that of FUNcube-1 but the passband is nominally 5 kHz wider by design. It is not yet known when this transponder may be available for regular usage but AMSAT-NL is delighted to be able to report that the hardware is functioning and is very grateful to the QB50 project, the Von Karman Institute and ISIS B.V. for their ongoing support. More information about the QB50 project can be found at https://www.qb50.eu/ AMSAT-NL: http://amsat-nl.org AMSAT-UK: http://amsat-uk.org [ANS Thanks Graham G3VZV for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Nominations Notice It is time to submit nominations for the upcoming AMSAT-NA Board of Directors election. Four director's terms expire this year: Barry Baines, WD4ASW, Alan Biddle, WA4SCA, Mark Hammond, N8MH, and Jerry Buxton, N0JY. In addition, up to two Alternates may be elected for one year terms. A valid nomination requires either one Member Society or five current individual members in good standing to nominate an AMSAT-NA member for Director. Written nominations, consisting of the nominee's name and call, and the nominating individual's names, calls and individual signatures should be mailed to: AMSAT-NA, 10605 Concord St, #304 Kensington, MD 20895-2526. In addition to traditional submissions of written nominations, which is the preferred method, the intent to nominate someone may be made by electronic means. These include e-mail, Fax, or electronic image of a petition. Electronic petitions should be sent to MARTHA at AMSAT.ORG or Faxed to (301) 822- 4371. No matter what means is used, petitions MUST arrive no later than June 15th at the AMSAT-NA office. If the nomination is a traditional written nomination, no other action is required. If it is other than this, i.e. electronic, a verifying traditional written petition MUST be received at the AMSAT-NA office at the above address within 7 days following the close of nominations on June 15th. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS WITHOUT THIS SECOND, WRITTEN VERIFICATION ARE NOT VALID UNDER THE EXISTING AMSAT-NA BYLAWS. [ANS thanks the AMSAT Office for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Where Over the World Is Astronaut Scott Kelly?" Geography From Space Trivia Contest During his year-long stay on the International Space Station, astronaut Scott Kelly wants to test your knowledge of the world through a geography trivia game on Twitter. Traveling more than 220 miles above Earth, and at 17,500 miles per hour, he circumnavigates the globe more than a dozen times a day. This gives Kelly the opportunity to see and photograph various geographical locations on Earth. In fact, part of his job while in space is to capture images of Earth for scientific observations. Follow @StationCDRKelly on Twitter and each Wednesday, Kelly will tweet a picture and ask the public to identify the place depicted in the photo. The first person to identify the place correctly will win an autographed copy of the picture. Kelly plans to continue posting weekly contest photos until he returns from the space station in March 2016. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/ANS123-ScottKelly. To learn more about the One-Year Mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew. [ANS thanks the NASA Education Express Message for April 30, 2015 for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Delfi-C3 has been in orbit 7 years As of April 28, Delfi-C3 has been in orbit 7 years. Wouter Weggelaarb, PA3WEG, reports, "When we designed Delfi-C3, no- one would have dreamed it would last this long. "The satellite still remains healthy and strong. We are delighted to still get the support of the ham radio community and in all those years there have been very few days where no telemetry was decoded and submitted. Thank you very much to those still decoding and sending in telemetry and also to those still signing up for new accounts. "Delfi-C3 has been praised numerous times as the ideal example of a cooperation of radio amateurs and an university and the team is very proud of that. Together we have demonstrated the first successful Distributed Ground Station Network (DGSN) built around radio amateurs. We as a community can be very proud of this achievement! Without your continued support, this would not have been possible." Wouer goes on to report that they may need to re-locate their data collection server. When this happens he will report appropriate updates to the AMSAT-BB. [ANS Thanks Wouter PA3WEG for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2 Update The following status of $50sat/MO-76, one of the first Pocketqubes, was recently posted by Michael Kirkhart,KD8QBA on the 50dollarsat Yahoo group. Here is an excerpt: "17 Months in Space, Still Working, and How Long Will a $10 Camera Battery last "Tuesday, April 21, 2015 marked the 17 month anniversary of the launch of $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2, and believe or not, it is still operating. Unfortunately, the battery capacity has degraded to the point where the satellite spends a significant amount of time with the battery voltage below the 3300 mV minimum required for enabling the transmitter. As a result, those of us who live in the northern hemisphere no longer hear any transmissions during the evening passes, and for now, rarely hear any during the daytime passes as well. The last telemetry packet I captured here in EN82 land was April 21, and the last one which was error-free on April 10. Fortunately, I have been able hear it operate over Anton's (ZR6AIC) WebSDR station in South Africa during the evening passes (which occur between 4:00 and 6:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time), and occasionally am able to capture error-free telemetry packets. The last one available is from April 24 at 21:25 UTC. "This situation was fully expected; when looking at the battery voltage chart (which, along with all the other telemetry, is available from our Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l3919wtfiywk2gf/AABRl4iM5BFqVAcLQGSmdsVga/ Telemetryanalysis/Current-Telemetry) the readings took a large drop sometime after February 12. Given this was a $10 camera battery that had gone through over 6,000 orbits, each with temperature swings of -30 degrees C to +30 degrees C, it is surprising it has lasted this long! At this point, it is starting to behave more like a large capacitor than a battery. "As we get closer to summer here in the northern hemisphere (and after this winter, it cannot come soon enough), $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2 will spend more time in the sun before it makes each pass; this means it will be warm enough to enable solar power sooner in the pass, and makes it more likely it we will be able to hear it transmit before it disappears over the southern horizon. Those of you who live in the southern hemisphere, however, should still be able to hear it during both daytime and evening passes. If you could, we would certainly appreciate any telemetry you could gather and post. "The orbit continues to decay at an average rate of about 1.5 km/week; apogee is just below 570 km at 569.8 km, and perigee is at 538.2 km. Someday, I will attempt to determine when it might actually de-orbit. If any of you have access to STK or some other fancy software which might be able to do a de-orbit prediction, please feel free to run a simulation and let us all know. Some basic parameters you might need are as follows: TLEs as of 2015-04-24, 23:53:15 UTC: EAGLE 2 1 39436U 13066W 15114.82864817 .00033340 00000-0 23789-2 0 9991 2 39436 97.7463 190.7550 0022811 281.2509 78.6152 15.04244039 77466 Using these, the following can be computed: Semi-major axis = 5743.7488705249 km Apogee = 569.7766621696 km Perigee = 538.1516552847 Average cross-sectional area = 0.014252 m^2 Mass = 210 g Area/mass ratio = 0.06787 m^2/kg In the meantime, I will continue to update the Dropbox with any new telemetry gathered. Please keep it coming, even if it has errors or is incomplete. At this point, we are happy to simply know that it is still operating." [ANS Thanks Howie DeFelice AB2S and Michael Kirkhart, KD8QBA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 ARRL/TAPR DCC (Digital Communications Conference) Announced The 2015 DCC will be in Chicago on October 9 - 11 in the northwest suburb of Arlington Heights not far from O'Hare airport.The DCC has two full days of Technical presentations on Friday & Saturday and on Sunday morning a deep dive into a technical subject. On Saturday there is a full day of concurrent Introductory sessions. Be sure to register for the DCC and reserve your hotel room early. DCC information is available at: http://www.tapr.org/dccLook forward to your participation in the DCC. TAPR at Dayton Hamvention TAPR will have booths, forums and a joint banquet with AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention. Details about TAPR activities at the Hamvention are available at: http://www.tapr.org/dayton [ANS thanks Mark WB9QXB for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention - Fourth call for volunteers The Dayton Hamvention is less than three weeks away! Last year, we had 52 people assist with the AMSAT booth at Dayton. We've had a good response so far to our call for volunteers, but we could really use another 10-15 people. The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience a lot of fun. Meet or renew acquaintances, exchange operating tips, and find out what antennas, software and equipment other AMSAT members use. We currently expect all of the AMSAT senior officers and 5 of the 7 board members to be there too. The 2015 Hamvention is May 15-17. Would you consider helping AMSAT at Dayton this year? If you're an experienced operator, great! We can use you and your experience. If you've never operated a satellite before, but want to learn more, that's OK. We can use your help too. Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip(a)amsat.org if you can help. Thank you! [ANS thanks Steve N9IP for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT Plans Dayton Rollout for 2015 "Getting Started" Satellite Book Gould Smith's book, "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites", is being updated to tell you all about how you can get ready to operate through the Fox-1 satellites launching later this year. Additional chapters in the book tell you about tracking software, orbital mechanics, antennas, radios, Doppler tuning, and operating techniques. Chapters are also being added to tell you about the new satellites soon becoming available for amateur radio. Going beyond brief descriptions in hamfest flyers, this book will provide a complete reference for new satellite users to assemble a basic station and to make your first satellite contacts. Also this book you will teach you how to incrementally upgrade your initial FM satellite station, time and budget permitting, to include automated tracking as well as operating through the CW/SSB linear passband satellites. A companion Fox-1A reference sheet is also being planned for release at Dayton. This will be made available for AMSAT's FieldOps team for distribution at hamfests and satellite operating demonstrations. Watch for the 2015 "Getting Started With Amateur Satellites" book and reference sheet at the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention. The book will also be available in the AMSAT Store shortly after Dayton: http://store.amsat.org/catalog/ [ANS thanks the AMSAT Office for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT FieldOps Team SO-50 Operating Guide is Available AMSAT's Director of Field Operations, Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK says the FieldOps team is working to make how-to-operate-satellites information readily available on the web. Based on a hamfest handout designed and written by Patrick, "Getting Started with the FM Satellites", is available for download. Patrick shows the basic equipment and techniques to learn successful operating on the satellites. This guide also gives specific information on how to operate via SO-50, the only currently available FM satellite at the moment. Patrick's guide is posted at: http://www.amsat.org --> Satellite Info --> Station and Operating Hints. The direct link is http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=2144 where you'll find the link "Operating FM Satellites" (and a link to the Spanish version also). [ANS thanks the AMSAT FieldOps Team for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT-SM donates $1600 USD for the FOX satellite project "AMSAT-SM believe that FOX project is very important to continue to develop amateur radio on board satellites. We therefore hope that our contribution can help the FOX satellites up in space." AMSAT-SM in Sweden has aprox 150 members. Membership is currently free and registration is done online at our website: www.amsat.se [ANS thanks Lars Thunberg SM0TGU for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful double contact was made with schools in South Africa and in Italy. Participants at Sol Plaatje Primary School, Mahikeng, South Africa and Scuola Secondaria di 1 Grado, Caprino Bergamasco, Italy queried Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti IZØUDF who was using the Callsign IRØISS. The contact began 2015-05-02 14:34:27 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was telebridged via IK1SLD. ARISS Mentor was IZ2GOJ. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Ryazan, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is a go for Thu 2015-05-07 08:30 UTC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Mikhail Korniyenko RN3BF Kursk, Russia, WWII veterans, direct via TBD Contact is a go for Sat 2015-05-09 08:20 UTC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Gennady Padalka RN3DT >From 2015-05-11 to 2015-06-14, there will be no US Operational Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Grid Master Award # 3 Congratulations to WA4NVM Rick for working and confirming all 488 US grids GRID MASTER AWARD #3 4-26-2015 + 5 in EM55 Award Congratulations to WF7L Jeff for 5 in EM55 award # 58 [ANS Thanks Damon WA4HFN for the above --------------------------------------------------------------------- /EX AMSAT User Services and the Editors of the AMSAT New Service pass on our condolences to ANS Weekly Co-Editor Joe Spier K6WAO and his family on the death of Joe's mother this week. 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, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

