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DM09CN
by James Brown 06 Mar '19

06 Mar '19

In case anyone is looking for Nevada DM09CN( Reno). I will try AO91 and AO92 on next pass Jim KI6WJ Note the fades are so bad on AO92 that I can barely get half of a response.

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 06 Mar '19

06 Mar '19

If you are working on the 50th Anniversary AMSAT on HF award, I will be calling "CQ AMSAT" in slow CW between 1600 UTC and 1630 UTC today. Frequency will be between 7.045 MHz and 7.055 MHZ. If I get a chance I will try 20 m later today. Info on the awards: https://www.amsat.org/amsat-50th-anniversary-awards-program/ Steve AI9IN

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AO-92 L/V with an Alinco DJ-G7T full-duplex (long)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 06 Mar '19

06 Mar '19

Hi! I have written a bit about the Alinco DJ-G7T and using it on satellites on this list over the years. I wrote about using it on AO-92 in both U/V and L/V modes last year: http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2018-February/066923.html Until the past weekend, I had always worked AO-92 L/V with two radios - transmitting on 1.2 GHz from the DJ-G7T, and receiving the 2m downlink with my Kenwood TH-D74 (which can also record the downlink). I have used a couple of different antennas, but have wondered if the DJ-G7T could work the L/V mode full-duplex like it can work U/V (with some caveats) full- duplex. Now, I have tried this for myself, and will ask the question... Can the Alinco DJ-G7T work AO-92's L/V mode full-duplex? Yes. Before the past week or so, I was aware of the triplexers offered by Diamond that included a 1.2 GHz port. Those are noticeably larger than the diplexers from Diamond and other manufacturers, and a larger price tag as well. I saw something online that mentioned the Diamond MX-37 diplexer, having one port for HF through 470 MHz, and the other port for 800-1300 MHz. Physically, the MX-37 diplexer is similarly sized with other diplexers, and it has two coax pigtails for those two ports - coax with an N connector for the 1.2 GHz port, and a PL-259 on the other pigtail for use with the lower frequencies. The common port is an N socket. After I received this diplexer in the mail, I was ready to fit it into my portable AO-92 L/V station. I have been using a 10-element 1.2 GHz Yagi for AO-92 L/V in the past few weeks, and I tie that to the PVC handle of my Elk log periodic. I decided to tie the MX-37 diplexer to the PVC handle behind the antennas. This allowed me to connect the 1.2 GHz side of the diplexer directly to the coax pigtail from the Yagi's driven element. I used a 3-foot/1m length of coax from the PL-259 connector on the other side of the diplexer to the Elk's coax feedpoint. From the common port on the diplexer, I ran another 3-foot/1m length of coax to the DJ-G7T. To keep from causing audio feedback while transmitting, an earpiece or something like that needs to be plugged into the DJ-G7T. The DJ-G7T uses a single 4-conductor 3.5mm jack for speaker/mics. To split out the speaker jack so I can use an earpiece and an audio recorder, an adapter is needed. I use Alinco's EDS-10 adapter, which provides a 3.5mm speaker jack and a 2.5mm microphone jack (don't need anything in the smaller jack for this). Alinco also has an EDS-14 adapter, which looks very similar to Yaesu's CT-91 adapter used with a few HTs (VX-6R and VX-7R, among others) - where the two jacks are on short pigtails from the 3.5mm plug. The Yaesu CT-91 adapter works fine with the DJ-G7T. The DJ-G7T only allows transmitting from VFO A, the upper VFO on the HT's display. I put the 1267 MHz uplink frequency in this VFO, along with encoding the 67.0 Hz CTCSS tone. I use 5 kHz tuning steps on this radio for 1.2 GHz. I set the volume for this VFO to 0, and tightened the squelch to the maximum. For the lower VFO (B), I put 145.880 MHz with the squelch left wide open, and adjusted the volume to a reasonable level using my earpiece. I used this setup for 3 passes over the weekend. The antennas were a little heavier with the diplexer on the handle, but I could still control them with one hand. I held the DJ-G7T, along with the splitter and patch cable to my audio recorder. I could still adjust the knob for the transmit VFO, and made some contacts on those 3 passes. It was fun to be able to use just one HT for AO-92 L/V. There are some tradeoffs when going from a two-HT setup for AO-92 L/V to just the DJ-G7T. The 2m receiver isn't as good as with other HTs, certainly not as good as the TH-D74 I have normally used when working L/V. I heard some other signals mixing with the AO-92 downlink on parts of a couple of passes. Of course, the DJ-G7T does not come with a built-in recorder like the TH-D74. There may have been a little less power going to the 1.2 GHz Yagi, passing through the coax to the diplexer's common port and then out from the diplexer to the Yagi, but I still got through. During one of the L/V passes, I was still able to get through AO-92 transmitting at low power from the DJ-G7T (rated at 300mW for 1.2 GHz). I posted some pictures of this setup on the QRZ satellite forum, in a long- running thread "Where's AO-92???", starting at: https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/wheres-ao -92.614536/page-34#post-4986044 Audio from my recorder on the 3 passes I worked last weekend with this setup is in the "Satellite_Audio-2019" folder in my Dropbox space: http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/ The direct link for the pass I worked Saturday evening, where the recording started at 0537 UTC Sunday (3 March), is: https://www.dropbox .com/sh/v3byggtuqw33fkk/AAA_gyTts4RpjT3jZa8GJI5ha/Satellite_Audio-2019/20190303-0537UTC-AO92-DM43bl.mp3? dl=0 Audio from the 1709 UTC pass Sunday morning is at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v3byggtuqw33fkk/AACeV6R0Bjh-RRPXTrNpblAca /Satellite_Audio-2019/20190303-1709UTC-AO92-DM43bl.mp3?dl=0 and the late-morning pass at 1843 UTC Sunday: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v3byggtuqw33fkk/AADmbAfFYtHARDfULAR _J5eSa/Satellite_Audio-2019/20190303-1843UTC-AO92-DM43bl.mp3?dl=0 It is nice to see that the DJ-G7T is capable of L/V full-duplex operation, just as it is capable of U/V full-duplex operation, in line with Alinco's advertising for the radio - with some caveats. I can now alternate between a one-radio setup and a two-radio setup for AO-92 L/V. More fun with radios... :-) 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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50th Anniversary AMSAT Satellite Friends of 50 Award
by Bruce 06 Mar '19

06 Mar '19

I am sorry it took so long to get the award into the store. We were trying to wait until we had the certificate designed. In any event, the item is in the store and you can apply for it now. Those that sent their applications to me will need to pay for the award (please paste your contacts in the comments, easier for us to keep track). Keep in mind that these are not numbered so there is no hurry if you apply today or next week or in a month. Also be aware, that if you apply now and also apply for the special AMSAT Satellite Achievement Award (only 20 of them will be available), I plan on placing it in the store this weekend. If you order separately, you will pay postage twice. If you order on the same order, you pay postage once. Your choice. Certificates will be mailed as soon as we complete the design and figure the best way to print them. 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards AMSAT Board Member 2016-2020 ARRL Awards Field Checker (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat

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Fox Operating Guide - Charlotte Hamfest
by Philip Jenkins 05 Mar '19

05 Mar '19

I plan to be at the Charlotte NC Hamfest this Friday and Saturday, and while I won't be doing a full-blown AMSAT info table, I've decided to have a few AMSAT/satellite related things at my flea market table at the last minute. (I most likely won't be doing demos since I'll be there by myself.) One item that I'm planning to print is the Fox Operating Guide, and looking at the AMSAT website just now, the 2018 version doesn't reflect the current status of AO-85 nor Fox-1Cliff (AO-95). Should I just draw a line through the info (without obliterating the info entirely) for those two birds on the second page of the sheet, and only fill in the details when someone asks why they are marked out? I don't want them to try to listen for signals which aren't there! :-) And, how should I classify the status of AO-85 if someone asks - "Currently unavailable?" "Currently out of commission?" I'm just looking for the best (and briefest?) way to express its status. Philip N4HF

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 05 Mar '19

05 Mar '19

For anyone interested in the AMSAT on HF award, I will be calling "CQ AMSAT" in slow code from 1930 UTC to 2000 UTC. Frequency will be between 7.045 MHZ and 7.055 MHZ. Steve AI9IN

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-05 16:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 05 Mar '19

05 Mar '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-05 16:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain, direct via EG7NSC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact was successful: Tue 2019-03-05 09:50:56 UTC 48 deg (***) Watch for live stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1fWg9eb3XA ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-03-05 16:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1293. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1236. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-03-05 16:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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VP5/AA5UK satellite operations cancelled - HF operations alive and well
by Adrian Engele 05 Mar '19

05 Mar '19

Folks, Satellite: After many months of planning and getting the satellite FT-1638 bag all tuned in an working properly, I had a little accident on the second pass on my first day. My bag slid off the truck of the car and somehow affected my Radiosport headphone cable. I tried trouble shooted the issue, but I don't have the tools to do more. Yes some people have said why did you not bring a microphone, well I have dive gear, photo gear, drone and HF and Satellite gear. My weight was at maximum! My headset uses kevlar and is commercial grade tough. I only managed two passes and I will post those on LOTW when I get back. That's life unfortunately! HF: I had challenges here too. My remote Tuner is suddenly not liking 20M-80M and dies when I key up. I rigged up plan B. Not ideal but at least I am on the air 10-40M. Been working FT8 pile ups 20 to 25 people deep at times. My operation is holiday style and I get on when I have time or am in the mood. If you need VP5 you can still reach me through March 8th in the evening. March 9th is tear down. Good news, bad news. I tried... 73, Adrian VP5/AA5UK Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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VK5DG/3 in QF13, QF14, QF24 correction
by David Giles 04 Mar '19

04 Mar '19

Hello All, Must have had a brain fade or the diary flipped to the wrong week at a crucial moment. The activation will be Wednesday this week on the 6th of March in Gunbower National Park in grid QF24. Depending on how things go I will also try from grids QF14 and QF13. Both FM and linear satellites will be used during the day. Hope to catch you on the birds as well as seeing plenty of the feathered variety of which the National Park is famous for. 73 de David VK5DG

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VK5DG/3 in QF13, QF14, QF24 on 13/3/19
by David Giles 04 Mar '19

04 Mar '19

Hello All, I'll be operating on Wednesday 13th of March from Gunbower National Park in grid QF24. Depending on how things go I will also try from grids QF14 and QF13. Both FM and linear satellites will be used during the day. Hope to catch you on the birds as well as seeing plenty of the feathered variety of which the National Park is famous for. 73 de David VK5DG

