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IMPORTANT - Symposium Hotel Reservation Information
by Emily Clarke 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

As happened in DC if you try to book your room through the central Crowne Plaza reservation system (toll free number) they may tell you the dates are unavailable. If this happens call the hotel directly and be sure to mention the AMS group code. If you still have problems please send me an email with your arrival and departure dates and I will arrange to speak with the hotel manager directly. One thing that isn't available through the website is that we can upgrade to the Executive rooms. The rate for executive rooms increases from $109 per night to $129 per night. 73, Emily --------------------------------- N1DID formerly W0EEC - CM87tm Support Project OSCAR - http://www.projectoscar.net

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The REAL future of S-Band (was "Special AMSAT dinner")
by George Henry 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Actually, I suspect that 3 years from now, we will see 2.4 GHz thinning out, as WiFi users migrate to the new latest-and-greatest products at 5.8 or higher. We all know that the lifespan of your typical computer "widget" is less than 5 years, and usually closer to 3. Already, stores like Best Buy and Circuit City are carrying way more 5.8 cordless phones than 2.4's... and when was the last time you saw a 900 MHz version? It wasn't that long ago that THEY were the cutting edge cordless! The same thing will happen with WiFi: all the new laptops and PDA's will come with the higher frequency cards, and users will be forced to migrate upward. You can take that to the bank! So put S-band on Eagle - I predict that it'll be wide open in 10 years, NOT a sewer. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Bruninga" <bruninga(a)usna.edu> To: <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 5:25 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Special AMSAT dinner Three years from now when we have to suffer from a new round of comlaints about 2.4 GHz QRM interfering with the P3E Sband downlink, we could have a special AMSAT dinner. The main entrée might be crow. <snip>

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Eagle efficiencies
by McGrane 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Greetings I personally prefer lower frequencies for satellite transmitters because of the lower path loss. Now, after viewing the power information on the eaglepedia meeting summary, I believe electrical efficiency is another good reason to support the lower frequencies. >From what I saw (probably estimates), the VHF transmitter will be about 60% efficient while the C band transmitter will be about 30% efficient. I was very happy to see a respectable 20 watts planned for the VHF output and the same for the C band transmitter. Thanks again to the design team. EEck out those watts and hope you have an alternative for power storage. Some bold new idea would be great. Patrick, N2OEQ

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APRS on ISS, PCSAT, and PCSAT2
by Armour, Randy (ITS) 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

I will apologize in advance as this question has probably been asked several times already. I am attempting to digi-peat through PCSAT, and PCSAT2 with an Arrow handheld and Kenwood D7A. Having no trouble using APRS on the ISS, I hope to be able to do the same with PCSAT and maybe even get through PCSAT2 before decommission. I can decode packets from PCSAT and PCSAT2, but never get a packet through either system. PCSAT had a 90 degree pass this morning, with no luck. I am suspicious that my packet path is incorrect, or I don't have enough power to reach the receivers. Packet path is ARISS,APRSAT,SGATE,WIDE. I was recently told that only ARISS was needed for PCSAT, PCSAT2, and ISS. Having no luck yet and time growing short for PCSAT2, I am hoping to get a definitive answer from the list. What is the correct packet path? Can I make it with such limited equipment as a handheld beam and 6 watt HT? Thanks in advance, Randy - KI4LMR

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Re: Two Sats
by w7lrd＠comcast.net 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Hello I and a few others "played" with this concept back in the RS etc days. I forget (senior moment) the specific satellites and frequencies involved. I was though a bit complicated. Tracking two satellites (using a Commodore 64) and figuring muliple doppler effects, due to satellite relative speeds. Anyway it was a fun endeavor. With HEO's you could cover the whole planet. 73 Bob W7LRD Seattle -------------- Original message -------------- From: sco(a)sco-inc.com > If two sats like Hamsat (or Echo) were in orbit at the same time and > could see each other ... > > Could User#1 uplink to Sat-A and then Sat-A would link to Sat-B > (probably on one of the higher microwave bands) then Sat-B would > downlink to User#2 and User#2 would uplink to Sat-B and be relayed to > Sat-A and down to User#1 ?? > > If this could be done there would be a much larger footprint and > launch costs would be far less expensive, correct? > > Les W4SCO > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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Po-28 no Heard
by Vincenzo Mone 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Hi to the list, right now I have a pass of PO-28 but I do no hear any 9600 baud signal. It is a while that I do not hear it any more. Does anybody heard it or can tell me if is it still in good health? Thanks 73 de Enzo IK8OZV EasyLog 5 BetaTester EasyLog PDA BetaTester WinBollet BetaTester D.C.I. CheckPoint Regione Campania Skype: ik8ozv8520 *************************************** ***** GSM +39 338 9749786 ***** ***** SMS +39 338 9749786 ***** ***** FAX +39 328 7244294 ***** *** 2nd e-mail: vimone(a)tin.it *** ***************************************