1 0

The Reflector
by Gary Mayfield 03 May '15

03 May '15

I am not longer seeing messages I send to the AMSAT-BB reflector. I use to see them. Has a policy been changed? Thanks and 73, Joe kk0sd

2 1

Great Bridge HS
by Rich/wa4bue 02 May '15

02 May '15

Thanks for the QSOs. We had 6 students participating. W4GBH

1 0

WTB: Elk antenna
by TJ Campie 02 May '15

02 May '15

Interested in purchasing an Elk dualband LPDA, please contact off list if you have something! 73, W0EA TJ ---- QRP ARCI #14612 | CW Ops #953 | SKCC #4593T NAQCC #3768 | Flying Pigs QRP #2254 http://W0EA.us *Because QRO is too easy (but sometimes required!)*

3 3

ISS contact May 2nd
by Doug - k4GKJ 01 May '15

01 May '15

I hear a rumor of a contact May 2nd, 14:30 UTC....... Africa & Italy with Samantha...... Don't know if it's telebridge or direct..... Check your prediction software to see if your in the footprint at that time... Doug K4GKJ Doug Bennight K4GKJ 528-5772

4 3

SO-50 Pre-amp?
by Clint Bradford 01 May '15

01 May '15

In front of scores of audiences over the years, I have never disappointed audiences and failed to hear SO-50 - without ever using a pre-amp with either my tape measure beam or Arrow Satellite antennas ... Such handheld ops, as low as 10-15 degrees of elevation, can be worked without a pre-amp. I'd hate to see you invest in a 440 pre-amp, when the next "big" easily worked project will have a 2M downlink ... (grin) Clint K6LCS http://www.work-sat.com

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Re: [amsat-bb] ISS contact May 2nd
by AJ9N＠aol.com 01 May '15