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AMSAT @ Tucson AZ hamfest (30 March 2019)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Hi! I will have an AMSAT booth at the Radio Society of Tucson's annual spring hamfest on Saturday, 30 March 2019, in Tucson AZ. The hamfest will be behind the Target store on Old Spanish Trail (basically the northeast corner of 22nd Street and Harrison Road). More information about the hamfest is available in a flyer from the club's web site: https://rstclub.org/media/hamfest.pdf A map of the area around the hamfest site is also available: https://rstclub.org/media/hamfestmap1.png and of the Target shopping center, showing the parking and vendor areas: https://rstclub.org/media/hamfestmap2.png WD9EWK will be on satellite passes demonstrating satellite operating from the hamfest. If you hear WD9EWK on the air that morning, please call me and be a part of the demonstrations. The hamfest site is in grid DM42. QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World after the hamfest. QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail me directly with QSO details if you would like a QSL card). I will use my @WD9EWK Twitter account to send out photos and updates during the hamfest. These tweets are viewable in a web browser, even if you do not use Twitter - use the link at the bottom of this message to view my Twitter feed. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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Satellite/AMSAT presentation @ Phoenix AZ (21 March 2019)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Hi! I will give a how-to presentation on working amateur satellites and AMSAT at the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club's monthly meeting on Thursday, 21 March 2019. The meeting site is room 147 at the North Valley campus of Northern Arizona University, 15451 N. 28th Drive in Phoenix AZ (northwest corner of I-17 and Greenway Road). More information is available at: http://www.w7tbc.org/content.php?128-general Depending on how the meeting goes, there may be time for demonstrations on some satellite passes that evening. I see an SO-50 pass around 7.55pm (0255 UTC), a low AO-92 pass at 8.42pm (0342 UTC), and another SO-50 pass at 9.35pm (0435 UTC). If WD9EWK is on any of those passes, please feel free to give me a call and be a part of the demonstrations. The meeting site is in grid DM33. QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, and QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail me directly with QSO details if you would like a QSL card). 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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AMSAT @ Scottsdale AZ hamfest (16 March 2019)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Hi! I will have an AMSAT booth at the Scottsdale Amateur Radio Club's annual Springfest hamfest on Saturday, 16 March 2019, in Scottsdale AZ. The hamfest will be at a new location, at Coronado High School - along Miller Road, between McDowell and Thomas Roads, west of the AZ-101 Pima Freeway. More information about the hamfest is available from the club's web site: http://scottsdalearc.com/ A hamfest flyer with a map is available at: https://www.scottsdalearc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2019-Springfest -flyer.pdf WD9EWK will be on satellite passes demonstrating satellite operating from the hamfest. If you hear WD9EWK on the air that morning, please call me and be a part of the demonstrations. The hamfest site is in grid DM43. QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World after the hamfest. QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail me directly with QSO details if you would like a QSL card). I will use my @WD9EWK Twitter account to send out photos and updates during the hamfest. These tweets are viewable in a web browser, even if you do not use Twitter - use the link at the bottom of this message to view my Twitter feed. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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Satellite/AMSAT presentation @ Tucson AZ, 15 March 2019
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Hi! I will give a how-to presentation on working amateur satellites and AMSAT at the Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club's monthly meeting on Friday, 15 March 2019, in Tucson AZ. The meeting site is the Ascension Lutheran Church, on Magee Road in the north end of Tucson. The meeting starts at 7pm. More information is available from the club's web site at: http://tucsonhamradio.org/monthly-club-meeting/381-march-2019-club-meeting Depending on how the meeting goes, there may be time for demonstrations on one or two passes that evening. There is an SO-50 pass at 8.45pm (0345 UTC) that evening, followed by an AO-92 pass at 9.12pm (0412 UTC). If WD9EWK is on either of those evening passes, please feel free to give me a call and be a part of the demonstrations. The meeting site is in grid DM42. QSOs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, and QSL cards are available on request (please e-mail me directly with QSO details if you would like a QSL card). 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

If anyone is working on the AMSAT on HF award, I will be calling CQ AMSAT in slow CW from 2000 UTC to 2030 UTC. Frequency will be between 7.045 MHz and 7.055 MHz. Hope to hear from you! Steve AI9IN

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FUNcube Warehouse Migration
by David Johnson 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Hi, The majority of data for FC1 is being sent to data.funcube.org.uk and displayed at warehouse.funcube.org.uk We also have some ground stations sending FC1 data to data.amsat-uk.org, this is being processed too (and credited in that database) but not displayed in a user interface I have changed the missions link to use the new display http://data.amsat-uk.org/ui/fc1-fm Please note that the scores will be out of step but the data is correct. I will be adding WOD today, so there may be a few short outages as updates take effect. 73 Dave, G4DPZ

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-03 03:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 03 Mar '19

03 Mar '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-03 03:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain, direct via EG7NSC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Tue 2019-03-05 09:50:56 UTC 48 deg Watch for live stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1fWg9eb3XA (***) ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-03-03 03:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1292. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1235. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-02-14 16:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletin
by Mark D. Johns 02 Mar '19

02 Mar '19

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-061 The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org. You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans In this edition: * Call for Volunteers - AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention * JAMSAT Announces 2019 Symposium, March 16-17 * SatNOGS Client and gr-satnogs Updates * ARISS News -- Reports Requested * "Off to the Motherland" Rove * Activating Northern Maine Grids - March 2-3 * Summer Internship Positions Open in the SpaceSTEM Program * Virginia Cubesat Constellation Moves Forward * New ‘NASA Science Live’ Program Premiers This Week * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.01 ANS-061 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.01 >From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD. March 2, 2019 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-061.01 Call for Volunteers - AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention The 2019 Hamvention will be held on May 17-19 2019 at Greene County Fairground and Expo Center in Xenia Ohio. If you're available we can also use your help for setup operations on May 16. Planning is under way for AMSAT's participation. We are looking for volunteers in the following areas: + Volunteer Assistant + Sales Assistant + Outdoor Demo Assistant + Facilities and Setup Assistant. Interested Hams should contact Team Leader Phil Smith via email at w1eme at amsat.org for information. [ANS Thanks W1EME for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- JAMSAT Announces 2019 Symposium to be Held March 16-17 The 2019 JAMSAT Symposium will be held on March 16-17 at the Hotel Binario Saga Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan. JAMSAT invites anyone inter- ested in the satellite communication to participate in the symposium and social gathering. The Symposium will offer a lot of content about the NEXUS satellite jointly developed with Nihon University. The entire program has been posted at: https://tinyurl.com/y6n7pcf9 Activities planned for Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17: Saturday: 12:30 - 13:15 General Assembly for JAMSAT members only 13:30 - 18:30 Symposium Activities 18:00 - Banquet and Reception Sunday: 08:45 - 13:15 Symposium Activities 14:15 - 16:45 GNU Radio Exercise (advance registration required) Participation in the Symposium is free. The cost of the banquet and reception is 5000 yen with a registration deadline of March 2. The contact for more information is jh3bum(a)gmail.com [ANS thanks JAMSAT for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- SatNOGS Client and gr-satnogs Updates SatNOGs has announced new releases for satnogs-client 3 and gr-satnogs 4 for Raspbery Pi 3 and Debian operating systems. Notable changes on satnogs-client: * Support demodulator for Reaktor Hello World 2 satellite * Sent observation frequency in metadata * Add option for manual power level range in waterfall (there is an issue with this one, there will be an update in satnogs-client- ansible 2 later that will fix this.) Notable changes on gr-satnogs: * Golay (24, 12) decoder * Demodulating flowgraph for the Reacktor Hello World Satellite * Fix of the baud rate issue in BPSK gr-script For installation or upgrade information, see the wiki at: https://tinyurl.com/yytxwge5 [ANS thanks https://satnogs.org/news/ for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) News Reports requested: An ARISS contact with Huntington High School, Huntington, TX, direct via KI5AJL on Monday 2019-02-25 at 19:39 UTC was unsuccessful. ARISS is attempting to determine what happened and welcomes SWL reports. Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain on 05 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:50 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and EG7NSC. The contact should be audible over Spain and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The con- tact is expected to be conducted in English. ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.80 MHz. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Please send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. ARISS Contact Application window for the United States open in the spring of 2019. See the ARISS webpage at http://www.ariss.org/ for details. ARISS would be particularly interested in applications from the following US states and entities that have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mari- anas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. [ANS thanks AJ9N and AA4KN for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Off to the Motherland" Rove Gabe Zeifman, AL6D/VE6NJH wrote to AMSAT-BB on February 23: "I am on the first of four flights now on the way for another one of my signature trips. This voyage will take me to Poland (Feb 24-28), Lithuania(Feb 28-Mar 4), Kaliningrad (Mar 4-7), Saint Petersburg (Mar 7-11), Åland Islands (Mar 11-13), and Helsinki (Mar 13-14). I think the most desired entities are going to be UA2 and OH0 (unfortunately OH0 is gonna be quick, get in in the evening and leave in a morning, so two nights and one full day). I’m hoping to make US contacts from every entity and will try to hit as many grids as feasible (I’ll have a car in Vilnius and Kaliningrad), but good transatlantic locations will take precedence over grids. Don’t expect me on every pass, I’m traveling with family and we’ll be doing touristy stuff, but I’ll make my best effort to be on the great AO-7 and FO-29 passes across the ocean, updates will be on Twitter @AL6D_Alaska. I’m operating ninja portable like the good ole days, QRP with two FT-817NDs and an arrow, hopefully that doesn’t attract too much negative attention from customs in Russia." [ANS thanks AL6D for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Activating Northern Maine Grids - March 2-3 Clayton, W5PFG writes, "Between ~03:00 UTC March 2 thru ~17:00 UTC March 3, I will operate satellites /TM (Tobaggan Mobile) thru grids FN54, FN55, FN56, FN57, FN66, and FN67. I plan to activate the FN54/55, FN56/66, and FN57/67 grid lines I've used on previous Maine expedi- tions. This will be a fast-paced trip and I don't anticipate working every bird or every pass. I will stop to sleep, drink, and eat. Weather will be a huge factor. Like many of my activations, it's recommended you monitor my @w5pfg Twitter feed for the latest information." [ANS thanks W5PFG for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Summer Internship Positions Open in the SpaceSTEM Program ESTCube is calling all space enthusiasts! The SpaceTEM application period for internships in Estonian and Latvian space technology entities for the summer of 2019 has begun! Challenge yourself and enjoy this summer by being a part of an amazing space adventure - SpaceTEM '19! SpaceTEM is a new EstLat project which aims to initiate the development of NewSpace industry in Estonia and Latvia through a series of mutual activities. If you are interested in space technologies, innovation, and entrepreneurship, this intern- ship is a great opportunity for you! There are over 50 topics to choose from - from building 3D printers to developing soft- ware for ESTCube-2. More information can be found at this link: http://tinyurl.com/ANS-062-SpaceSTEM To apply, fill in the internship form and send your CV and moti- vational letter (for additional bonus points you can also add a link to any project you have been a part of so far) to: spacetem_internship(a)venta.lv The application deadline is March 31, 2019. Chosen interns will be announced from the middle of April until the beginning of May, 2019. [ANS thanks ESTCube for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Virginia CubeSat Constellation Moves Forward A project built by a team of University of Virginia engineering students took step toward outer space this week when they and student colleagues from Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech delivered three CubeSats to NanoRacks, an aerospace company in Houston. NanoRocks will integrate the CubeSats into a deployer aboard a rocket set for launch next month to the International Space Station. The satellites are part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation mission, a collaborative project of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and its four member universities (which also includes Hampton University). The three nano-satellites, each carrying a UHF packet repeater for amateur use, were developed by engineering students to obtain measurements of the properties of the Earth’s atmosphere to quantify atmospheric den- sity. Full article available at: https://tinyurl.com/y3u7skkl [ANS thanks news.virginia.edu for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- SpaceCube near the end, request to receive the last telemetry Jean Guérard, from the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (France), ONERA, asks all those who have the opportunity to record the latest SpaceCube telemetry frames. Launched in May 2017, SpaceCube is expected to disintegrate sometime around March 1, 2019. The frequency is 436,880 MHz, AFSK modulation 1k2, AX25 mode. Note: The frames are not decodable, it is therefore requested to re- cord the audio signal of the satellite and to send it to Jean Guérard ( jean.guerard(a)saf-astronomie.fr ) For large files, you can use the service: https://www.grosfichiers.com/fr/ [ANS thanks Christophe Mercier for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- New ‘NASA Science Live’ Program Premiers This Week NASA invites you to take a behind-the-scenes look at how the agency explores Earth and outer space with a new monthly television series that premiers this week. The inaugural episode of “NASA Science Live” will air at 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 27, on NASA Television, the agency’s website, Facebook Watch, YouTube, and Ustream. Viewers will be able to submit questions on social media using the hashtag #askNASA or by leaving a comment in the chat section on Facebook. >From remote locations on Earth to the depths of outer space, join the conversation live each month to interact with NASA experts and watch as they reveal the mysteries of our solar system and beyond. “I am personally very excited about how this new show will highlight the interconnected nature of science from across the agency,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “The series will find new ways to talk about science from various disciplines, missions and centers to show how each works together in order to achieve our exploration goals.” This first episode - entitled “To the Moon, and Beyond” - will explore the how science conducted on the lunar surface in the past informs current missions studying the Moon and future plans to send science, robots and humans to our nearest celestial neighbor. For more information about the show, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceLive [ANS thanks NASA HQ News for the above information] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Satellite Shorts From All Over + RTL-SDR.com tells of a new SDR radio PodCast that calls itself "Signals Everywhere". Episode 1 was just released. More information at: https://tinyurl.com/y5khc5hl (via RTL-SDR.com) + A recent ARISS contact between the International Space Station and Faith Christian Academy middle school in Orlando, Florida received good press coverage from WUSF public radio in Tampa. See the story at https://tinyurl.com/y4b2p4ro (via http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu) + SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled for a test flight to the International Space Station on Saturday, March 2. Liftoff of the human-rated capsule — flying without astronauts this time — is scheduled for 2:49 a.m. EST (07:49Z). Assuming an on-time launch and docking this weekend, the spacecraft will depart the space station March 8 and return to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlan- tic Ocean. More details at https://tinyurl.com/y4o2n5u9 (via spaceflightnow.com) + Scott, K4KDR, reports that The JY1SAT (JO-97) satellite started transmitting digital media files on 145.840 USB. Decoding is accom- plished with the “Funcube” type dashboard which can be downloaded at: https://tinyurl.com/y5uutqct (via K4KDR) + The TAPR PSR Digital Journal, Winter 2019 Edition is now available online at: https://www.tapr.org/psr/psr140.pdf (via tapr.org on facebook) + The Central States VHF Society offers a Reverse VUCC for rovers. Only a few have actually applied for the award on satellite. See: https://www.csvhfs.org/index.php/awards-and-programs/reverse-vucc (via Martin A Schuette on AMSAT-BB) + AMSAT-DL has agreed to a proposal by the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) for the use of the bottom 100 kHz of the wideband trans- ponder on QO-100 (10491 – 10491.1 MHz) for ATV co-ordination pur- poses. Details at: https://tinyurl.com/y6tzwsuz (via AMSAT-UK) + Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, writes: "One of the really cool things about receiving an AMSAT award in the mail is the certificate inside. However, what is even cooler is the envelope. Yes, the envelope. My wife has purchased stamps for years and years. I use those stamps on the envelopes I mail. None of those little white labels from the post office. Is it time for you to apply for an AMSAT award or to add to your stamp collection?" (via KK5DO) [See https://www.amsat.org/awards-2/ ] --------------------------------------------------------------------- /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 and Remember to help keep amateur radio in space, This week's ANS Editor, K0JM at amsat dot org

