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techsat-1b ?
by Mr Jeffrey Ross 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

anyone heard the latest on techsat? the amsat page says its non-operating, last i heard it was. thanks in advance, kc8gkf west michigan usa

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Re: PCSAT controller
by Robert Bruninga 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

> What sort of computer / controller is on PCSAT ? None, all of my sateliltes, PCSAT-1,2,ANDE,RAFT,MARScom are nothing but KPC-3's or KPC-9612's. Just a TNC and a radio. I use the built in telemetry, remote sysop and I/O commands for all functions. The KPC-3+ gives me this: 1) Low power (15 mA) 2) serial port to any aux devices 3) password protected remote control 4) 5 channels of analog telemetry 5) 3 to 5 external ON/OFF and PULSE commands 6) Beacons, 4 bulletins, on any schedule 7) CW (if you want it) 8) Flying BBS (file store and forward) 9) APRS digipeater A) GPS parsing and position reporting And with an external $199 voice synthesizer, we get packet to voice. The KPC-9612+ gives all of the above PLUS 10) 1200 and 9600 baud ports 11) Cross baud digipeting 11) 6 to 8 ON/OFF commands lines 12) Additional 8 bit bidirectional I/O discretes All we add are the needed relays and telemetry voltage dividers. If we need more than 5 telemetry channels, we use some $2 analog multiplexer chips to give us up to four frames of 5 each for a total of 20 channels for PCSAT1,2 and ANDE. Then we make clever use of all the hundred or so TNC commands for everything we need to do... Bob,Wb4APR

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Pehuensat-1 Keps & Plans
by Amsat Argentina 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

Pehuensat estimated latest Keps are: PEHUENSAT-1 1 29709U 07001A 07010.60780596 -.00000053 00000-0 00000+0 0 16 2 29709 097.8894 071.7193 0026918 304.1892 055.6832 14.78965601 34 On tonight pass over Neuquen, Argentina, Pehuensat will be tried to activate by control stations LU8YD, Alejandro Alvarez and Uncoma (Univ. of Comahue). If successful, you'll hear on 145.825 voice in English, Spanish and Hindi followed by an AX25 1k2 packet. 73, LU7AA, Amsat Argentina info(a)amsat.org.ar www.amsat.org.ar

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Any news on P3E?
by Gabriel - EA6VQ 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

Any news on the P3E? The most recent news in the official P3E page are one year old, so I wonder if the project is still going on... Thanks. 73. Gabriel - EA6VQ ===================================================== Web-Site: HTTP://www.vhfdx.net VQLog: HTTP://www.vqlog.com Realtime QSO maps: HTTP://www.vhfdx.net/spots/map.php =====================================================

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Antenna Thoughts / QSL'ing
by sraas＠optonline.net 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

As being new to the sats I am learning new stuff every minute. I have recently made my 1st contacts on AO-51/Oscar-50 on FM getting close to 10 qso's in all. My current antenna set up is a 1/4 wave verticle in my living room on 2m .. and I have been strong arming the 432 yagin to recieve the downlink. I do have 5 elememt 2m yagi for the uplink.. but im not using it at the moment. In doing this I am finding that keeping the antenna verticly polarized or 1/2 way inbetween vert and horz is providing me the best RX results. I guess what Im tryin to figure out is before I mount these outdoors.. is this typicle? If so I will mount them 1/2 way between vert and horizontal polarization. Circ. polarized antennas are not an option for me right now.. but I will go that way eventually. My 2nd subject is in reguards to qsl'ing... do most Sat users use some sort of electronic qsl ie. LOTW or e-qsl? Or is the ole reliable snail mail qsl the most common? -Steve Raas N2JDQ FN20vg

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Crossbooms ... my pennyworth.
by john hackett 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

Hello All, Stating the obvious ... if one mounts the aerials as per a Wimo satellite X-Quad ... (using counterweights if necessary) ... one eliminates the crossboom problem entirely. I've compared this kind of system against my more usual 2 x 6 + 2 x 6 homebrew array for 2m and 70cm ... (each aerial mounted at 45 degrees in relation the other) ... and correctly phased for switchable CP. In my humble opinion, on LEO's the squint experienced just doesn't warrant the effort of being (theoretically) correct. It did make a 'slight' difference on AO-10 and AO-13 (HEO's) but still hardly worth the effort of being "technically correct". Others may have a different opinion ... which of course, they have evey right to have. I respect that. 73 John. <la2qaa(a)amsat.org>

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icom 821h problem
by Bruce 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

i have an icom 821h. sometimes when i turn it on, both the main and the sub band receive lights are flashing together from green to orange. when this happens, i can transmit fine but there is no audio. turn it on and off a bunch of times and nothing changes. then all of a sudden one day, it will work just fine. of course in the meantime, there is no audio on either band. adjusting the squelch all the way open or closed changes nothing. i can see the s-meter move when a signal is received so that works fine. any ideas? please email me directly. 73...bruce -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0100z on W0KIE Intelsat Americas, T1, 6.2/6.8Mhz Also streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org

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RAFT Satellite PSK-31 mode next week
by Robert Bruninga 10 Jan '07

10 Jan '07

Next week, we will enable the PSK-31 transponder on RAFT. This transponder is 28.120 USB MHz PSK-31 SSB uplink and 2 meters FM down. Both RAFT and ANDE (and PCSAT-1 this week) are working fine on orbit for those with a big enough OSCAR satellite array to hear the weak 2 meter downlink. PCSAT-1 is much stronger and has passes that are almost 15 minutes in length and can be worked horizon to horizon with a good beam. ANDE and RAFT are only usable above about 10 to 15 deg with a good beam for only a central 3 minutes or less. RAFT packet-to-voice mode has been enabled for the first 3 weeks and several stations have made contact... See web page: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html Next week starting Tuesday 16 Jan, we will enable the RAFT PSK-31 transponder for similar experiments. Here is what it takes once the PSK-31 mode has been enabled: 1) Read the user-service-agreement on the above web page 2) Someone in the footprint must do a packet CONNECT RAFT 3) That will bring up the 10m RX and 145.825 TX for 1 minute 4) Anyone sending PSK-31 or CW on 28.120 MHz USB should be heard The transponder will time out after 1 minute (maybe later we can extend that time depending on usage). Remember that the footprint of RAFT is an order of magnitude smaller than PCSAT-1 and so it is hard to hear except when a high pass and the duration is only a few minutes. With PCSAT-1 fully alive this week and next, we are seeing over 80 different stations (the maximum depth of the live capture page http://pcsat.aprs.org ) in under 8 hours. Just today another satellite was launched onto 145.825 so now there are 5 satellites there! PCSAT-1, ANDE, RAFT, UO-11 and now Pehunesat. All but UO-11 use standard 1200 baud AX.25 packets. Bob Bruninga USNA Small Satellite Lab

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Pehuensat-1 passes USA
by Mr Jeffrey Ross 10 Jan '07

10 Jan '07

Hello, anyone with a guesstamit when this sat will pass over the USA please let us know here so we can turn on our rigs/tncs to the freq, thank you in advance, kc8gkf west michigan usa

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Elmering help needed in Huntsville Alabama area.
by Vince Fiscus, KB7ADL 10 Jan '07

10 Jan '07

Actually the Help is needed in Madison, a little east of Huntsville. There is an elderly couple that need help setting up an amateur radio station. They aren't thinking anything complicated, just a small vertical for HF, but they are to old to do it. If you can, and would like to help them set up their station and elmer them a little to get on the air, please email me. I'm in MT and not able to help them. Thanks 73 KB7ADL

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