01 May '15

Hi all, I am the one who first posts all ARISS announcements to the SAREX BB (_sarex(a)amsat.org_ (mailto:[email protected]) ) concerning upcoming scheduling, etc. So you would need to be on the SAREX-BB mailing list to get those regularly. I do not normally post directly to the AMSAT-BB (_amsat-bb(a)amsat.org_ (mailto:[email protected]) ). Within a few days of the contact, Dave AA4KN will also post an announcement to the SAREX BB that has more details concerning the upcoming school and questions to be asked. The upcoming contact is scheduled to be a telebridge via IK1SLD in Italy and Samantha IZØUDF using IRØISS. She will be talking to students from Sol Plaatje Primary School, Mahikeng, South Africa, and Scuola Secondaria di I Grado, Caprino Bergamasco, Italy. The contact time is scheduled to be Sat 2015-05-02 14:34:27 UTC at about 45 deg max elevation. It is recommended that one start listening approximately 10 minute before the announced time to make sure that there was no orbital change. And make sure you are using the very latest Keps set. Often times we are able to simulcast the contact via the IRLP and Echolink systems. John AG9D usually will post an announcement if the contact is going to be on IRLP or Echolink as he handles the interface for ARISS. Sometimes the schools will also stream using their own system. We try to post if any of this is going to happen. Hope this helps. Thanks for your interest in ARISS. 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS mentors Huntington Beach, CA In a message dated 5/1/2015 11:16:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, hans(a)intekom.co.za writes: Hi I am facilitating the South African end. It is via telebridge Hans -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Doug - k4GKJ Sent: 01 May 2015 05:52 PM To: AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] ISS contact May 2nd I hear a rumor of a contact May 2nd, 14:30 UTC....... Africa & Italy with Samantha...... Don't know if it's telebridge or direct..... Check your prediction software to see if your in the footprint at that time... Doug K4GKJ Doug Bennight K4GKJ 528-5772 _______________________________________________ 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

What preamp to use for SO-50 and Arrow II antenna?
by John Brier 01 May '15

01 May '15

Since a lot of people are talking about SO-50 right now, let me ask a question: I did try to work SO-50 once when all I had ever worked before was SO-35, UO-14 and AO-27 and I was horrified by how hard it was to hear and track. I found a thread on qrz.com where they said it's very helpful to use a preamp for SO-50 since it's so low power, even with the short runs of coax required for an Arrow II satellite antenna. I know almost nothing about preamps. What's the deal? Do they need power to work (active/passive?). What do you recommend? John Brier, KG4AKV, Raleigh, NC, FM05

6 6

SO-50
by Clint Bradford 01 May '15

01 May '15

Are these chit-chatters taking up time? Or possibly someone who does not hear the downlink? Or a combination of the two? Clint K6LCS

7 7

SO-50
by Paul Stoetzer 01 May '15

01 May '15

Would it be that difficult to stand by and let QSOs be completed before calling over those attempting to complete two-way exchanges? 73, Paul, N8HM

2 1

Friday morning SO 50
by Rich/wa4bue 01 May '15

01 May '15

Great Bridge HS Electronics class will be on SO 50 during class time. I hope they do not witness what must have happened today! These gets will be taking their Tech tests on May 12th. K4AMG Club

1 0

FT847 satellite power output problem
by f6htj＠aol.com 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

Hello all; our F6KBR radio-club is almost ready to be active very soon via satellites with Yaesu FT847 rig but we have a big problem: no power output on SAT position. Everything else is OK, any mode... We tried full Reset (menu #39) but still same problem. Thanks for any help. 73 de Michel F6HTJ

2 1

On-line Coverage of Messenger Crash into Mercury Today
by JoAnne Maenpaa 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

The MESSENGER spacecraft is expected to end its mission today with a planned crash into planet Mercury. Read more on-line at: http://earthsky.org/space/six-cool-things-about-messengers-april-30-mercury- crash Slooh will cover the event with a live show that begin at 3 p.m. EDT (19:00 UTC) on Thursday, April 30. Watch on-line at: http://main.slooh.com/ -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org

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Re: [amsat-bb] On-line Coverage of Messenger Crash into Mercury Today
by jmfranke＠cox.net 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

I thought Venera 7 landed on Venus. John WA4WDL ---- ollie(a)ollietech.com wrote: > Russians "soft" landed first in 1970 with Venera 7. > > en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera > > --------- Original Message --------- Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] On-line Coverage of Messenger Crash into Mercury Today > From: "John Geiger" <af5cc(a)fidmail.com> > Date: 4/30/15 11:10 am > To: "JoAnne Maenpaa" <k9jkm(a)comcast.net> > Cc: "AMSAT BB" <AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org> > > Cool, won't this be the first spacecraft to "land" on Mercury? > > 73 John AF5CC > > On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 12:07 PM, JoAnne Maenpaa <k9jkm(a)comcast.net> wrote: > > > The MESSENGER spacecraft is expected to end its mission today with a > > planned > > crash into planet Mercury. Read more on-line at: > > > > > > > > > > http://earthsky.org/space/six-cool-things-about-messengers-april-30-mercury- > > crash > > > > > > > > Slooh will cover the event with a live show that begin at 3 p.m. EDT (19:00 > > UTC) on Thursday, April 30. Watch on-line at: http://main.slooh.com/ > > > > > > > > -- > > > > 73 de JoAnne K9JKM > > > > k9jkm(a)amsat.org > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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

Yaesu rotor junkyard
by Andrew Glasbrenner 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

All, I've abandoned the Yaesu rotor az-el system for AlfaSpid, after 15 years of breaking az-el rotors. For the time I had a satellite or few that I had to actively command, I always kept a spare rotor system to swap out quickly. As a result of that, I have accumulated a large pile of rotors, each with some issue I never got around to fixing. I currently have three 5500 series, and one 5400, each with some unidentified or forgotten fault. I know on one I swapped out the motor in the azimuth rotor from a donor G450, and ran it for several more years until the elevation rotor froze. I'd really like to deliver this whole batch to someone at Dayton. A handy person with time could probably make at least three work again, and probably all four. You might get 1-2 from just swapping halves and control boxes around. Email me with an offer if interested. I'd prefer not to ship. I can take some photos this weekend. I might be interested in trades or partial trades as well. 73, Drew KO4MA

1 0

EO-79 (QB50p1 / FUNcube-3) Transponder Tested
by Paul Stoetzer 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

Good news! Looking forward to it being available for us to use. http://funcube.org.uk/2015/04/30/another-funcube-transponder/ 73, Paul, N8HM

1 0

Delfi-C3 7 years anniversary
by wouter weggelaar 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

Dear all, Delfi-C3 has been in orbit 7 years and one day today! When we designed Delfi-C3, no-one would have dreamed it would last this long. The satellite still remains healthy and strong. We are delighted to still get the support of the ham radio community and in all those years there have been very few days where no telemetry was decoded and submitted. Thank you very much to those still decoding and sending in telemetry and also to those still signing up for new accounts. Delfi-C3 has been praised numerous times as the ideal example of a cooperation of radio amateurs and an university and the team is very proud of that. Together we have demonstrated the first successful Distributed Ground Station Network (DGSN) built around radio amateurs. We as a community can be very proud of this achievement! Without your continued support, this would not have been possible. 73s on behalf of the team, Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG ps: in the near future we may have to re-locate the data collection server and when this happens we will of course make sure to update AMSAT-BB on the progress

3 2

AO 7
by Rich/wa4bue 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

I have lost track. What mode will AO 7 be in on Friday.