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Satellite operation
by Ronnan Werneck 02 Mar '19

02 Mar '19

Hi all, I'm again in GH52dx for the next three days and I'll be in next passes of AO-7 and FO-29. Looking for Central and North American stations. 73 Ron PP2RON P.S. Skeds via SMS, Whatsapp or Telegram to my number +55 62 99973- 6268

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Oscar Locator - W1FXX
by Francis Geraci 02 Mar '19

02 Mar '19

Amazing to see Guy's are pulling out their "Oscar locators". I still have mine. I'm thinking about pulling mine out and using it. If I remember correctly, You had to use a couple of the "Kep" elements, to use it. RAAN and ??. Fill in the blanks. My "Oscar" locator, should be called "RS locator", because that's what I used it for. Best to the "Space cadet's". W1FXX

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 02 Mar '19

02 Mar '19

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain on 05 Mar. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 09:50 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between OR4ISS and EG7NSC. The contact should be audible over Spain and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. Torre de la Reina is located south of the main population center of Guillena (Sevilla) about 2 kilometers from it and is about 19 meters above sea level. It is also just 17 kilometers from Seville capital if you take the direction to the south on the A-431 road, also enjoying a strategic location privileged to be located very close to the A-66 (Autovía de la Plata) that connects Sevilla capital with Extremadura. Our school is located in the town of Torre de la Reina, (Seville, Spain), with 215 students, including children and primary school. It has two buildings, one of the infantile stage (recent construction) and another one of primary (something older). The staff consists of 15 teachers. We are a small center, but with a young staff, willing to invest in experiences of all kinds that enrich our students.There are many activities that we carry out within different projects, with the aim not only of fulfilling the educational curriculum, but also of developing competences to train integral people. Also one of our hallmarks of identity is to form values and an emotional education, because we consider that it is fundamental in the education of today's society.The heart and the vocation to educate is our engine every day. The resources we have are not many, but the human side compensates for any technical and material aspect. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What did you think when you saw Earth from space? 2. What are you currently investigating on the ISS? 3. When did you decide to become an astronaut? 4. How do you live in such a small place? 5. How long do you need to recover after finishing your missions? 6. If an astronaut floats away from the ISS, what do you have to do? 7. Which values and skills should an astronaut have? 8. Can you eat whatever you want? 9. What´s the most common problem inside the ISS? 10. Could you go to Mars with this ISS? 11. Can you have a shower or bath there? 12. Where do you throw your rubbish? 13. How long can you stay at the ISS? 14. Is there a doctor in the ISS? 15. How many hours do you sleep every day? 16. How do you keep fit? 17. What´s your favourite food and drink there? 18. Do you listen to music at work? 19. Can you see our country from the ISS? 20. When will you come back to Earth? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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InstantTrack now free to download
by Paul Williamson 02 Mar '19

02 Mar '19

The classic DOS satellite tracking program InstantTrack by Franklin Antonio, N6NKF (and later maintained by me, Paul Williamson, KB5MU) is now free to download and distribute. See http://instanttrack.com for download links, documentation, and related files. The latest version remains 1.55, released as an open beta on May 12, 2002. InstantTrack is still a plain old-style 16-bit DOS program. It ran under Windows up to Windows XP or so, but won't run directly on recent versions of Windows. It can still be run on nearly any computer by using DOSBOX. >From its initial release in November 1989, InstantTrack was sold by AMSAT-NA and other AMSAT organizations around the world as a fundraiser. All proceeds from InstantTrack went to support the amateur satellite program. This income stream has dwindled to a tiny trickle, and all the AMSAT organizations (as far as I know) stopped offering InstantTrack years ago. It was still available online through one of the old-school shareware fulfillment sites, until that site went offline recently. Rather than rehost InstantTrack for sale on another platform, Franklin and I have agreed to release it for free download and distribution. 73 -Paul KB5MU

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Re: [amsat-bb] LVB TRACKER
by Angelo Glorioso 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] LVB TRACKER Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2019 10:40:24 -0600 From: Angelo <n5uxt(a)hotmail.com><mailto:[email protected]> To: Rick Hardin <rick(a)rickhardinjr.com><mailto:[email protected]> I have one for sale. Email me at n5uxt at hotmail.com 73 de Angelo On 2/28/2019 3:43 PM, Rick Hardin wrote: Hello, We need 2 LVB Tracker interfaces, does anyone have 1 or 2 that they can sell ? Thank you Rick kb4bsa rick(a)rickhardinjr.com<mailto:[email protected]> Sent from Mail for Windows 10 _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org<mailto:[email protected]>. 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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Oribitron / WispDDE problem
by k0ekl＠frontier.com 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

I have Orbitron and WispDDE 3.4.7 installed on my 32 bitWindows 7 PC and I’m trying to use them to control my Yaesu FT-847 for Dopplershift compensation. WispDDE CAT control of the FT-847 works but after just afew minutes of operation I notice a discrepancy between the uplink anddownlink frequencies displayed in Orbitron VS the uplink and downlinkfrequencies displayed in WispDDE and on the 847. The longer the software isrunning the larger the discrepancy and after 15 minutes the two are off my over1 MHz. The other problem I’m seeing is that each time Orbitron andWispDDE send a command to the 847 it interrupts PTT and stops my transmitting. Can anyone offer any advice or a solution to the above? I also have an unregistered copy of SatPC 32 installed andwhile it controls the 847 perfectly I prefer the look and feel of Orbitron. Thanks -de KØEKL

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AO73 FUNcube-1
by Graham Shirville 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

Hi All, I am pleased to confirm that AO73 is now in amateur mode for the weekend with the transponder active and available for use. Please enjoy! 73 Graham - G3VZV

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Re: [amsat-bb] VUCC Awards-Endorsements for February 2019
by Ronald G. Parsons 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period February 1, 2019 through March 1, 2019. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! Lots of new Not-in-my-home-grid awards this month. CALL 01Feb 01Mar WC7V 1199 1200 AA5PK 1049 1055 WD9EWK 525 537 NS3L 375 400 AF5CC 351 381 AE5B 342 368 KE8FZT 275 301 W7JSD 257 279 K9UO 202 225 WB7VUF 107 206 N2NL New 179 N1PEB 125 138 WD9EWK(DM22)108 131 W5PFG(DM80) New 125 WD9EWK(DM31)New 110 W5PFG(DM95) 100 109 TI2VLM New 106 W5PFG(DM93) New 105 KS1G New 102 PU4JOE New 101 W1OH New 101 If you find errors or omissions. please contact me off-list at <mycall>@<mycall>.com and I'll revise the announcement. This list was developed by comparing the ARRL .pdf listings for The two months. It's a visual comparison so omissions are possible. Apologies if your call was not mentioned. Thanks to all those who are roving to grids that are rarely on the birds. They are doing most of the work! Ron W5RKN

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-01 16:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-03-01 16:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain, direct via EG7NSC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Tue 2019-03-05 09:50:56 UTC 48 deg ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-03-01 16:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1292. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1235. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-02-14 16:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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ACTIVE BIRDS,
by Joe 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

I know this site, http://www.amsat.org/status/ Is there anyplace I can get a current listing of all the active and usable Birds currently operational? I was very active in these things back in the years of Oscar 6,7, the Russian Birds, etc. I plan on getting back on, and also make it a club project. Give a presentation and get some others interested also. Joe WB9SBD -- Sig The Original Rolling Ball Clock Idle Tyme Idle-Tyme.com http://www.idle-tyme.com

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LVB TRACKER
by Nicholas Mahr KE8AKW 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

AMSAT should consider making and selling those all year around once again. I wouldn't mind buying one myself here in the near distant future as I refurbish my sat station. I'm sure they do sell a good amount of them especially around Dayton. Hopefully we see more in stock soon as they are a very nice piece of equipment to have! Nick, KE8AKW

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QO-100 bare minimum: GPS referenced LNB + IC-402 (read: no dish, 70cm IF!)
by Michael Fletcher 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7KwssbYMKY /Michael, oh2aue

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LVB TRACKER
by Rick Hardin 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

Hello, We need 2 LVB Tracker interfaces, does anyone have 1 or 2 that they can sell ? Thank you Rick kb4bsa rick(a)rickhardinjr.com Sent from Mail for Windows 10

4 4

OSCAR-Locators and Satellab
by na2x＠yahoo.com 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

The details of the original OSCAR-Locator was first described by it's creator, Kay Deskur, K2ZRO (SK), in an article in the 73 magazine issue dated July 1975. K2ZRO called it "Satellab". Since the 73 magazine is now in the public domain, electronic issues are available on the web. Look for the July 1975 issue at: https://mikeyancey.com/73mag/index.php This 73 magazine article was reprinted in the March 1976 AMSAT Newsletter. It's available on Phil Karn's web site at: http://www.ka9q.net/newsletters.html For production quantities of the device, now called OSCAR-Locator, I think AMSAT might have made some. I say this because the version I have (which is of very good quality) has K2ZRO printed on it and AMSAT's name and address. Later, The ARRL also sold their version. The ARRL printed updated ground tracks in QST for any new satellites that were launched. OSCAR-Locators and Satellab all basically worked the same.