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Re: The Eagle has died.
by i8cvs 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Oler" <cvn65vf94(a)msn.com> To: <vk6xh(a)arach.net.au>; <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 6:33 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The Eagle has died. > I sometimes look back on > the AO-40 Easy Sat articles (well written by Steve Ford) and smile. > > anyway intresting comments on your part. > > Robert Oler WB5MZO/portable > > Amsat Life member > Robert Oler WB5MZO Houston TX Hi Robert, WB5MZO In addition to the Steve Ford articles read please the article written by Antony Monteiro AA2TX in to QST september 2006 page-42 and smile again ! 73" de i8CVS Domenico

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[ans] ANS-253 AMSAT Weekly Bulletins
by Dee 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-253 ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor(a)amsat.org ****************** AMSAT 2006 Space Symposium ************************** Online registration and hotel reservation for the 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium has been posted to the AMSAT website, and information about the Symposium has been expanded. The 2006 AMSAT Space Symposium will be held October 6, 7 and 8 at the Crowne Plaza in Foster City California in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. Please visit http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium for additional information and an index to the expanded Symposium web pages. ************************************************************************ In this edition: * Mentor Graphics Makes Generous Donation * AMSAT Ballots due 9/15/06 * 2006 AMSAT Symposium * AO-51 PL Needed * Suit-Sat Re-enters * ARISS STATUS SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.01 Mentor Graphics Makes Generous Software Donation AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.01 AMSAT is very pleased to annouced an extremely generous donation of software tools from Mentor Graphics. Mentor Graphics has donated 20 licenses for entire suites of software with a total value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars! The software will used for the design, simulation, verification and test of circuits and multi-layer printed circuit boards for both the Eagle spacecraft as well as development of the User ground station for the digitial transponder. This software will be a great benefit to the Eagle and HPSDR team members working to develop the hardware that will make Eagle space and ground systems a reality. AMSAT thanks Mentor Graphics for their most generous donation. [ANS thanks Rick, W2GPS, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.02 All AMSAT Ballots Due by Friday, 9/15/06 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.02 Note to All AMSAT Members. Please make your vote count and get them mailed to AMSAT HQ by Friday, 9/15/06. Exercise your right to select your leadership and steer the group in the direction you feel is the proper course. Drop it in the mail now! Background on all the candidates can be found on the AMSAT web site to help your decisions. [ANS thanks Martha for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.03 2006 AMSAT Symposium AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.03 The annual Symposium is now about a month away. You can still sign up to attend this exciting event being held in San Francisco, CA. Meet all the leadeship and enjoy the classic talks given by superb speakers. Mingle with those that make satellites a reality-yes, real rocket scientists. All the information you need to join in this event are on the website. Stop by and read how to attend and see the great lineup of speakers and demonstrations that make this event unique. [ANS thanks Emily, N1DID, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.04 AO-51 PL Needed AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.04 Remember that you need a PL of 67 Hz to access AO-51 in mode J-FM (except in QRP mode). Please, especially if you haven't worked a given satellite in mode J-FM before, make sure you can hear well enough copy callsigns before transmitting. There might be occasions on SO-50 when you're the only one on, but over the 'States, this is rather rare on AO-51, especially in high power mode. We're having problems with dead carriers on AO-51 this week, where sometimes even the regulars with good antenna setups can't get in due to interference from stations without PL. Please listen first and use the correct PL. 73's and good luck! September 11 to September 18 FM Repeater, L/S Uplink: 1268.700 MHz FM, No PL Tone Downlink: 2401.200 MHz FM [ANS thanks KD6PAG, for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.05 Suitsat Re-enters AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.05 All, On September 7, 2006 at 16:00 GMT, SuitSat-1 re-entered about 1400 km south-southwest of Western Australia. For more details, including the winners of the Chicken Little Contest, please go to: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ariss/suitsatContest.php I want to thank all who made SuitSat-1 the phenomenal event that it was. Your hard work and dedication paid off. In just 3 weeks the SuitSat team developed and delivered a safe satellite system that has gained the confidence of the international space agencies. The web and PR team were able to garner unprecedented press coverage of our ham/educational outreach activity, including over 9 million hits on www.suitsat.org in February. Students around the world had the opportunity to participate in a 7 month "school spacewalk" with the artwork, pictures, signatures and voices on-board. And the "super-sleuth" ham radio operator extraordinaires were able to pull a significant amount of data from the satellite despite of its low signal strength. And my congratulations to the students and adults who won the Chicken Little contest!! Next for SuitSat-1--the commemorative certificates/diplomas. And at the AMSAT-NA symposium/ARISS meeting we will discuss our thoughts and plans for a potential SuitSat-2. Stay tuned! 73, Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO AMSAT V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs ARISS International Chairman [ANS Thanks Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, for the above information] EX/ SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-253.06 ARISS STATUS AMSAT News Service Bulletin 253.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. September 10, 2006 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-253.06 ARISS Status September 4, 2006 1. Tennessee School Contact Successful On Monday, August 28, students from Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee had the opportunity to speak with the ISS. Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, answered 19 questions asked by ten children via the telebridge station VK4KHZ in Australia. Jeff Williams’ niece was one of the children selected to participate in the session. A local paper covered the contact. Twenty-one connections, including 3 repeater nodes, from 7 countries were made to the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) and JK1ZRW (277 208) servers. Audio was also fed into the IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010, and was webcast courtesy of Verizon Conferencing. The Leaf-Chronicle wrote a story on the event entitled, “Students make long-distance call to astronaut in outer space.” See: http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/NEWS01/… 2. ARRL Article on Japanese Contact ARRL covered the Sendai Yoshinari School contact in its article, “Junior High Schoolers in Japan Speak with Astronaut via Ham Radio.” See: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/01/3/?nc=1 3. School Contact Mentioned on Space.ref The Space.ref website has a brief entry on the Teven Tintenbar School in Australia. See paragraph 19 on: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21694 4. Options to Speak with Friends, Family from Space Include Ham Radio The Canadian Space Agency web site describes the options available to the ISS crew members for contacting friends and family on Earth. Ham radio is one of the options mentioned. See: http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/astronauts/living_relaxing.asp 5. ARISS TIM Held The ARISS team held a Technical Interchange Meeting August 28 -31 at Goddard Space Flight Center. ARISS Delegate Sergey Samburov was able to attend the discussions which covered ARISS hardware and software, SuitSat-2 design and development, and school operations. [ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information] /EX In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office. 73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org _____________________________________________