2 2

UK to Martinique Island on FO-29 and AO-7b.
by Peter Atkins 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

Hi All, ? Just to let you know that I made contact with Pierre FM5EP on 26 April 2015,probably the the first contact between these countries?on both FO-29 and AO7b satellites and?using SSB modes. ? 73s ? Peter ? G4DOL

1 0

AO 73
by Rich/wa4bue 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

There was a AO 73 pass today at around 1400. Our computer seemed to align with our cell app today, but never heard AO 73. It was a great elevated pass. Rich W4BUE

2 2

Re: [amsat-bb] AO 73 and SatPC32 program
by Alan 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

Rich, <The rotors track but the bird is over the Pacific Ocean and we are on theAtlantic Ocean. side - Virginia. Are you saying the antennas are pointing in the wrong direction? If so, do the antennas point in the same direction as the program says to point? 73s, Alan WA4SCA <-----Original Message----- <From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rich/wa4bue <Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 12:24 PM <To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org <Subject: [amsat-bb] AO 73 and SATPAC program < <Kj4YKG has taken a good look at the our program. < <The program controls the other birds well, so the clock, locator , and all <are set properly. The TLE data is correct. < <The rotors track but the bird is over the Pacific Ocean and we are on the <Atlantic Ocean. side - Virginia. < <This only bird that has this problem. < <Help! < <R < <_______________________________________________ <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

4 7

Space Is Hard - Soyuz Spinning
by Bryce Salmi 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

ISS and crew are fine, another reminder that space is hard. http://www.space.com/29241-glitch-russian-cargo-ship-spinning-out-of-contro…

1 0

AO 73 Help needed
by Rich/wa4bue 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Where can I get the correct KEPS for "AO 73"? Today at Great Bridge HS we wanted to listen to "AO 73" data transmissions. We are using our HP lap top to control our gear. Downloaded NOA Keps. They were wrong! With a cell phone and app we were able to manually track "AO 73" but using our AMSAT SATPAC program we could not. It was at least 1 hour behind. "AO 73" was very strong with dtat transmissions. All other SATS we track are great. Our Portable SATCOM station will be at Great Bridge HS for a couple of weeks. The electronics and media class will be using it. We are in class from 0845 - 1015 am EST. If we can catch a pass on any of the birds we would like to speak with you. The class is instructed by W4RMY. He is aided by members of the K4AMG club and members. Rich W4BUE Pres. K4AMG

5 6

quick New Mexico satellite road trip on Saturday (2 May) afternoon
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi again! After the hamfest in Sierra Vista, Arizona, on Saturday morning, I plan on a quick trip across the Arizona/New Mexico state line for a few hours of working from somewhere in grid DM52 in southwestern New Mexico or (probably) the DM52/DM62 grid boundary near Deming - almost 70 miles/112km east of the state line, along I-10. Since I was out in this area in late March, operating from the DM51/DM52 and DM52/DM53 grid boundaries in southeastern Arizona, this is an opportunity to put New Mexico on the satellites. If all goes well, I hope to make it to Deming so I can operate from (the edge of) the 78th different grid I have worked satellites from. As is the case in much of Arizona, APRS coverage is pretty good along I-10 in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Using web sites like aprs.fi to see my location: http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9 will hopefully be a good way to see if I am only in DM52, or if I have made it over to the DM52/DM62 boundary. When I'm not driving, I will also post updates to Twitter - even if I have poor data speeds on my mobile phone. My Twitter updates will be on my @WD9EWK feed, which is visible in a web browser at: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK I have only operated from New Mexico via satellite twice in the past; in October 2009 from the Arizona/New Mexico state line and about 5 miles/8km east of the state line; in May 2014 from Lordsburg, about 20 miles/32km east of the state line. All of these locations were only in grid DM52. Since I have to return home sometime late Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, I will not be able to go to other DM6x grids in New Mexico on this trip. All QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World after the road trip. If you would like a QSL card to confirm a contact, please e-mail me with the QSO details. If you are in my log, I will be happy to send you a QSL card. No need to first send me your QSL card and/or SASE. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

1 0

AMSAT @ Sierra Vista (Arizona) hamfest, Saturday (2 May 2015)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi! I will have an AMSAT table at the Cochise Amateur Radio Association's Cochise Hamfest in Sierra Vista, Arizona, on Saturday, 2 May 2015. The hamfest will be at the club's Green Acres field, along Moson Road south of Arizona route 90, to the east of the center of Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca. The hamfest opens officially at 7am (1400 UTC), but sellers and exibitors are usually allowed in earlier. More information about the hamfest is available at: http://www.k7rdg.org/Flyer.pdf WD9EWK will be on various satellite passes during the morning, demonstrating amateur satellite operating for the hamfest crowd. Demonstrations should also include ISS passes, where I can attempt to complete QSOs via APRS messages. For the ISS passes, I will use WD9EWK-9 as my call. If you hear me on a pass, please call and be a part of the demonstrations. After the hamfest, I will upload my QSOs to Logbook of the World. For those interested in a QSL card to confirm a contact with WD9EWK, please e-mail me directly with the QSO details. If you're in the log, I will send out a QSL card. No need to first send me your QSL card and/or SASE. Throughout the morning, I hope to be able to send photos and other updates via Twitter, using my @WD9EWK feed. If you do not use Twitter, you can still see these photos and updates by pointing your web browser to: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK Thanks, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK

1 0

ANS Special Bulletin ANS-116.01 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit
by JoAnne Maenpaa 27 Apr '15

27 Apr '15

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.01 ANS-116 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. April 25, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.01 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit AMSAT is excited to announce that we have accepted an opportunity to participate in a potential rideshare as a hosted payload on a geostationary satellite planned for launch in 2017. An amateur radio payload, operating in the Amateur Satellite Service, will fly on a spacecraft which Millennium Space Systems (MSS) of El Segundo, CA is contracted to design, launch, and operate for the US government based on their Aquila M8 Series Satellite Structure. A meeting to discuss this potential rideshare took place on April 13 at Millennium Space Systems that included Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY; Franklin Antonio, N6NKF, co-founder of Qualcomm; Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President of Engineering and member of the board for AMSAT-NA; Dr. Tom Clark, K3IO, Director and President Emeritus of AMSAT-NA; Phil Karn, KA9Q; and Michelle Thompson, W5NYV. Hosting the meeting for MSS were Stan Dubyn as founder and chairman of MSS, Vince Deno as president of MSS, Jeff Ward, K8KA, of MSS as VP for Product Development, formerly with SSTL and University of Surrey Space Center, and Ryan Lawrence of MSS as Project Manager on the spacecraft mission. Attending by telephone were Dr. Jonathan Black, Associate Research Director of Hume Center for Aerospace Systems and Associate Professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, founder of RINCON Research Corp. Following the meeting, Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY, Director of Research at the Hume Center for National Security and Technology of Virginia Tech, and former director and former VP Engineering of AMSAT, described this as an opportunity to go forward with "AMSAT-Eagle" which, in the 2006-2008 timeframe, evolved into a microwave payload to be flown to geostationary orbit as a hosted payload. It would have provided digital communications to small terminals on the ground and a linear bent pipe transponder had it flown. This failed to go forward in part due to lack of an affordable flight opportunity. McGwier outlined the next steps toward developing this mission: 1) To organize an effort at Virginia Tech to make a firm proposal to MSS and its US government sponsor, and organize an effort to raise sufficient funds to pay for development of the mission. 2) Enable Dr. Jonathan Black to lead the construction project at Virginia Tech in the Space@VT Center. Sonya Rowe, KK4NLO, Project Manager at the Hume Center will be the project manager. 3) Work for development of a low-cost microwave ground station for amateur radio still needs to be determined. 4) Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, will solicit the cooperation of the Rincon Research Corp. for development of the software radio technology for this payload. The AMSAT Board of Directors has accepted the invitation to participate in this potential rideshare payload opportunity. AMSAT expects to be involved in the development of the ground station and the payload RF development, and will serve as the amateur radio (hosted) payload operator once the satellite has been launched. McGwier summarized, "The launch is currently scheduled for 2017 and the payload must be delivered for testing and integration by Spring of 2016. It is an ambitious schedule and all involved will have to gain and maintain a serious level of commitment to that which they agree to undertake." AMSAT President, Barry Baines, WD4ASW, said, "The AMSAT leadership is excited to fly a Phase-IV geostationary amateur satellite payload. This is an evolving development as we collaborate with the VT Hume Center with a project that provides technical challenges to create a new amateur radio capability in space that will provide a variety of benefits not only for amateurs but also for emergency communications and STEM educational outreach." The transponder is expected to support a wide range of voice, digital, and experimental advanced communications technologies. A decision is expected soon specifying the microwave uplink and downlink bands. Additional information on the Aquila M8 Series Satellite can be viewed on-line: http://www.millennium-space.com/ http://www.millennium-space.com/platforms#aquila AMSAT has posted a photo of the GEO opportunity team with the Millennium Aquila satellite at: http://www.amsat.org. [ANS thanks Bob McGwier, N4HY and AMSAT-NA for the above information] /EX