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Call for Papers, Posters, Presentations for GNU Radio Conference 2019 - special focus on amateur radio and space communications!
by Michelle Thompson 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

Dear friends and fans of GNU Radio, GNU Radio Conference celebrates and showcases the substantial and remarkable progress of the world's best open source digital signal processing framework for software-defined radios. In addition to presenting GNU Radio’s vibrant theoretical and practical presence in academia, industry, the military, and among amateurs and hobbyists, GNU Radio Conference 2019 will have a very special focus. Summer 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the Moon. GNU Radio Conference selected Huntsville, AL, USA as the site for GNU Radio Conference 2019 in order to highlight and celebrate space exploration, astronomical research, and communication. Space communications are challenging and mission critical. Research and development from space exploration has had and continues to have far-reaching effect on our communications gear and protocols. Please join us September 16-20, 2019 at the "Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center" hotel for the best technical conference of the year! Amateur satellite communications has a central place. Registration and an online and mobile-friendly schedule will be posted at the conference web site: https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/ Call for All! We invite developers and users from the GNU Radio Community to present your projects, presentations, papers, posters, and problems at GNU Radio Conference 2019. Submit your talks, demos, and code! Please share this Call for All with anyone you think needs to read it. To submit your content for the conference, visit our dedicated conference submission site at: https://openconf.org/GRCon19/openconf.php First round closes 1 July 2019. If accepted, your content will be immediately scheduled. Final round closes 1 September 2019. Space permitting. Pun intended. If you have questions or need assistance with OpenConf, or have content that doesn't quite fit and you want to talk it over, please write grcon(a)gnuradio.org Topics may include but are not limited to: Space (including ground stations)* Amateur radio Radio astronomy Atmospheric research Theoretical work Practical applications Aviation Biomedical Citizen Science Digital Signal Processing Education Radio Interface Machine Learning Cognitive Radio Transportation Wireless security *special focus awards given to all accepted work with Space as a topic! -Michelle W5NYV

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Satpc32 snafu
by 73 Bob W7LRD 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

Hi My satpc32 is getting that Ole.... message, I have speakers plugged in. Also it does not appear to be reading the SQF files as that block is empty. 73 Bob- W7LRD

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First Satellite Contact for WA9PIE
by Les Rayburn 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

Mike, Congratulations! Say hello to the amazing world of amateur space communications, and goodbye to your wallet. :-) I’m a registered user of Ham Radio Deluxe, and have been watching your progress on the area of satellite tracking closely. Once the bugs are worked out, I plan to convert my satellite station to HRD. Currently, I use it only for HF. Hope to work you on the birds soon. 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63nf AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member

2 1

JY1-Sat JO-97
by Mike Seguin 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

I was successful in capturing the full image and audio during the last pass. Is there any setup for submitting telemetry captured? I notice in the setting, there is a site id and auth code. I assume I'll need those? Tnx, Mike -- 73, Mike, N1JEZ "A closed mouth gathers no feet"

2 1

OSCAR-Locator & Amateur Satellite Report Number 154
by Les Rayburn 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

Today’s mail brought me a vintage cardboard “OSCAR-Locator” purchased on QRZ.com. Also included was a back issue of the Amateur Satellite Report newsletter, Number 154 from July 27, 1987. I love collecting items related to the history of amateur satellites. The OSCAR-Locator is really neat—I’m digging through back issues of QST now trying to learn how to actually use it. Don’t think I’ll be giving up SatPC32 anytime soon however. Remember back even further when hams plotted satellite passes using a string and a globe? Remember watching my elmer, Ron Murray WA4IWN (SK) do that back in the day. 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63nf AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member

4 6

Re: [amsat-bb] VUCC rules?
by Martin A Schuette 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

The Central States VHF Society offers a Reverse VUCC for rovers. Only a few have actually applied for the award on satellite. https://www.csvhfs.org/index.php/awards-and-programs/reverse-vucc On Feb 27, 2019 21:03, skristof(a)etczone.com wrote: I found this: 6. For VUCC awards on 50 through 1296 MHz and Satellite, all contacts must be made from locations no more than 200 km apart. For SHF awards, contacts must be made from a single location, defined as within a 300-meter diameter circle. located here: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/DXCC/VHF%20UHF%20Rules20141pdf.pdf Steve AI9IN On 2019-02-27 21:35, IAN PARSONS wrote: > I've had a look -several, actually- at the VUCC info on the ARRL webiste, but it seems incomplete at best. No mention of categories, etc. For instance, is there a separate VUCC/r award? If so, what is the criteria? Likewise, what is the radius of the circle from which you can operate and still claim credit for being active from 'home'? Do qualifying Qs have to be made from a single grid? > > I'm certain I've read this info somewhere before, I just can't recall where. Or was I perhaps reading FFMA material instead? > > tnx es 73 > > Ian, K5ZM > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ 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] VUCC rules?
by IAN PARSONS 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

Tnx, Bruce. Went back and gave it another read. Sure enough, there it was. > On February 27, 2019 at 6:47 PM Bruce <kk5do(a)amsat.org> wrote: > > > no vucc/r award. all not in single grid. i moved to the grid north of me and still within the radius, 200km or 124.27 miles. > > this is all in the rules under awards, vucc, rules. > > i am a vucc/was card checker as well. > > 73...bruce > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Feb 27, 2019, at 8:35 PM, IAN PARSONS <k5zm(a)comcast.net> wrote: > > I've had a look -several, actually- at the VUCC info on the ARRL webiste, but it seems incomplete at best. No mention of categories, etc. For instance, is there a separate VUCC/r award? If so, what is the criteria? Likewise, what is the radius of the circle from which you can operate and still claim credit for being active from 'home'? Do qualifying Qs have to be made from a single grid? > > > I'm certain I've read this info somewhere before, I just can't recall where. Or was I perhaps reading FFMA material instead? > > > tnx es 73 > > > Ian, K5ZM > _______________________________________________ > 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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VUCC rules?
by IAN PARSONS 28 Feb '19

28 Feb '19

I've had a look -several, actually- at the VUCC info on the ARRL webiste, but it seems incomplete at best. No mention of categories, etc. For instance, is there a separate VUCC/r award? If so, what is the criteria? Likewise, what is the radius of the circle from which you can operate and still claim credit for being active from 'home'? Do qualifying Qs have to be made from a single grid? I'm certain I've read this info somewhere before, I just can't recall where. Or was I perhaps reading FFMA material instead? tnx es 73 Ian, K5ZM

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SpaceCube near the end, Help requested to receive the latest telemetry !
by christophe.mcr 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

Hi Jean Guérard, from the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (France), ONERA, asks all those who have the opportunity to record the latest SpaceCube telemetry frames launched in May 2017. SpaceCube is expected to disintegrate around March 1, 2019. The frequency is 436,880 MHz, AFSK modulation 1k2, AX25 mode. Attention the frames are not decodable, it is therefore requested to record the audio signal of the satellite and to send it to Jean Guérard ( jean.guerard(a)saf-astronomie.fr) For large files, you can use the service: https://www.grosfichiers.com/fr/ A big thank you, 73! Christophe Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

If anyone is interested in the AMSAT on HF award, I will doing slow code CQ AMSAT between 7.045 MHz and 7.055 MHz from 1930 UTC to 2000 UTC today (so, starting in a few minutes). Steve AI9IN

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1.2 gig
by James Brown 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

SO thinking ahead to the IC 9700. What satellite activities are happening on 1.2 ? Any homebrew antennas on the horizon? Does 1.2 require mast mounted preamps? Jim KI6WJ

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Re:1.2 gig
by Ronald G. Parsons 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

> Does 1.2 require mast mounted preamps? It’s my understanding that in IARU Region 2, the 23cm Satellite sub-band is transmit-only. Ron W5RKN

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Looking for north Texas AMSAT volunteers
by Tom Schuessler 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

I will be running an AMSAT table at the Irving Texas ham fest this coming weekend, Saturday, March 2 from 8 AM to 1 PM. I am looking for others in the north Texas, DFW area to help. The Irving Fest is small but fun. Please contact me off list if you can assist. Tom, N5HYP N5hyp(a)arrl.net

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JY1SAT (JO-97) Update
by Scott 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

Correction on my previous JY1SAT (JO-97) post regarding today's digital image downloads... The second "image" file was not a picture, it was a placeholder for the underlying digital media file. You can click the little "Play" button under that graphic to play the audio file right in the dashboard. Here is the audio that was in the file I downloaded today: https://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//files/2019-02-27--1522--JY1SAT--audio.mp3 -Scott, K4KDR

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JY1SAT (JO-97) Transmitting Images
by Scott 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

Greetings! The JY1SAT (JO-97) satellite started transmitting digital image files today on 145.840 USB. Decoding is accomplished with the “Funcube” type dashboard which can be downloaded at: https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/ This morning’s pass was out over the Atlantic, so I got half of one picture and one complete image download: https://twitter.com/scott23192/status/1100780080459104258 73! -Scott, K4KDR

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Lotw use
by James McIrvin 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

Good morning, I am wondering why there are not more folks on the birds using LOTW? I have a couple of people that show as LOTW users, however, they have not uploaded there Sat contacts, or I have a bad miss match which can happen. Being new I am still learning how some of this is working and have been using LOTW for years and I find it quite easy to work with depending on the software that is being used for logging. I know that this subject most likely has been addressed before, however, in this day and age with the cost of cards, postage and envelopes it gets quite costly to be sending out many cards to obtain awards. Another thing that I have not seen is if for some of the Amsat awards if LOTW could be used for the awards if you can show a screenshot of the matches via there system. The reason I ask is when you look at the cost of cards, then postage and envelopes, the cost can be quite high and if doing SASE the cost even goes higher. I know if your working non-USA contacts you can use the bureau which is fine, just domestic stuff it is thru the roof. In many cases, you could be 2 to 3 dollars per confirmation. Jim <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

12 18

And the winner is...
by Michael Carper, Ph.D. 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

AA5PK became my very first satellite QSO tonight on AO-92. (After 45 years as a ham.) Thanks, Glenn! This is helpful because it helps me validate that we're making good progress with Ham Radio Deluxe. (I was using an FT-991A, a Portable Rotation PR12SAT Az/El rotor and controller, and Elk Antennas... all controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe.) Progress! 73 de Mike, WA9PIE

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Activating Northern Maine Grids - March 2-3
by Clayton Coleman W5PFG 26 Feb '19

26 Feb '19

Between ~03:00 UTC March 2 thru ~17:00 UTC March 3, I will operate satellites /TM (Tobaggan Mobile) thru grids FN54, FN55, FN56, FN57, FN66, and FN67. I plan to activate the FN54/55, FN56/66, and FN57/67 grid lines I've used on previous Maine expeditions. This will be a fast-paced trip and I don't anticipate working every bird or every pass. I will stop to sleep, drink, and eat. Weather will be a huge factor. Like many of my activations, it's recommended you monitor my @w5pfg Twitter feed for the latest information. 73 Clayton W5PFG

3 2

HRD rotor settings
by James Brown 26 Feb '19

26 Feb '19

Just downloaded the HRD 6.5-0-196 revision to satellite tracker.Dont see any visable changes to the program yet! I am using a REC-m/G5500 rotator. What settings needed to make HRD rotator software work? Jim KI6WJ

3 2

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-26 02:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-26 02:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Huntington High School, Huntington, TX, direct via KI5AJL The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact was unsuccessful: Mon 2019-02-25 19:39:52 UTC 25 deg (***) ARISS is attempting to determine what happened and welcomes your SWL reports. (***) Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain, direct via EG7NSC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI Contact is go for: Tue 2019-03-05 09:50:56 UTC 48 deg ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-02-26 02:00 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1292. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1235. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-02-14 16:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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Startin' to come together!
by IAN PARSONS 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

Some of you may recall my 'trials and tribulations' post from last week. This is a follow up of sorts. I'm down in DM37 burning a week of vacation time. Prior to leaving home (CN85), I decided to bring my TH D72 and Arrow II along with me -probably to see if getting out of the urban environment would help things. I had a go at one of the FM birds yesterday but was met with more of the same: inability to hear myself on the DL. Spent a good chunk of time last night (re)reading articles and watching videos on everything from compass basics to smartphone tracking apps -HamSat in my case. Must've paid off, as I finally achieved success today on both AO-91 and SO-50! For the AO-91 pass, I skipped the voice memo app on my iPhone and focused on using HamSat. As a result, I had a MUCH better idea of where to point the antenna -both in terms of az and el- but I'm afraid I've no idea what time I made my two Qs! Later in the day I repeated this approach during the SO-50 pass and again had to estimate the time of the two Qs I made during that pass. But one thing did not change. I still had great difficulty hearing myself on the DL. Actually, let me clarify that just a bit. There was one point during the AO-91 pass when I caught the briefest of blip)s in my headset. You know... not at all unlike what you'd hear on HF when quickly spinning the VFO up or down the band. (In this case, the 'VFO' was me flipping the antenna round trying to account for Doppler). Unfortunately, by the time I flipped it round the other way, I'd finished my transmission! I *think* I heard it a bit better later in the day during the SO-5O pass. It went from sounding 'normal' to sounding as though I were speaking while having a head cold. I dunno, maybe I was expecting something a bit louder. My roots are in HF contesting and DXing (cw and rtty) so maybe that was working against me ;) Observations: 1. There's a LOT to pay attention to during a pass! 2. It's not as easy as John (KG4AKV) makes it look in his videos!! ;) 3. I really need to go the patch cable/splitter route so I can put a voice recorder inline. 4. Even an Arrow II gets heavy after 14 minutes. Gonna have to think about a tripod mount. 73 Ian, K5ZM