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S band or any backup?
by G0MRF＠aol.com 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

On the subject of a parallel S band TX. That may or may not be simple depending on what else is available inside Eagle. But in any event it should not require switches. About two years ago when there was a similar period of outrage on the BB, the hot topic was the wisdom of flying an untried or tested SDX transponder without a switchable conventional 'linear' backup. I beleieve it was Bob who announced "There will be no conventional linear transponder in Eagle" I was very pleased to see Rick, W2GPS, leap quickly into the debate and reassure everyone that the complicated DSP + logic in the SDX would be backed up by conventional linear electronics. 'just in case' In a recent mail the UV transponder has been referred to as having unbelievably high audio quality. An apparent and very well justified comment on the quality of the SDX. What I can't recall seeing, is any reference to any fall back position of a linear system as a back up. It's worth remembering that 3 - 5 years time will be the peak of the sunspot cycle. High solar activity, or an unfortunate error with the orbital change burn as AO-10, could result in the satellite receiving a great deal of radiation. It would be good to know that the linear backup plans have not been quietly filed in the waste paper basket. If it hasn't, then a parallel transmitter for S or any other band is very simple to implement. Just split the IF, wire the other transmitter in parallel. 5W to an S band patch or whatever, and control it by turning the DC power line on or off. S band amplifiers no longer need to run in class A with 30% efficiencies, so an up to date class AB design would not be a large burden on the power budget. I suppose my quiet concern is not really the lack of S band, but; If the SDX or 2m TX fails, what is left in the current design to provide a service to the 90+% who will not have, or are not interested in C band? Good engineering is important, but planing for the unexpected is vital. Incidentally. It occurs to me that a disadvantage of having one major UV transponder operating 24/7 is that while that concept removes the need for complicated scheduling it will occupy 100kHz or so of the 2m band permanently which may not be totally desirable in a limited 200kHz bandwidth. Presumably with Eagle 2 and 3 under design / construction at the time of launch they will have differnt bands. - Maybe 2390 - 2400 ish Enjoying the debate David G0MRF

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S-Band Down Link P3E/Eagle
by WILLIAMS MICHAEL 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

One thing is certain, P3E will provide a real world test of S-band down link capability. It will then be perfectly clear if the decision to delete it from the Eagle was a wise choice. Mike K9QHO AMSAT 33589

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