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$50sat update
by Howie DeFelice 27 Apr '15

27 Apr '15

The following status of $50sat/MO-76, one of the first Pocketqubes, was recently posted by Michael Kirkhart,KD8QBA on the 50dollarsat Yahoo group. Here is an excerpt: 17 Months in Space, Still Working, and How Long Will a $10 Camera Battery last Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:56 am (PDT) . Posted by: michael.kirkhart(a)att.net Tuesday, April 21, 2015 marked the 17 month anniversary of the launch of $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2, and believe or not, it is still operating. Unfortunately, the battery capacity has degraded to the point where the satellite spends a significant amount of time with the battery voltage below the 3300 mV minimum required for enabling the transmitter. As a result, those of us who live in the northern hemisphere no longer hear any transmissions during the evening passes, and for now, rarely hear any during the daytime passes as well. The last telemetry packet I captured here in EN82 land was April 21, and the last one which was error-free on April 10. Fortunately, I have been able hear it operate over Anton's (ZR6AIC) WebSDR station in South Africa during the evening passes (which occur between 4:00 and 6:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time), and occasionally am able to capture error-free telemetry packets. The last one available is from April 24 at 21:25 UTC. This situation was fully expected; when looking at the battery voltage chart (which, along with all the other telemetry, is available from our Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l3919wtfiywk2gf/AABRl4iM5BFqVAcLQGSmdsVga/Teleme…), the readings took a large drop sometime after February 12. Given this was a $10 camera battery that had gone through over 6,000 orbits, each with temperature swings of -30 degrees C to +30 degrees C, it is surprising it has lasted this long! At this point, it is starting to behave more like a large capacitor than a battery. As we get closer to summer here in the northern hemisphere (and after this winter, it cannot come soon enough), $50SAT/MO-76/Eagle-2 will spend more time in the sun before it makes each pass; this means it will be warm enough to enable solar power sooner in the pass, and makes it more likely it we will be able to hear it transmit before it disappears over the southern horizon. Those of you who live in the southern hemisphere, however, should still be able to hear it during both daytime and evening passes. If you could, we would certainly appreciate any telemetry you could gather and post. The orbit continues to decay at an average rate of about 1.5 km/week; apogee is just below 570 km at 569.8 km, and perigee is at 538.2 km. Someday, I will attempt to determine when it might actually de-orbit. If any of you have access to STK or some other fancy software which might be able to do a de-orbit prediction, please feel free to run a simulation and let us all know. Some basic parameters you might need are as follows: TLEs as of 2015-04-24, 23:53:15 UTC: EAGLE 2 1 39436U 13066W 15114.82864817 .00033340 00000-0 23789-2 0 9991 2 39436 97.7463 190.7550 0022811 281.2509 78.6152 15.04244039 77466 Using these, the following can be computed: Semi-major axis = 5743.7488705249 km Apogee = 569.7766621696 km Perigee = 538.1516552847 Average cross-sectional area = 0.014252 m^2 Mass = 210 g Area/mass ratio = 0.06787 m^2/kg In the meantime, I will continue to update the Dropbox with any new telemetry gathered. Please keep it coming, even if it has errors or is incomplete. At this point, we are happy to simply know that it is still operating.

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2015 ARRL/TAPR DCC Announced AND TAPR at Dayton Hamvention
by Mark Thompson 27 Apr '15

27 Apr '15

2015 ARRL/TAPR DCC (Digital Communications Conference) Announced The 2015 DCC will be in Chicago on October 9 - 11 in the northwest suburb of Arlington Heights not far from O'Hare airport.The DCC has two full days of Technical presentations on Friday & Saturday and on Sunday morning a deep dive into a technical subject. On Saturday there is a full day of concurrent Introductory sessions. Be sure to register for the DCC and reserve your hotel room early. DCC information is available at: http://www.tapr.org/dccLook forward to your participation in the DCC. TAPR at Dayton Hamvention TAPR will have booths, forums and a joint banquet with AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention. Details about TAPR activities at the Hamvention are available at: http://www.tapr.org/dayton

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5 in em55 award
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

Congratulations to WF7L Jeff for 5 in EM55 award # 58 Thanks and good job Justin See all the Star Comm awards at www.starcommgroup.org Damon WA4HFN em55

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Grid Master Award # 3
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

Congratulations to WA4NVM Rick for working and confirming all 488 US grids GRID MASTER AWARD #3 4-26-2015 Good job Rick WA4HFN em55 Damon see our awards at www.starcommgroup.org nvm

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Re: [amsat-bb] ANS Special Bulletin ANS-116.01 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit
by Doug - k4GKJ 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