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list of sats
by James Brown 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

can anyone provide me a current list of "active" fm and linear sats It seams like a couple of sats such as AO85 and AO73 are gone now? Jim KI6WJ

3 2

list of sats
by Nick Gangsta 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

James, https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/

1 0

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-25 17:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-25 17:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Huntington High School, Huntington, TX, direct via KI5AJL The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is TBD Contact is go for: Mon 2019-02-25 19:39:52 UTC 25 deg Ceip Nuestra Señora Del Carmen, Torre De La Reina, Spain, direct via EG7NSC The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is David St-Jacques KG5FYI (***) Contact is go for: Tue 2019-03-05 09:50:56 UTC 48 deg (***) ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-02-25 17:30 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1292. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1235. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-02-14 16:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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AO-91 demo for students EA4RCT - EB1AO 26 Feb 12:26 UTC
by Felix Paez EA4GQS 25 Feb '19

25 Feb '19

Dear friends, this Tuesday, February 26 and within the activity 'Picosatellites and radio amateurs by satellite', carried out by the Radioclub of the School of Telecommunications Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, AMSAT EA, in collaboration with that radioclub, will have a talk about amateur radio satellites, their history and how they are operated. Within the space of the talk, there will be a break to try to carry out a demonstration of QSO in a portable way, between us, in Madrid IN80 and José EB1AO in Vigo IN62 at 12:36 UTC, using the satellite AO-91 RadFxSAT. The callsign to be used will be EA4RCT. Please if you are reading this I ask you for priority in the sat pass so we can complete the contact. We wish to have new sat radio-amateurs in the future with this kind of activities! thanks and regards, Felix Paez EA4GQS

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Ham Radio Deluxe Version 6.5.0.196 Release Announcement
by Ted Krempa 24 Feb '19

24 Feb '19

Posting on behalf of Mike, WA9PIE. Looks like several updates to the Satellite portion. 73, Ted K7TRK From: Ham Radio Deluxe Newsletter [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2019 2:23 PM To: k7trkradio(a)charter.net Subject: Ham Radio Deluxe Version 6.5.0.196 Release Announcement Ham Radio Deluxe Release Announcement Email not displaying correctly? <https://sg-mktg.com/MTU1MTA0NjgyOHxqNWlleXA2eGdtcUVxUDhDUWdRUmxpQm5CT0MzYkt…> View it in your browser. Ham Radio Deluxe Ham Radio Deluxe v6.5.0.196 Released The 6.5.0.196 version of Ham Radio Deluxe is now available for download. This is the second release of 2019. Please download it from the Download pages on our website at: www.HamRadioDeluxe.com This may be a longer release announcement, because there's a ton going on here. I would encourage you to read this note in its entirety. In this release of Ham Radio Deluxe, there are 97 individual updates to the software (plus 4 duplicates, 102 total). By application, there are 26 in Logbook, 33 in Rig Control, 23 in Rotator, 13 in Satellite Tracking, and 7 in other areas (DM-780, setup, etc). Two developers simultaneously contributed to this work. We resolved the three issues that were reported with the 6.5.0.813 release - SAMCD error, installer doesn't complete and left HRD partially installed, and we restored the 3rd party serial port capability. In Rig Control, there are updates for the Yaesu FT-875D, FT-891, FT-897, FT-920, FT-1000MP, FTDX-1200, and FTDX-3000; updates for the ICOM IC-7300, IC-7610, and IC-7700; and for the Kenwood TS-990. In the Rotator application, we have validated changes for the Portable Rotation rotors (thanks, Will), Yaesu GS-232A/B, and HyGain DCU. We have un-validated changes for the M2 rotor family (feedback from M2 users welcome). In the Satellite Tracking, we've fixed about half the things in the bug list for this application. I'm excited to begin trying it out with life satellite QSOs. In Logbook, we resolved several rig control issues where mode was not tracked when clicking on spots. You can now save column widths in the DX Cluster. More performance enhancements were completed. We made changes to enhance the security of Ham Radio Deluxe. We now conform to the direct connection specifications for QRZ XML lookups. The full release notes can be found here: https://ReleaseNotes.HamRadioDeluxe.com Question you may have: Even if you're not interested in the 188 improvements made to Ham Radio Deluxe over the last 38 days, why should you go ahead and install this version? The answer is easy. This version is the most stable version of Ham Radio Deluxe ever produced. How do we know this? The number of errors collected by Microsoft on Ham Radio Deluxe have fallen to a number that is so low it's (what I call) "statistically insignificant." IMPORTANT: All those who have purchased Ham Radio Deluxe at any time in the past should download and install this version in order to benefit from all bug fixes. You are entitled to them. Our clients who are covered by an active Software Maintenance and Support period are entitled to Feature Enhancements. What's coming next? In speaking with our developers, they tell me that the things that were causing errors or crashes have been eliminated (as far as we are able to measure). Now, we're getting down into some more complicated defects that - don't cause errors - but where the software is not doing what it was intended to do. And "now that the errors are out of the way, we can more clearly see where the software isn't doing what it is supposed to in some cases." That said - we've got a known error that we found during this sprint that has to do with the way the callsign lookup sources are populating the ALE. We've fixed a few of these things. But we know that the lat/long & heading and distance for the rotor in the ALE is not correct. We're working on this now. (It's apparently been broken for a while and we didn't want to hold this release while we fix it, because there are so many valuable fixes already complete and tested.) But we'll be rewriting the callsign lookup logic soon. We'll be adding some features into Logbook that eliminate some data entry errors that cause problems with these records when they're uploaded to LOTW. We're working on updating Satellite Tracking for a few radios that are not completely functional. We'll need to be able to log the sub-band (TX) VFO, which is a long-standing request. We'll push forward on any Rotator and Satellite Tracking problems that come up. But more than half of them have been eliminated with this release. [Editorial Note: Lots of folks are asking us when we'll support the IC-9700. That's a great question. As most of you know, it's not available in the USA right now. Dealers are taking orders. We're in the same line to receive one that you're all in. Once they're available, we'll need about six weeks with the radio to get it included in Ham Radio Deluxe. We're expecting to receive a loaner TS-890 soon.] We'll be working on the panadapter display (so-called "waterfall") for ICOM radios. Then we'll begin working on supporting the panadapter display for other radios that have supportable capabilities. Please watch these newsletters for updates. Pass these updates along to your friends and club members. Newsletters will also be posted on our website's blog at: https://www.HamRadioDeluxe.com/blog Thank you es 73 de Mike, WA9PIE HRD Software, LLC We appreciate the opportunity to serve you. The Ham Radio Deluxe Team... HRD Software, LLC Also visit our sites at: Website: www.HamRadioDeluxe.com Support for Software Maintenance & Support Customers: https://Support.HamRadioDeluxe.com Peer Support Forums: https://Forums.HamRadioDeluxe.com YouTube Channel: www.YouTube.com/HamRadioDeluxe HRD Software, LLC 4261 E University Dr Ste 30-183 Prosper, TX 75078-9152 Unsubscribe | Update Preferences

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JY1-SAT Dashboard?
by skristof＠etczone.com 24 Feb '19

24 Feb '19

Is there an updated version of the JY1-Sat (JO-97) dashboard that works better than the original (the one I'm trying to use)? I'd love to see one that works as well as the dashboards for AO-73 and EO-88. Steve AI9IN

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AMSAT on HF
by skristof＠etczone.com 24 Feb '19

24 Feb '19

If anyone is looking for QSOs for the AMSAT on HF award I will be on 40 m between 7060 kHz and 7065 kHz CQing in slow CW. Between 1630 UTC and 1700 UTC today (so coming right up). Steve AI9IN

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Upcoming ARISS contact with Huntington High School, Huntington, TX
by n4csitwo＠bellsouth.net 24 Feb '19

24 Feb '19

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Huntington High School, Huntington, TX on 25 Feb. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 19:39 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and KI5AJL The contact should be audible over the state of Texas and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English. Huntington High School is located in Huntington, Texas which is a small, rural community located in deep East Texas near Sam Rayburn Lake. There are 493 students in our school. Currently, 10 of these students are involved in the ARISS program through their teacher Mrs. Peggy Albritton and our mentor, Mr. Kris Kirkland. Kris, who is a HAM radio enthusiast and a coach/mentor of our high school robotics team, is the person responsible for bringing the ARISS program to our school. There are currently 3 Freshman, 3 Sophomores, 3 Juniors and 1 Senior participating. Participants will ask as many of the following questions as time allows: 1. What is the most exciting experience that you have had or discovery you have made while on the ISS? 2. How does being in space affect blood pressure? 3. What is your favorite movie set in outer space, and which movie do you feel most accurately portrays what it is like in space? 4. How do you incorporate 3D printers on the ISS and how valuable is it to the success of the ISS program? 5. How much physical training do you have to do during a space mission and how do you do this? 6. What do you do for entertainment while in space? 7. What does it feel like wearing a spacesuit and are they custom made to fit you? 8. How good is the food on the space station and what's your favorite kind? 9. How can astronauts have a shower on board? 10. What type of physical training did you have to do to prepare to be on the ISS? 11. What advice can you give to students who aspire to follow in your footsteps? 12. Have you ever tried to pull pranks on each other and, if so, what were they? 13. If presented with the opportunity, would you like to be involved with colonizing Mars and how? 14. Is your daily routine regimented to a time zone, or can you sleep, wake, and work at times you choose? 15. How does being in space affect how you sleep and dream? 16. How do you clean up your messes in space? 17. When and why did you decide to become an astronaut? 18. Are you working on anything that will help make a colony on Mars. 19. How did you feel when you saw planet Earth for the first time? 20. What is the first thing you want to do when you get back on earth? 21. Do the astronauts ever leave time capsules to be found on the ISS in the distant future? 22. How do you brush your teeth on board the ISS? 23. What do you think should be the focus of the space program over the next years? 24. What do you want to do as soon as you get back home? 25. How do you draw blood in space for all the experiments requiring that? 26. What is your favorite part about living in space? PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES: Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_status Next planned event(s): TBD About ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.arrl.org. Thank you & 73, David - AA4KN --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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AMSAT Awards
by Bruce 23 Feb '19

23 Feb '19

You know, one of the really cool things about receiving an AMSAT award in the mail is the certificate inside. However, what is even cooler is the envelope. Yes, the envelope. My wife has purchased stamps for years and years. I use those stamps on the envelopes I mail. None of those little white labels from the post office. Some stamps are from the 70's, 80's and 90's. She is still purchasing so when the older ones are gone which should be in about 5 years or more, I will be starting on newer ones from the 2000's. Today's mailing included 32 cent stamps featuring the roaring 20's which came out in 1995, 1996, 1997 time frame. Is it time for you to apply for an AMSAT award or to add to your stamp collection :-) 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards AMSAT Board Member 2016-2020 ARRL Awards Field Checker (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat

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2nd QO-100 in 3B8
by Jean Marc Momple 23 Feb '19

23 Feb '19

Dear All, Just to share. My younger brother Patrice (3B8FA) won the race for first 3B8 operation on QO-100, however was able to correct a few issues with my Tx antenna and made it today, worked 5 countries today, therefore 2 station in 3B8 active and another OM getting ready. Really a nice bird particularly when you are in an island in the middle of the ocean and HF at its lowest, congratulations again to the project team which gave us such a good toy. 73 Jean Marc (3B8DU)

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Off to the Motherland
by Gabriel Zeifman 23 Feb '19

23 Feb '19

Hello fellow bird folk and sky yellers, I am on the first of four flights now on the way for another one of my signature trips. This voyage will take me to Poland (Feb 24-28), Lithuania (Feb 28-Mar 4), Kaliningrad (Mar 4-7), Saint Petersburg (Mar 7-11), Åland Islands (Mar 11-13), and Helsinki (Mar 13-14). I think the most desired entities are going to be UA2 and OH0 (unfortunately OH0 is gonna be quick, get in in the evening and leave in a morning, so two nights and one full day). I’m hoping to make US contacts from every entity and will try to hit as many grids as feasible (I’ll have a car in Vilnius and Kaliningrad), but good transatlantic locations will take precedence over grids. Don’t expect me on every pass, I’m traveling with family and we’ll be doing touristy stuff, but I’ll make my best effort to be on the great AO-7 and FO-29 passes across the ocean, updates will be on Twitter @AL6D_Alaska. I’m operating ninja portable like the good ole days, QRP with two FT-817NDs and an arrow, hopefully that doesn’t attract too much negative attention from customs in Russia. 73, Gabe “Harambe” Zeifman AL6D/VE6NJH/Harambe1

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Using an SDR Receiver with SatPC32
by Les Rayburn 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Finally, I have all the components together to add a SDRPlay2 receiver to my satellite station. I purchased two Alpha Delta 4 way N female switches. This will allow me to have one each for the 2M antenna, and another for the 432 antenna. Attached to each will be the IC-910H, Kenwood TM-D71GA (with duplexer), SDRPlay2, and my D-STAR ID-800H (with a duplexer.) In theory, this will allow me to route the antennas to any of the four radios for either TX or RX depending. The last hurdle is how do I interface my SatPC32 software to control both the uplink on the IC-910H and the SDRPlay2 for the downlink at the same time? Any help appreciated. 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63nf AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member

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Yaesu G-5500 Rotor
by Mike Lucas 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

After a 15+ year break from Ham Radio, the spark has returned and trying to get all set back up on the Satellites again. Lots has changed! I've downloaded HRD and a trial version of PST Rotator s/w to drive my TrakBox connected to the Yaesu rotator. Making headway with the USB/Serial connection to the TrakBox but need to update the firmware. Also I'm sure the internal Lithium battery is likely gone so will need a replacement. Any idea of sources? TAPR says they have some new EPROM's so will get that coming. I have a USB/Serial interface board coming so I can control the Yaesu FT-736 from HRD. Question on the Yaesu rotator controller. I don't have the rotator itself hooked up yet but wanted to make sure the control box is still working Ok. I plugged it in to the 120VAC but there's no meter lights and the EL meter goes negative so wondering if that's normal behavior if the rotator isn't actually connected to the control box? The fuse is Ok. Regards, Mike N7ASZ

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Re: [amsat-bb] KickSat-2 received but not decoded
by andy thomas 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Ken, many thanks. I have cut and pasted your offer in your posting onto the google group for kiscksat-2 and its Sprite mission, so hopefully someone will come back to you for your recording (or you can post it there?) the site is:Google Groups | | | | Google Groups Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experienc... | | | | | | | Google Groups Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experienc... | | | https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/kicksat-gs 73 de andy g0sfj

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KickSat-2 received but not decoded
by Ken Swaggart 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Put KickSat-2 in my telemetry lineup and could clearly see the beacon on the SDR but pretty weak during the 16:20Z pass over the Pacific northwest at 31 degrees max elevation. What modulation does it use? I'll try to capture a IQ recording during one of the other passes today. Who should the recording be sent to? 73, Ken, W7KKE CN75xa

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Beresheet Info?
by Martin Davidoff 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Can anyone point to a source for Tx frequencies and up-to-date trajectory data for Beresheet (the moon lander built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries) which was launched 21 Feb? K2ubc

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AO73/FUNcube-1 Operations
by Graham Shirville 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Hi All, AO73 is now in amateur mode for the weekend with the transponder active and available for your use! Please send all requests for fitter message uploads to operations(a)funcube.org.uk allowing at least two weeks notice. thanks and have FUN 73 Graham G3VZV

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FM Birds, New Grids, and Chaos
by Clayton Coleman W5PFG 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

I support a laissez-faire approach when it comes to FM transponder use. Not everyone chases grids. Not everyone chases DX. There are busy passes and there are slow passes. It balances out. When I am out roving, I don't sit and call every station on the pass. I normally give my callsign once and wait for others to call me. On average, if I'm in a desired grid square, I might receive 20 direct calls. If most stations are hearing adequately and adhering to generally-accepted operating norms, there is plenty of room in a 11-13 minute pass for twice that number of QSO's. Last week, while I was operating from a remote grid in West Texas, another station was operating from desired grids further northwest. Between us there were nearly 40 clean QSO's, with the potential for more. It was amazingly orderly for an FM transponder - on a weekend! Any transponder is a shared, multi-user resource. Except for emergency communications I don't believe consensus exists to prioritize use for particular groups (backyard/handheld warriors, rovers, home stations, club demo's, hamfests.) Who would make that determination? It would likely be unpopular. I try to prioritize the young people, Scouts, demos, and new calls but that is MY personal preference. HEARING the satellite is critical but LISTENING(comprehension) to the cadence of the pass is equally important. Often I listen to transponders and hear very few stations. Time of day and footprint coverage are key elements to determine when a transponder will have activity. If someone new is expecting to make their first-ever QSO on a Saturday afternoon pass covering an entire continent, their expectation might not be met. 73 Clayton W5PFG > On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 11:30:09 AM EST, Jerry Buxton < > n0jy at amsat.org> wrote: > > Not to deter grid chasing and awards, does every FM bird have to be that > way? I do miss my start with "portable stuff" a decade or so ago, and > just having quick QSOs with new contacts on SO-50 from the pizzeria > parking lot when I visited Mom and Dad... > > Jerry Buxton, NØJY > > On 2/19/2019 21:02, Bob wrote: > > I can tell you from personal experience as a satellite mentor, giving > > presentations which always excite potential new satellite users, then > > having them go into the field to experience the bedlam of a FM Satellite, > > that they too often become discouraged and give up. Easysat is a very > > deceptive name, especially on weekends. > > > > 73, Bob, WB4SON > > _______________________________________________ > >

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SatPC32 Stalls at AOS
by Allen 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Hi All, For several months I have been automatically receiving frames from the Fox-1 satellites. Typically at –3 degrees elev, the az/el sets the antenna position correctly and the radio is tuned to the correct frequency. But lately as soon as 0 degrees el is reached, SatPC32 stalls, the clock stops and nothing further happens until I manually click on the enabled satellite. Everything again proceeds normally, until the next scheduled satellite reaches 0 degrees el and SatPC32 stops. Since this error I upgraded from Ver 12.8c to 12.8d which produced the same error. I reinstalled 12.8c but the condition persists. In receive only mode, I’m using a Flex 1500 with FlexSatPC 7.2.2 and the computer uses Win10 Pro with an i7 processor and 8GM RAM. CPU demand always is less than 10%. I’m at a loss as to where to look to resolve this issue. Any guidance is greatly appreciated. 73, Allen KI7RM

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Satellite survey of amateur radio operators: Less than ten 10 days to give our opinion
by christophe.mcr 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Dear All Up to 270 people from 34 country have already fulfill the survey. Some figure are already available ( http://bit.ly/figureSat ). Answer are mainly from france. It should be very interesting to have the opinion from other country. Please take less than 10 minutes to fill this survey : http://bit.ly/AmsatSurvey . You opinion is important. Results should be made available to all other AMSAT sociaty. Thank you for your Help Christophe président Amsat-F Number of submiter per countries : France 122 United States 27 United Kingdom 20 Poland 13 Germany 12 Netherlands 9 Belgium 8 Italy 8 Australia 6 Canada 6 Spain 4 Greece 3 Romania 3 Switzerland 3 Argentina 2 Austria 2 Brazil 2 Finland 2 Portugal 2 Sweden 2 Algérie 1 Bulgaria 1 Chile 1 Colombia 1 Croatia 1 Estonia 1 Japan 1 New Zealand 1 Sénégal 1 Serbia 1 Suisse 1 Taiwan 1 Turkey 1 Venezuela 1

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Re: [amsat-bb] FM Birds, New Grids, and Chaos
by Scott Medbury 22 Feb '19

22 Feb '19

Having begun working LEOs over the past 20 years. All of my over 4000 qsos have been made using an ht on either half or full duplex. I have chased grids but get as much pleasure from activating rare grids and counties. I like many others have encountered the LIDS and ragchewers who hog the pass or cannot hear the downlink so I feel your pain. If everyone is courteous and uses the minimum power necessary to complete a contact, then there should be room for everyone. Don't forget that activation of rare grids, POTA and counties do not occur with every pass or every bird. There is paper to chase that doesn't interest everyone, just like not everyone can have an earth station with a tracking array that takes the challenge out of the contact. 73... Scott KD5FBA Scott Medbury Sent from my Verizon Motorola Droid On Feb 21, 2019 8:42 PM, Matthew Stevens <matthew(a)mrstevens.net> wrote: > > When I first started out on sats a couple years ago, I had a single half > duplex HT and a borrowed arrow. I listened to two or three passes of so50 > and ao85 (the only fm sats available at the time), before ever even trying > to work anyone. The passes were pretty hectic, with NPOTA stations and > rovers, and callsigns getting thrown around. My first contact was a few > days later with Fernando, NP4JV who knew I was going to be on and answered > my call when I finally got brave enough to throw it out there. I've had my > share of irritating passes, missed contacts, getting up at three in the > morning to work a 2 deg pass and getting stomped out by somebody calling cq > who couldn't hear the sat well enough to even tell people were calling > him... And - getting up at 2 in the morning for a different pass and not > making a contact with station in Spain because I thought I knew what I was > doing, but really didn't... that's good motivation to practice and learn :-) > > It was all fun, part of the challenge of learning a new skill. The coolness > of talking to people through a thing that's flying around 400km over my > head with an HT or an 817 is still incredible. > > So I personally don't understand the idea of people getting scared away > from sats because of crazy passes. Sure, it can get hectic. Sure, we all > complain when somebody transmits a carrier over the entire pass and nobody > makes any contacts. But, that's all just going to be part of the ham radio > experience! The same thing happens on HF, during CQWW it gets crazy but > I've never heard anyone say that "scares new ops away." Sometimes its a > zoo, other times it's not. Seems to me that people who are really > interested and want to learn, grow, and enjoy operating stick with it. The > ones who get spooked and never come back, more than likely would have > eventually lost interest for some other reason (in my observation.) If I am > personally helpful to new ops; and exhibit good operating practice myself, > then there is no reason for me to get upset by what some other lid does on > (or off) the air. Let's try to encourage good operating practice, rather > than just complaining about all the perceived problems on the sats. > > - Matthew nj4y > > On Thu, Feb 21, 2019 at 10:15 AM Clayton Coleman W5PFG <tasmac(a)w5pfg.us> > wrote: > > > I support a laissez-faire approach when it comes to FM transponder use. > > Not everyone chases grids. Not everyone chases DX. There are busy passes > > and there are slow passes. It balances out. > > > > When I am out roving, I don't sit and call every station on the pass. I > > normally give my callsign once and wait for others to call me. On > > average, if I'm in a desired grid square, I might receive 20 direct > > calls. If most stations are hearing adequately and adhering to > > generally-accepted operating norms, there is plenty of room in a 11-13 > > minute pass for twice that number of QSO's. > > > > Last week, while I was operating from a remote grid in West Texas, > > another station was operating from desired grids further northwest. > > Between us there were nearly 40 clean QSO's, with the potential for > > more. It was amazingly orderly for an FM transponder - on a weekend! > > > > Any transponder is a shared, multi-user resource. Except for emergency > > communications I don't believe consensus exists to prioritize use for > > particular groups (backyard/handheld warriors, rovers, home stations, > > club demo's, hamfests.) Who would make that determination? It would > > likely be unpopular. I try to prioritize the young people, Scouts, > > demos, and new calls but that is MY personal preference. HEARING the > > satellite is critical but LISTENING(comprehension) to the cadence of the > > pass is equally important. > > > > Often I listen to transponders and hear very few stations. Time of day > > and footprint coverage are key elements to determine when a transponder > > will have activity. If someone new is expecting to make their first-ever > > QSO on a Saturday afternoon pass covering an entire continent, their > > expectation might not be met. > > > > 73 > > Clayton > > W5PFG > > > > > On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 11:30:09 AM EST, Jerry Buxton < > > > n0jy at amsat.org> wrote: > > > > > > Not to deter grid chasing and awards, does every FM bird have to be > > that > > > way? I do miss my start with "portable stuff" a decade or so ago, and > > > just having quick QSOs with new contacts on SO-50 from the pizzeria > > > parking lot when I visited Mom and Dad... > > > > > > Jerry Buxton, NØJY > > > > > > On 2/19/2019 21:02, Bob wrote: > > > > I can tell you from personal experience as a satellite mentor, giving > > > > presentations which always excite potential new satellite users, then > > > > having them go into the field to experience the bedlam of a FM > > Satellite, > > > > that they too often become discouraged and give up. Easysat is a very > > > > deceptive name, especially on weekends. > > > > > > > > 73, Bob, WB4SON > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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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ERC M rotor interface?
by James Brown 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