This is great! Love the idea. I would only hope the bird can handle multiple qso's simultaneously..... Something like this will certainly stay busy..... Especially for emergency operations..... A big 'thank you' to those involved here! Doug K4GKJ Doug Bennight - K4GKJ 528-5772 -------- Original message -------- From: JoAnne Maenpaa <k9jkm(a)comcast.net> Date: 04/25/2015 10:10 AM (GMT-05:00) To: AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] ANS Special Bulletin ANS-116.01 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.01 ANS-116 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. April 25, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.01 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit AMSAT is excited to announce that we have accepted an opportunity to participate in a potential rideshare as a hosted payload on a geostationary satellite planned for launch in 2017. An amateur radio payload, operating in the Amateur Satellite Service, will fly on a spacecraft which Millennium Space Systems (MSS) of El Segundo, CA is contracted to design, launch, and operate for the US government based on their Aquila M8 Series Satellite Structure. A meeting to discuss this potential rideshare took place on April 13 at Millennium Space Systems that included Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY; Franklin Antonio, N6NKF, co-founder of Qualcomm; Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President of Engineering and member of the board for AMSAT-NA; Dr. Tom Clark, K3IO, Director and President Emeritus of AMSAT-NA; Phil Karn, KA9Q; and Michelle Thompson, W5NYV. Hosting the meeting for MSS were Stan Dubyn as founder and chairman of MSS, Vince Deno as president of MSS, Jeff Ward, K8KA, of MSS as VP for Product Development, formerly with SSTL and University of Surrey Space Center, and Ryan Lawrence of MSS as Project Manager on the spacecraft mission. Attending by telephone were Dr. Jonathan Black, Associate Research Director of Hume Center for Aerospace Systems and Associate Professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, founder of RINCON Research Corp. Following the meeting, Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY, Director of Research at the Hume Center for National Security and Technology of Virginia Tech, and former director and former VP Engineering of AMSAT, described this as an opportunity to go forward with "AMSAT-Eagle" which, in the 2006-2008 timeframe, evolved into a microwave payload to be flown to geostationary orbit as a hosted payload. It would have provided digital communications to small terminals on the ground and a linear bent pipe transponder had it flown. This failed to go forward in part due to lack of an affordable flight opportunity. McGwier outlined the next steps toward developing this mission: 1) To organize an effort at Virginia Tech to make a firm proposal to MSS and its US government sponsor, and organize an effort to raise sufficient funds to pay for development of the mission. 2) Enable Dr. Jonathan Black to lead the construction project at Virginia Tech in the Space@VT Center. Sonya Rowe, KK4NLO, Project Manager at the Hume Center will be the project manager. 3) Work for development of a low-cost microwave ground station for amateur radio still needs to be determined. 4) Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, will solicit the cooperation of the Rincon Research Corp. for development of the software radio technology for this payload. The AMSAT Board of Directors has accepted the invitation to participate in this potential rideshare payload opportunity. AMSAT expects to be involved in the development of the ground station and the payload RF development, and will serve as the amateur radio (hosted) payload operator once the satellite has been launched. McGwier summarized, "The launch is currently scheduled for 2017 and the payload must be delivered for testing and integration by Spring of 2016. It is an ambitious schedule and all involved will have to gain and maintain a serious level of commitment to that which they agree to undertake." AMSAT President, Barry Baines, WD4ASW, said, "The AMSAT leadership is excited to fly a Phase-IV geostationary amateur satellite payload. This is an evolving development as we collaborate with the VT Hume Center with a project that provides technical challenges to create a new amateur radio capability in space that will provide a variety of benefits not only for amateurs but also for emergency communications and STEM educational outreach." The transponder is expected to support a wide range of voice, digital, and experimental advanced communications technologies. A decision is expected soon specifying the microwave uplink and downlink bands. Additional information on the Aquila M8 Series Satellite can be viewed on-line: http://www.millennium-space.com/ http://www.millennium-space.com/platforms#aquila AMSAT has posted a photo of the GEO opportunity team with the Millennium Aquila satellite at: http://www.amsat.org. [ANS thanks Bob McGwier, N4HY and AMSAT-NA for the above information] /EX _______________________________________________ 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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The League publicizes
by Robert McGwier 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

http://www.arrl.org/news/amsat-amateur-radio-payload-could-share-space-on-g… -- Bob McGwier Co-Founder and Technical Director, Federated Wireless, LLC Research Professor Virginia Tech Senior Member IEEE, Facebook: N4HYBob, ARS: N4HY Faculty Advisor Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Assn. (K4KDJ)