I am using the ERC M interface. works fine with SAT 32. What settings besides comport and baud and gs232b format do I need for HRD sat tracking. I can click on rotator heading and rotor follows but can not make it track on a satellite. Jim KI6WJ

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QO-100 Wide Band Transponder Beacon
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

Hi, I’ve been having a look at the QO-100 Wide band Transponder on the web sdr. See: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/wb/ For those of us that don’t live in the footprint, does anyone have a screen shot of what the beacon picture is? 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

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Re: [amsat-bb] Tesla Field Day mode (taxpayers)
by Robert Bruninga 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

> True, Zach....the difference is, the taxpayers don't pay for your setup !! An apparent complaint about clean air EV incentives, while ignoring the petroleum subsidies of about $3300 per dirty-air gas car. Which is now about the same as the $3750 Tesla incentive. But, the Tesla incentive will decrease by half in the next six months and then zero. While the dirty gas car continues to get subsidized by tax payers for decades... We should end this thread as off topic, but need to correct any misinformation. Bob -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Zach Metzinger Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Tesla Field Day mode On 2/20/19 1:28 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote: >> Very nice! Wish I could afford [a Tesla]... > > A Chevy Volt can run a Field Day (or a house under minimum power) for > about 8 hours before it has to start the engine to recharge the battery. > These 3 year-old off-lease Volts go for only about $12k. Seems a bit overkill when a marine deep-cycle and a solar panel will run you about $500, no? ;-) --- Zach N0ZGO _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Falconsat-3 - The APRS satellite for Mobiles
by Robert Bruninga 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Work a satellite from your APRS mobile, 5 times a day: For APRS folks just sittin in their mobile with nothing to do, you can work FALCONSAT from any APRS Mobile… Just confirm passes using Heavens-above.com (be sure to enter your location). Though passes now are from about midnight to 6 AM, that pattern moves earlier about 36 minutes a day so it will be in the evenings in a few days. The Falconsat digipeater operates APRS at 9600 baud and works fine from a 50W APRS mobile with mobile antenna. Just turn on your rig, set the internal TNC to 9600 baud and monitor the downlink. You should see packets from PFS3-1 and or other stations. Tune 435.110 MHz at start of pass, then clicking down steps of 5 Khz towards the middle of the pass and then ending at 435.095 by the end ten minutes later. If you are just going to monitor overnight, set to 435.105 for the early middle of the pass and check your LIST in the morning. Uplink takes a bit more settings. Set your PATH to go via PFS3-1 and set TNC to TX A and RX B and set uplink on band A to 145.84 (no need to step doppler). Set beacon to once a minute (and turn off decay and Proportioinal pathing). You will NOT see your own digipeats. Although the satellite and D710 are operating full duplex, the D710 TNC is not. By the time the TNC TX/RX turns around, you will already have missed it. So don’t just keep TXing until success, You WONT see it. But when you DO see someone else doing APRS, then by all means send them a message. If he ACKS, then success! I just did the math. You don’t even need no stinkin computer. Once you hear a pass, then just remember that passes are 36 minutes earlier each day and the next pass on any given day is 98 minutes later (unless that was the last pass of the day). During a western trip, just jotting down the time of a pass heard, then I could predict pass times therest of the day and every day for weeks. Always just adding 98 minuets to the next pass and listening 36 minutes earlier each day. See this manual technique: http://aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html Here is how WD9EWK describes working FALCONSAT: https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FalconSAT-Stodda… Anyway, it’s a great satellite while mobile that needs no special antennas. Just keep up with when it is generally coming over and have the frequencies already programmed into a channel in your radio. Actually, program four frequencies to make it easy to shift for doppler. We will try to remind everyone when passes enter more favorable evening or morning commute hours… And here is a note I got form himpatrick(a)wd9ewk.net today: Bob, WB4APR *From:* Patrick STODDARD wd9ewk *Subject:* Re: [amsat-bb] D72 to Falconsat-3 APRS FalconSAT-3 uplink sensitivity is good. I regularly work it with 5W from my TH-D72 with a handheld beam… I have used a TM-D710G at its various power levels, and 5W from the mobile radio works fine. Downlink power... it is strong. I can hear it a few degrees above the horizon. I have used a TH-D72, TM-D710G, a pair of TH-D74s (The TH-D74 cannot operate APRS crossband) I wrote about using these different radios, and combinations of radios, for the AMSAT Journal in late 2017: https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FalconSAT-Stodda… 73! Patrick

2 1

Tesla Field Day mode
by Robert Bruninga 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Tesla is releasing Field-Day mode (er, "party mode") in its models to allow the vehicle to continue with AC/Heating, Temperature control, airflow, selective lights and music for up to 48 hours or more while in Park. The feature will also allow users to power other electric devices using the electric car's battery. When you think about it, the 75 kWh battery in the model 3 or the 60 kWh of the Chevy Bolt can run the average American home at normal loads for about 3 days, or a week under power saving conditions. With about $1000 or more of solar panels , you can have transportation and also maintain that Field Day forever. ;-) Just sayin... Bob, Wb4APR

5 6

Falconsat-3 - The APRS satellite for Mobiles (h-dux TNC)
by Robert Bruninga 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Yes, all of kenwood TNC’s do not operate full duplex even though the radio does full duplex crossband… In other words, it cannot decode a packet while it is transmitting one. But the Falconsat downlink is fulldupelex and it can begin including a downlink packet in the downlink stream even before the uplink is finished. (or at least, there is no TXD delay, and so the user TNC on receive does not hear the start of the packet in most cases, unless the downlink packet happens to be delayed in the stream due to other Falconsat BBS data. I hope I got that right... Bob, WB4APR > regarding the TNC NOT operating full duplex... > is this true in, say, the TH-D72A as well? > that explains a LOT about the behavior I've seen using it, > and guess I'd need to go to a full 2 radio solution > to see my packets digipeated? On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 2:10:03 PM EST, Robert Bruninga <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: Work a satellite from your APRS mobile, 5 times a day: For APRS folks just sittin in their mobile with nothing to do, you can work FALCONSAT from any APRS Mobile… Just confirm passes using Heavens-above.com (be sure to enter your location). Though passes now are from about midnight to 6 AM, that pattern moves earlier about 36 minutes a day so it will be in the evenings in a few days. The Falconsat digipeater operates APRS at 9600 baud and works fine from a 50W APRS mobile with mobile antenna. Just turn on your rig, set the internal TNC to 9600 baud and monitor the downlink. You should see packets from PFS3-1 and or other stations. Tune 435.110 MHz at start of pass, then clicking down steps of 5 Khz towards the middle of the pass and then ending at 435.095 by the end ten minutes later. If you are just going to monitor overnight, set to 435.105 for the early middle of the pass and check your LIST in the morning. Uplink takes a bit more settings. Set your PATH to go via PFS3-1 and set TNC to TX A and RX B and set uplink on band A to 145.84 (no need to step doppler). Set beacon to once a minute (and turn off decay and Proportioinal pathing). You will NOT see your own digipeats. Although the satellite and D710 are operating full duplex, the D710 TNC is not. By the time the TNC TX/RX turns around, you will already have missed it. So don’t just keep TXing until success, You WONT see it. But when you DO see someone else doing APRS, then by all means send them a message. If he ACKS, then success! I just did the math. You don’t even need no stinkin computer. Once you hear a pass, then just remember that passes are 36 minutes earlier each day and the next pass on any given day is 98 minutes later (unless that was the last pass of the day). During a western trip, just jotting down the time of a pass heard, then I could predict pass times therest of the day and every day for weeks. Always just adding 98 minuets to the next pass and listening 36 minutes earlier each day. See this manual technique: http://aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html Here is how WD9EWK describes working FALCONSAT: https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FalconSAT-Stodda… Anyway, it’s a great satellite while mobile that needs no special antennas. Just keep up with when it is generally coming over and have the frequencies already programmed into a channel in your radio. Actually, program four frequencies to make it easy to shift for doppler. We will try to remind everyone when passes enter more favorable evening or morning commute hours… And here is a note I got form mailto:[email protected] today: Bob, WB4APR *From:* Patrick STODDARD wd9ewk *Subject:* Re: [amsat-bb] D72 to Falconsat-3 APRS FalconSAT-3 uplink sensitivity is good. I regularly work it with 5W from my TH-D72 with a handheld beam… I have used a TM-D710G at its various power levels, and 5W from the mobile radio works fine. Downlink power... it is strong. I can hear it a few degrees above the horizon. I have used a TH-D72, TM-D710G, a pair of TH-D74s (The TH-D74 cannot operate APRS crossband) I wrote about using these different radios, and combinations of radios, for the AMSAT Journal in late 2017: https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FalconSAT-Stodda… 73! Patrick

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Re: [amsat-bb] SO-50 and AO-91 trials and tribulations
by Andrew Glasbrenner 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

>The one thing I’ve not messed with is the Audio Balance -it’s still at the default 50/50 setting. Could this be why I’ve not been able to hear myself? >Is it that critical? Yes, critical. 100% to the downlink band. 73, Drew KO4MA

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Bare UHF QFH antenna as TX antenna for AO-91/92 ?
by Pavel Milanes Costa 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Hi to all... Does any of you have a reference of the use of a 1/2 turn QFH antenna for TX to AO-91/92... I have picked up an old UHF commercial radio (Kenwood TK-860, 5 / 25W) after being a few years off the sats because of not having an UHF radio (I have a KG-UV8E on the way... Last weekend I rescued my homebrew cross yagui hand-held antenna and found that the storage time was bad on the 70cm part, the 2m part is usable... The other UHF antenna at hand is a 1/2 turn QFH antenna So I was wondering to use the QFH as uplink and the yagui (or a cross dipole + LNA) for the downlink. Any experience/advance on this? 73 CO7WT Pavel.

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FM Birds, New Grids, and Chaos
by Les Rayburn 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Since getting back into satellites a few months ago, I set my first goal to be completing VUCC. 76 grids confirmed, and hoping to possibly finish up this week. I’m meeting with the VUCC card checker this week to sign off on my 2 Meter VUCC. That took over five years, since I’m limited to a single 6 element Yagi in the attic. At least half of those contacts came via WJST meteor scatter. Thought it would be nice to get both 2 Meter and Satellite at the same time. Most of my contacts have come on the linear birds, with over 2/3 of them on FO-29. I realize that there is a lot more activity and grid activation on the FM birds—so I need to spend more time there. But the chaos of that type of operation just doesn’t appeal to me. Plus the noise levels in the attic make it difficult for me to hear the FM birds very well. SO-50 comes in “pretty well” but the AO birds are often covered with noise and difficult to hear. Any tips to improve my success rate on FM? Other than completely avoiding weekend operation! :-) 73, Les Rayburn, N1LF Maylene, AL EM63nf AMSAT #38965, ARRL Life Member, CVHS Life Member, SVHF Member

12 12

UT1FG/MM
by R.T.Liddy 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Grid Chasers, Just checked eQSL and noticed that 21 QSLs from UT1FG/MM showed up from over several years!!! What a surprise!!! I only use LoTW for SAT contacts, so I hope they are over there, too. GL/73, Bob K8BL

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FUNcube Warehouse
by David Johnson 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Hi, I am doing some config on the server, there may be a few short outages over the next few hours. The Dashboards will recover when they detect the server is back up. Thank you for your patience. - Dave, G4DPZ

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Receiving MYSAT-1 telemetry
by Ken Swaggart 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

I've been trying to decode the 1.2k BPSK telemetry from MYSAT-1 (44045) without success. I'm using UZ7HO's SoundModem set for BPSK AX.25 1200 bd. The SDR is set to USB with 4 KHz bandwidth and the signal is strong with a 25 dB SNR. The received signal is right in the center of the soundmodem's waterfall between the upper and lower indexes for that BPSK mode. I'm obviously missing something here! 73, Ken, W7KKE

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Re: [amsat-bb] Decaying Satellites (RAFT shows it)
by Roy Dean 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

Ok, after listening to RAFT's last message, I do believe I will have nightmares tonight. --Roy K3RLD > <http://aprs.org/craft/save-raft.html>http://aprs.org/craft/save-raft.html > It was still working up to 2 hours before re-entry. Might have even been > closer, but we may not have had someone in range of it on its last > bleep... > Bob, Wb4APR

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Decaying Satellites
by Francis Geraci 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

I am wondering if, as a Sat. decays, getting closer to Earth, will there be "better" comms ? Guess they will be moving faster. Will the Keps "decay"? Interference from "reentry" heating ? Battery's gone first ? Solar panels "ripped" off. Or, Just GONE ! Orbital mechanics at it best. Wondering what the "mechanics" of re-entry are. Can't be "pretty". Poor little satellites. So many people, worked SO hard to get them there. Just curious. W1FXX - Francis

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Re: [amsat-bb] Decaying Satellites (RAFT shows it)
by Robert Bruninga 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

They speed up as they re-enter and it is all over in a single orbit or so. Lots of hams captured the re-entry of the APRS RAFT satellite and you can see it warming over the last few days and then rapid rise in the last 12 hours or so: http://aprs.org/craft/save-raft.html It was still working up to 2 hours before re-entry. Might have even been closer, but we may not have had someone in range of it on its last bleep... Bob, Wb4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org> On Behalf Of Francis Geraci Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2019 5:32 PM To: Suryono Adisoemarta via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: [amsat-bb] Decaying Satellites I am wondering if, as a Sat. decays, getting closer to Earth, will there be "better" comms ? Guess they will be moving faster. Will the Keps "decay"? Interference from "reentry" heating ? Battery's gone first ? Solar panels "ripped" off. Or, Just GONE ! Orbital mechanics at it best. Wondering what the "mechanics" of re-entry are. Can't be "pretty". Poor little satellites. So many people, worked SO hard to get them there. Just curious. W1FXX - Francis _______________________________________________ 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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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-19 21:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2019-02-19 21:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Huntington High School, Huntington, TX, direct via KI5AJL The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is TBD Contact is go for: Mon 2019-02-25 19:39:52 UTC 25 deg (***) ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS-US program’s education proposal window should go open in the spring of 2019. The ARISS webpage is at http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. ARISS Contact Applications (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) Schools and Youth organizations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East interested in setting up an ARISS radio contact with an astronaut on board the International Space Station are invited to submit an application from September to October and from February to April. Please refer to details and the application form at www.ariss-eu.org/school-contacts. Applications should be addressed by email to: school.selection.manager(a)ariss-eu.org ARISS Contact Applications (Canada, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and Russia) Organizations outside the United States can apply for an ARISS contact by filling out an application. Please direct questions to the appropriate regional representative listed below. If your country is not specifically listed, send your questions to the nearest ARISS Region listed. If you are unsure which address to use, please send your question to the ARISS-Canada representative; they will forward your question to the appropriate coordinator. For the application, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** ARISS is always glad to receive listener reports for the above contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n(a)amsat.org or aj9n(a)aol.com. Listen for the ISS on the downlink of 145.8Ø MHz. ******************************************************************************* All ARISS contacts are made via the Kenwood radio unless otherwise noted. ******************************************************************************* Several of you have sent me emails asking about the RAC ARISS website and not being able to get in. That has now been changed to http://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. **************************************************************************** Looking for something new to do? How about receiving DATV from the ISS? If interested, then please go to the ARISS-EU website for complete details. Look for the buttons indicating Ham Video. http://www.ariss-eu.org/ If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke(a)sbcglobal.net **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 112 **************************************************************************** The webpages listed below were all reviewed for accuracy. Out of date webpages were removed, and new ones have been added. If there are additional ARISS websites I need to know about, please let me know. Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time. All dates and times listed follow International Standard ISO 8601 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2019-02-19 21:30 UTC. (***) Here you will find a listing of all scheduled school contacts, and questions, other ISS related websites, IRLP and Echolink websites, and instructions for any contact that may be streamed live. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1292. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1235. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf Please feel free to contact me if more detailed statistics are needed. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2019-02-14 16:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 58 on orbit Oleg Konenenko David St-Jacques KG5FYI Anne McClain **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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W0LMD Tracker
by BeetleJerald Oliver 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

I have had to reinstall my windows operating system, and downloaded an updated copy of SatPC32....However, I cannot get the rotor interface to function (W0LMD Tracker). I cannot remember if I had to install a driver for it or not...….If so, where can I get the driver for this now......HELP ! KJ4EU Jerry

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HRD sat help
by James Brown 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

Need help with HRD sat program setup with two radios. How do I save all of the settings once HRD is configured. I have to restart every part of HRD each session. How do I save the rotator settings so that HRD can restart with the correct rotator file. How do I log a qso on HRD sat program. HRD tech was unable to answer these questions as he was not familiar with the sat program. Thanks Jim

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For Sale: MOTU 8A Thunderbolt / USB3 audio interface
by Jerry Buxton 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

For Sale: MOTU 8A Thunderbolt / USB3 audio interface $600 shipped I used this audio interface for all manner of sound card digital and receive/transmit audio with several different radios, including AO-85 and ISS SSTV. Please see http://home.n0jy.org/images/MOTU8A/motu.html if you are interested. Send replies or inquiries direct to this address, please. Thank you. -- Jerry Buxton, NØJY

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Unidentified call
by johnv＠frontier.com 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

This morning I worked several calls and thank you your patience and boy was AO-91 busy with multiple calls and CW into the bandwidth. But one call comes up blank in QRZ.com. N1NIA with a grid of DM43 (AZ) but the call has not information. Does anyone know of him? John N7AME

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PACSAT/Falconsat-3 telemetry decoder
by Apostolos Kefalas 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

Hello, I am trying to run the new Telemetry Decoder for Falconsat-3 on Linux, but it refuses to start when run as a normal user. Only way to start it, is as super-user (root). Has anyone else this problem? Has anyone tried to compile PacSatGround under Linux? Do you have any advice? I get more than a 100 times ".... error: package com.g0kla.telem.gui does not exist" and it stops there. 73 de SV1LJJ Apostolos

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Kicksat-2 summary update
by andy thomas 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

Hi guys Here is the latest on the mother cubesat Kicksat-2 and its cargo of Sprites. All information is updated at the google group Google Groups | | | | Google Groups Google Groups allows you to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups with a rich experienc... | | | The most important information this morning is from the PI, Zac Manchester: "We've now been able to decode some telemetry data from KickSat-2 and can confirm that the CubeSat is alive and working well aside from a communication issue. It seems likely that the antenna did not deploy properly. We would appreciate IQ recordings from anyone with a large high-gain antenna as we continue trying to establish communication with the satellite (even if the signal is weak and not decodable using standard methods). I'm working on some fancy signal processing tricks to try to pull some useable data out of these very noisy packets." The KickSat-2 cubesat is transmitting telemetry data on 437.505 MHz. The telemetry packets are standard AX.25, 1200 baud FSK (not AFSK). But the signal from Kicksat-2 is very weak. Here is a snippet from Mike Rupprecht DK3WN : KickSat-2 beacons – very weak and his twitter account. | | | | | | | | | | | KickSat-2 beacons – very weak | | | When deployed, the Sprites are on/will be on 437.240 with a weird MSK modulation at 10 mw when the Sprite is in sunlight (no batteries). At the British Interplanetary Society we are trying to set up for the Sprites using receivers as specified here: zacmanchester/kicksat | | | | | | | | | | | zacmanchester/kicksat A tiny open source/open hardware spacecraft project - zacmanchester/kicksat | | | I'm sure everyoine involved in Kicksat would welcome AMSAT'ers listening out for the cubesat and the Sprites, and joining in the project at the googlegroup. 73 de andy g0sfj

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Lost recording AO-91
by Bob Keating 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

I had a great pass on AO-91 this morning (2-17-2019) at 19:06 UTC, contacting W4BCX in Florida and Patrick WD9EWK on DM12/22 in addition to a couple of other stations with my HT and Arrow II handheld antenna, only to discover that I did not get it recorded on my TASCAM recorder. I went to the SATNOGS website and found the only recording by N5CNB was very noisy. I could only make out my QSO with W4BCX and barely could hear my contact with Patrick. Does anyone have a recording of that pass or is there likely to be another upload to the SATNOGS site? I know I missed some good grid squares out there. Thanks a bunch. 73, Bob N6REK

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[Video] Satellite ground station build progress videos (video 4)
by John Brier 17 Feb '19

17 Feb '19

I've been doing livestreams on my YouTube channel on my efforts to build a satellite ground station. This was mentioned in ANS recently but I haven't emailed to the list about it in a while if at all. I just finished livestreaming the fourth video. Links to previous videos are at the bottom of this email. Satellite ground station build - video 4 - W4CX setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Uz5XojX6M This video includes footage of a local ham, Darrell, W4CX and his satellite ground station. I learned from him so I can build my station more easily. Other topics covered: * How an M2 employee who saw my last livestream messaged me with helpful information about the LEO Pack and the cross boom I should use. * I found pics of NS3L's sat setup on his QRZ.com profile which show he is using almost all the same equipment as me except larger antennas. This is great because I can learn from how he did his setup as well. It's very clean partly because he mounted his preamps on the crossboom instead of the mast like most people. * I talk about how I decided not to use boards mounted to the joists in the attic for tripod mounting but use two-by-fours instead (like Darrell). * Finally, there is a short mention of how I'm going to use magnets to find out where to drill the holes in the roof. Corrections: At 8:25 I say "left hand and right hand cross polarization," I meant left hand and right hand *circular polarization*. At 12:20 I say the antenna with ringed elements is the helical... well they are circular so it's not. Steve told me that is a new Directive Systems 55 element super loop for 1296 he hasn't connected feedline to yet. It wasn't in the pics on his QRZ profile but because they were similar sized loops (since it's the same band) I got a little confused. There may be other issues I'll notice when I watch this again. If you see something let me know. Subscribe for livestream notifications (click bell too) http://bit.ly/YouTubeSComms video 1 - background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hz4bWVByDw video 2 - buying stuff and more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zTnsQgFMIU video 3 - surveying and more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pp5WZRNb8Y video 4 - W4CX setup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Uz5XojX6M 73, John Brier KG4AKV

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PSAT2 and BRICSAT2 status...
by Robert Bruninga 17 Feb '19

17 Feb '19

> I remember reading somewhere that PSAT-2 and Bricsat-2, > the replacements for PSAT and Bricsat, are going up here very soon... PSAT2 and BRICSAT2 are slated for launch this spring on SpaceX's heavy lift. After 4 years with the FCC, we finally have confirmation that the FCC submitted our Notification to the ITU. This has been a long and very frustrating experience. The FCC's insistence that our student projects also be licensed as military sateliltes has essentially blocked our two previous student Amateur packet transponder payloads from ever being activated. QIKCOM1 was launched to the ISS but after sitting in storage on ISS until a year later when the FCC finally authorized its release, the HOST that was to provide the power never activated. Then, the QIKCOM2 power cord had to be cut right before launch, because again the FCC insisted that although it was an amateur satellite, it was built by students who are actually military employees and so it had to get an NTIA license. And the small NTIA office who is busy enough with BILLION dollar Defense satellites, just simply understandably cannot be bothered with a student project. So that satellite was/is being launched as a dead brick. I have not announced PSAT2 or BRICSAT2 because I simply don't trust anything anymore. The FCC has simply made it impossible for academy students to participate in small low cost amateur satellite projects. This has occupied all my time for 4 years and it is just not worth it. I have put in my papers to retire at the end of the year. Though, I do encourage anyone building a cubesat without DoD entnglements to consider using our single board APRS transponders as an excellent comms, command/control and telemetry board. See http://aprs.org/satt4.html They are basically a Byonics TinyTrack4 board hacked for satellite use... Bob, WB4APR -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2019 3:18 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] NO-84 Digipeater Online _______________________________________________

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Re: [amsat-bb] Lost recording AO-91
by Roy Dean 17 Feb '19

17 Feb '19

Bob, it indeed looks like there is only one SatNogs capture of the pass. --Roy K3RLD > Does anyone have a recording of that pass > or is there likely to be another upload to the SATNOGS site? I know I > missed some good grid squares out there. Thanks a bunch. 73, Bob N6REK

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