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ANS-116.02 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
by E.Mike McCardel 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-116.02 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: * AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit * Nayif-1 CubeSat mission will have FUNcube transponder * Central States VHF Society Annual Conference, July 23 - 26 * Current and Upcoming Satellite Operations * AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention - Third call for volunteers * Design The Next AMSAT Satellite! - Submission Deadline May 30 * ARISS News * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-116.02 ANS-116.02 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 116.02 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. April 26, 2015 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-116.02 AMSAT-NA Opportunity for Rideshare to Geostationary Orbit AMSAT is excited to announce that we have accepted an opportunity to participate in a potential rideshare as a hosted payload on a geostationary satellite planned for launch in 2017. An amateur radio payload, operating in the Amateur Satellite Service, will fly on a spacecraft which Millennium Space Systems (MSS) of El Segundo, CA is contracted to design, launch, and operate for the US government based on their Aquila M8 Series Satellite Structure. A meeting to discuss this potential rideshare took place on April 13 at Millennium Space Systems that included Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY; Franklin Antonio, N6NKF, co-founder of Qualcomm; Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT Vice President of Engineering and member of the board for AMSAT- NA; Dr. Tom Clark, K3IO, Director and President Emeritus of AMSAT-NA; Phil Karn,KA9Q; and Michelle Thompson, W5NYV. Hosting the meeting for MSS were Stan Dubyn as founder and chairman of MSS, Vince Deno as president of MSS, Jeff Ward, K8KA, of MSS as VP for Product Development, formerly with SSTL and University of Surrey Space Center, and Ryan Lawrence of MSS as Project Manager on the spacecraft mission. Attending by telephone were Dr. Jonathan Black, Associate Research Director of Hume Center for Aerospace Systems and Associate Professor of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, founder of RINCON Research Corp. Following the meeting, Dr. Bob McGwier, N4HY, Director of Research at the Hume Center for National Security and Technology of Virginia Tech, and former director and former VP Engineering of AMSAT, described this as an opportunity to go forward with "AMSAT-Eagle" which, in the 2006-2008 timeframe, evolved into a microwave payload to be flown to geostationary orbit as a hosted payload. It would have provided digital communications to small terminals on the ground and a linear bent pipe transponder had it flown. This failed to go forward in part due to lack of an affordable flight opportunity. McGwier outlined the next steps toward developing this mission: 1) To organize an effort at Virginia Tech to make a firm proposal to MSS and its US government sponsor, and organize an effort to raise sufficient funds to pay for development of the mission. 2) Enable Dr. Jonathan Black to lead the construction project at Virginia Tech in the Space@VT Center. Sonya Rowe, KK4NLO, Project Manager at the Hume Center will be the project manager. 3) Work for development of a low-cost microwave ground station for amateur radio still needs to be determined. 4) Dr. Michael Parker, KT7D, will solicit the cooperation of the Rincon Research Corp. for development of the software radio technology for this payload. The AMSAT Board of Directors has accepted the invitation to participate in this potential rideshare payload opportunity. AMSAT expects to be involved in the development of the ground station and the payload RF development, and will serve as the amateur radio (hosted) payload operator once the satellite has been launched. McGwier summarized, "The launch is currently scheduled for 2017 and the payload must be delivered for testing and integration by Spring of 2016. It is an ambitious schedule and all involved will have to gain and maintain a serious level of commitment to that which they agree to undertake." AMSAT President, Barry Baines, WD4ASW, said, "The AMSAT leadership is excited to fly a Phase-IV geostationary amateur satellite payload. This is an evolving development as we collaborate with the VT Hume Center with a project that provides technical challenges to create a new amateur radio capability in space that will provide a variety of benefits not only for amateurs but also for emergency communications and STEM educational outreach." The transponder is expected to support a wide range of voice, digital, and experimental advanced communications technologies. A decision is expected soon specifying the microwave uplink and downlink bands. Additional information on the Aquila M8 Series Satellite can be viewed on-line: http://www.millennium-space.com/ http://www.millennium-space.com/platforms#aquila AMSAT has posted a photo of the GEO opportunity team with the Millennium Aquila satellite at: http://www.amsat.org. [ANS thanks Bob McGwier, N4HY and AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Nayif-1 CubeSat mission will have FUNcube transponder AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL are delighted to announce that a FUNcube communications package has been selected as a major payload for the Nayif-1 CubeSat mission. This mission is intended to provide Emirati students with a tool to design and test systems in space. It is being developed by the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) in partnership with American University of Sharjah (AUS). It is expected that this payload will provide a large amount of valuable environmental data from space together with a new, enhanced, UHF to VHF linear transponder. The AMSAT team will be working closely with the Emirati students, in collaboration with support partner, ISIS - Innovative Solutions In Space B.V. from the Netherlands, to develop this new system in time for the launch which is scheduled to take place towards the end of 2015. This exciting news was announced on April 25, 2015 during the Dutch "Interessedag Amateursatellieten" or "Satellite Interest Day" event in Apeldoorn. More information, with details of frequencies and planned operating schedules, will be made available as soon as possible. [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Central States VHF Society Annual Conference, July 23 - 26 The Central States VHF Society Annual Conference for 2015 is being held in the Denver Colorado Metro area between Thursday July 23rd and Sunday July 26th. The local sponsor this year is Rocky Mountain Ham Radio. The convention site is the Denver Marriott Westminster; the venue is available for booking at the Society special conference rate of $109 per night. Please plan on booking your vacation around the conference as the special room rate is available from Monday July 20th through Wednesday July 29th. The conference will feature the traditional activities, Banquet, Luncheons and hospitality suites, technical programs, noise figure measurement, antenna range, Rover vehicle show and tell. Speaker for the Saturday evening banquet is Rick Roderick K5UR First Vice President of ARRL and an avid VHFer. There are a wide variety of activities available along the Front Range of Colorado and there will be an offering of a choice of side trips designed to entertain the entire family. Operating opportunities under consideration include operating from the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio remote base station in Pueblo, microwave operating from local mountain tops and the chance to score a microwave VUCC in a weekend! Just bring your own equipment! There will be introductory programs geared to newcomers to weak signal operation on the VHF+ bands that will be promoted locally and designed to encourage younger hams to get involved in DX'ing and contesting. Conference registration, as well as a link to the conference venue for bookings, is now available at http://2015.csvhfs.org/ Please visit the site if you need any other additional information [ANS thanks Doug K2AD for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Current and Upcoming Satellite Operations The following information is from the AMSAT "Upcoming Satellite Operations" page that is maintained by Paul Stoetzer N8HM. The following information was last updated April 25, 2015. The most current information can be viewed anytime by visiting http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3921 Maritime Mobile - Captain Yuri Bodrov, UT1FG/MM, is heading north from the Panama Canal through the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean en route to the Port of Sept-Îles in Quebec aboard the M/V Greenwing. He is active on all satellites as well as six meters and HF from open water grids. Track his progress on MarineTraffic. Note that Yuri operates half duplex, so do not attempt to call while he is talking. Arkansas (EM23/EM33) - Dave Swanson, KG5CCI, will be active on two passes of FO-29 (2038Z and 2222Z) and one pass of AO-7 (2059Z) from the EM22/EM23 line just north of Texarkana, AR on April 25, 2015. Cuba (FL11) - Pavel, CO7WT, is active on SO-50 from FL11 in eastern Cuba, mostly on evening passes during the week, and all day on weekends. Norway (KQ50) - Erling, LA4FPA, will be active from Vardø, Norway (KQ50ni) with an FT-847 and an Arrow Antenna April 25 - April 30, 2015. Florida / Dry Tortugas Islands (EL84) - Mike, WA0SPG, will be active on FO-29 and SO-50 as WA0SPG/4 from the Dry Tortugas (EL84) May 4 - May 6, 2015. QSL via home call. He will also be active on HF. See the March 2, 2015 edition of the OPDX Bulletin for more details (Thanks to John, K8YSE via the AMSAT-BB for this information). Scotland (IO76) - The Camb Hams will be active on all satellites from the Isle of Mull as GS3PYE/P May 15 - May 21, 2015. For more information, see http://dx.camb-hams.com/ Cayman Islands (EK99) - Bill, NZ5N, will be active from the Cayman Islands as ZF2EM on SO-50 May 20 - May 25, 2015. This is primarily an EME DXpedition and they will only be on SO-50 passes when the moon is not up. Guernsey (IN89) - Peter Goodhall, 2E0SQL, will be active from Guernsey (IN89) as 2U0SQL/P July 22 - July 28, 2015. He will likely be using an FT-817 as the uplink transmitter and a FUNcube Dongle with a laptop as the downlink receiver with an Arrow Antenna. Operation may be sporadic and/or by sked only as the primary purpose of the trip is for the IOTA contest. Please submit any additions or corrections to n8hm at arrl.net Satellite Schedule Notes AO-73 (FUNcube-1) - Currently in full time transponder mode until the evening of April 26, 2015 (UK time). AO-7 - Currently operating in Mode B while in sunlight. As of April 5, 2015, the satellite appears to be losing power upon entering eclipse several times per day and, by design, resets into Mode B when it powers up. Since it is entering eclipse several times per day, the 24 hour timer that switches the satellite into Mode A is reset and never has the opportunity to switch the satellite to Mode A. Note that in the past, the satellite has unexpectedly switched modes. This has often been observed to coincide with the presence of extremely strong signals in the passband. Pleae limit your uplink power to no more than 100 watts ERP. [ANS thanks AMSAT-NA for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention - Third call for volunteers The Dayton Hamvention is less than four weeks away! Last year, we had 52 people assist with the AMSAT booth at Dayton. We've had a good response so far to our call for volunteers, but we could really use another 10-15 people. The interaction with AMSAT members, satellite operators, designers, and builders makes the whole experience a lot of fun. Meet or renew acquaintances, exchange operating tips, and find out what antennas, software and equipment other AMSAT members use. We currently expect all of the AMSAT senior officers and 5 of the 7 board members to be there too. The 2015 Hamvention is May 15-17. Would you consider helping AMSAT at Dayton this year? If you're an experienced operator, great! We can use you and your experience. If you've never operated a satellite before, but want to learn more, that's OK. We can use your help too. Whether you're available for only a couple of hours or if you can spend the entire weekend with us, your help would be greatly appreciated. Please send an e-mail to Steve, n9ip(a)amsat.org if you can help. Thank you! [ANS thanks Steve, N9IP, Dayton Team Leader, for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Design The Next AMSAT Satellite! - Submission Deadline May 30 At the 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium AMSAT Vice President - Engineering Jerry Buxton announced the plan for the next generation of AMSAT satellites. "The door is open for everyone, to submit their ideas. AMSAT Engineering has a long term strategy and this is the first step." The Engineering long term strategy includes the following goals * Advancement of amateur radio satellite technical and communications skills * Enhance international goodwill * Grow and sustain a skilled pool of amateur radio satellite engineers * Establish and maintain partnerships with educational institutions * Develop a means to use hardware common to all opportunities With respect to the last goal Jerry said "Within the bounds of the type of satellite it takes to achieve any of the various orbit opportunities, let's consider in those plans the possibility of developing a platform that can suit any and all orbits. Perhaps a modular CubeSat, using a common bus as we did in Fox-1, which gives great flexibility in building and flying different sizes and configurations of CubeSats with simple common-design hardware changes." Submissions should be thorough and contain the following information. The purpose of the proposal is not just in suggesting an idea; being an all-volunteer team AMSAT needs your help in carrying out the idea. Design Implementation - CubeSat platform Estimated timeline Cost - volunteer resources, commercial (COTS) units Launch - how does it get to orbit Strategy - how it fits into AMSAT's Engineering long term strategy As mentioned above the idea should be based on the CubeSat platform. This is the standard through which we will look for launches in the foreseeable future. In considering your proposal, Jerry encourages you to contact him, (n0jy(a)amsat.org using Subject: Design the Next AMSAT Satelleite), for more details on the criteria. A guidebook to the criteria is now available for download at http://tinyurl.com/ANS032-SatelliteGuide. In particular, if you plan to include a university as a partner to provide experiments or other support and you are not representing that university, please contact Jerry for assistance in working with our existing partners or establishing a new partnership. "Being amateur radio operators, it is easy for us to fall into a particular trap because of our history of communicating with other amateurs throughout the world" says Jerry. "Specifically, most people who are not already involved in the world of satellite technology are unaware of or simply overlook the provisions of the current ITAR and soon to be EAR export rules particularly with regard to deemed exports which requires governmental permission to discuss satellite projects with foreign nationals." While all amateurs are invited to submit ideas, U.S. amateurs must take particular care of they choose to become involved in a collaboration which includes individuals from other countries. It is permissible to receive ideas and proposals from outside the U.S., but it is not permitted for U.S. Persons to export or share design ideas with other countries unless they have taken the proper steps to insure compliance with ITAR and deemed export rules. Additionally, those wishing to work on proposals should use care in presenting themselves in their contacts. While the goal is for AMSAT to build and launch the satellite, it is not an AMSAT project until it is accepted by the AMSAT Board of Directors. It is acceptable to represent yourself as members of a project team that plans to submit a proposal to AMSAT for a future satellite project, as the AMSAT name is well known. "It is not our intention that ideas be submitted to AMSAT-NA which would be more appropriately handled by an AMSAT organization in a country where AMSAT is established. AMSAT-NA is seeking ideas from amateurs in North America and will certainly consider ideas from amateurs in countries which do not have an established AMSAT organization or relationships with an existing AMSAT organization." The deadline for submissions is May 30, 2015. After the submission date the ideas will be screened for completeness and then reviewed by a board consisting of the AMSAT Engineering Team, AMSAT Senior Officer and Board of Directors representatives, and aerospace industry members. The review board may modify or consolidate ideas and will consider which meet the criteria to become a project based on feasibility, cost, and the ability to bring value to the amateur satellite community. The review process is expected to be completed in September 2015. For those ideas selected to become a project which satisfy the requirements for an ELaNa launch, the idea authors will be asked to work with the AMSAT Engineering Team on an ELaNa proposal. The Engineering Team will then work on the details of execution for the selected project(s) and present a proposal to the AMSAT Board of Directors in October 2015 for final approval to begin work. Once approved, any ELaNa proposals will be submitted in November 2015 and the project(s) will move forward. Now is the time for YOU to begin working on the next AMSAT satellite! [ANS thanks AMSAT Engineering for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ARISS News + A Successful contact was made between East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., Youth In Aviation Program (ECCTAI YIAP) and Oxon Hill High School, Oxon Hill, Maryland, USA and Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti IZØUDF using Callsign NAISS. The contact began 2015-04- 24 16:41:27 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes. Contact was direct via K6DUE. ARISS Mentor was KA3HDO. Contact Audience was about 180-190 VIPs included two documented original Tuskegee Airmen and one WWII Navy Veteran. Over a dozen from the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen organization attended and wore Red Jackets commemorating the Tuskegee Airmen. The school live-streamed the event on their school newspaper website, and recorded 100+ views the day of the event. Indirect participants is confirmed and expected to increase when more are confirmed. The contact was streamed into all the Price Georges County, Maryland Schools. News organizations: WUSA9 (TV), WRC News4 (TV), Andrews Gazette(Newspaper), CTV Prince George's County News (TV-Local Cable), Prince George's County Public Schools Communication Office. 12 questions were asked and 11 were answered. The last question was barely discernable in the static. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule Double School Contact Sol Plaatje Primary School, Mahikeng, South Africa. and South Africa, and Scuola Secondaria di I Grado, Caprino Bergamasco, Italy The contact will be a telebridge via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be IRØISS The scheduled astronaut is Samantha Cristoforetti IZØUDF Contact is a go for: Sat 2015-05-02 14:34:27 UTC School Information Scuola Secondaria di I Grado: Caprino Bergamasco and its school are located atop of hills in between Bergamo and Lecco region. The school facility, recently built, serve the small community of 3000 people, it has pupils from age 3 to 14. Students from 11 to 14 have been involved in the ARISS activity, belonging to classes 1E, 2E, 2F and 3E. Sol Plaatje Primary School: It is a co-ed school having Gr.0-Gr.7. There are 1216 learners in the school, planet Earth and beyond is part of the curriculum and as a school they try to develop the learner's knowledge about space bodies and inculcate a love for the subject within the learners. Sol Plaatje Primary School participated on at the 2014 SAASTA Astronomy Quiz with a team - made by Ebenitha Esterhuizen, Kgotlholela Seagisa, Oratile Selatlhedi and Orefile Morule, prepared by the teacher Ms Micalla Lucas - and resulted the best among more than 1.700 schools. Upcoming Russian Contacts Ryazan, Russia, direct via TBD Contact is a go for Thu 2015-05-07 08:30 UTC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Mikhail Korniyenko RN3BF Kursk, Russia, WWII veterans, direct via TBD Contact is a go for Sat 2015-05-09 08:20 UTC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS The scheduled astronaut is Gennady Padalka RN3DT >From 2015-05-11 to 2015-06-14, there will be no US Operational Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS. So any schools contacts during this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team. [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above information] ARISS passes along our condolences to the families of recent silent keys: Max IW1CNF who helped with many of the ARISS Italian telebridge contacts. Clive G3CWV who was very active in AMSAT [ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + Videos of the presentations from The 2015 CubeSat Workshop held April 1 at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) are now available on YouTube. http://tinyurl.com/ANS116-CubesatVideos The presentation schedule and slide PDF's are at http://www.acser.unsw.edu.au/events/cubesat2015.html [ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information] + March/April AMSAT Journal - in the Mail Members began receiving their AMSAT Journals in the mail this week. Keep an eye out for yours. Membership in AMSAT is required to receive the Journal. Annual membership is $44.00, Join today! http://tinyurl.com/ANS116-JoinAMSAT --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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, KC8YLD kc8yld at amsat dot org

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