- AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

New AMSAT net for Dallas/ Ft. Worth, Texas
by tjschuessler＠verizon.net 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

The DFW Metroplex has had a local AMSAT net for at least 35 years on the Arlington ARC repeater each Wednesday evening. It continues to be a great home for the net. I am a regular net control and have taken over the organization of the net following the passing of our late friend, Keith Pugh, W5IU. The metro area has grown so much to the North and East however, that most likely, folks up in that area have no way to get into the Arlington machine which is in the southwest quadrant, which in some cases is over 60 miles away. I tried to engage a linked repeater group in the area but they were not willing to host a "Non-Affiliated net" on their system. The Arlington machine has no Internet connectivity for modes like Wires-X or other of the digital voice modes. Thus I proposed to the Dallas Amateur Radio Club, of which I am a member, to let me host an AMSAT net-EAST. Dates will be every Tuesday at 8PM CT except the first Tuesday of the month. DARC does have an Echolink node on W5FC-R so it will allow for folks who can't hit it by RF, a chance still to get in with a local group of satellite enthusiasts. Oh yes, we will continue to host the West net on the Arlington machine as will. Yup, this is the same time as the Houston AMSAT net, which has an Echolink presence at the same time, but no intentional competition is intended. That is the slot DARC could give me. Our first DFW AMSAT East net is tomorrow, September 8th. I am posting this here, because I am hoping to do something unique with this net. I want to have a 20 minute "Expert" section where satellite chasers, designers, rovers, data downloaders, antenna builders and more, can share their passion for certain aspects of the hobby. Having an Echolink connection to the repeater means it will be easy to draw from the larger AMSAT community, both here and abroad. If you would be interested in being a part of this one week, please do drop me a note off list and we can discuss and set up a week for you to present. Hope yo can be a part of this new outreach venture. Tom Schuessler, N5HYP EM12ms

1 0

Re: [amsat-bb] Icom IC-9700 and Kantronics TNC
by Yono Adisoemarta 06 Sep '20

06 Sep '20

What is the setup to decode ? I’ll try to replicate the problem as I have a 9612 somewhere in the storage. 73 de Yono - YD0NXX Sent from my iPhone

1 0

Manual Tracking ISS pass times
by Robert Bruninga 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

For those who dont keep an up-to-date ISS tracking program always handy, I find it easy to remember that in general ISS passes are about 23 minutes later each day, but overall ,moving Earlier by 51 minutes every other day. See the plot about 40% down this page: http://aprs.org/MobileLEOtracking.html Nice to remember when you dont have access to heavens-above.com Again the actual orbit is moving earlier each day, but almost repeats every other day. Bob

2 1

SatPC32 vs. HRD
by Rafael Pena 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

Mr. Payton, thanks for the many Qs in sat mod. I have used HRD with 9100 but it was caos....never / will not work, they claim is the Icom 9100 problem :( ...but since we are in the Icom 9700 once you talk to the radio which is not that difficult to do and setup the rotator. The display of the sats is awesome. One can track the sats via Elevation, World Map, or Radar. ....then....I have found that in many instances I have to enter the sat frequency, mode, etc., which can happen with any other software....logging now....kind of cumbersome to log a Sat qso...too many steps just to do one Sat log ...the software does not detect automatically the sat name...or maybe I don't know how to use it..... doppler works ok... Then I also used / tested Log40M...great software which allows just about anything, log, uploads, doppler, sat updates, rotor control, etc. Display of sats is neat. Very easy to setup...My issues were with uploading to eQSL...the contacts were not being uploaded properly...rejected by the other operator because of the wrong mode or something like that. LotW, QRZ was ok...just eQSL had this issue...maybe is fix with newer version. It was many months ago and I could not be manually uploding to eQSL. Now comes SatPC32. In conjunction with DXLab suite of apps, the Icom 9700 can be used in both, non-sat and sat mode as the software knows SatPC32 movements. DXKeeper automatically knows the name of satellite, mode, freq, time, etc. Loggin is a breeze....and properly setup it will tell you all of the needed information from the other operator; grid, name, qth, etc. Uploads to LotW, eQSL, QRZ are possible. My $.05 .... NN3RP / Rafael ******************************************** Message: 7 Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2020 21:36:10 +0000 From: Gerald Payton <gp_ab5r(a)outlook.com> To: "amsat-bb(a)amsat.org" <amsat-bb(a)amsat.org> Subject: [amsat-bb] SatPC32 vs. HRD Message-ID: <SN6PR11MB275287724C1FF25CAC78E3C7D02D0(a)SN6PR11MB2752.namprd11.prod.outlook.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" As I have previously stated, I am new and in the planning stages of my satellite station. I have SatPC32 installed and impressed with its abilities. Also, I am receiving encouragement from a friend to try HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) which I also own. I was wondering if and how many satellite operators are using HRD or have tried it. I suspect that SatPC32 of used primarily by most everyone. Many thanks for the help being received here and off the BB. 73, Jerry AB5R ------------------------------

1 0

LoTW and the ISS repeater
by Ronald Parsons 05 Sep '20

05 Sep '20

To be consistent with other satellites, which use the popular keps satellite name as the LoTW satellite name, LoTW should accept "ISS" as a satellite name along with "ARISS" Cc: LoTW-help(a)arrl.org Ron W5RKN

2 1

SatPC32 vs. HRD
by Gerald Payton 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

As I have previously stated, I am new and in the planning stages of my satellite station. I have SatPC32 installed and impressed with its abilities. Also, I am receiving encouragement from a friend to try HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe) which I also own. I was wondering if and how many satellite operators are using HRD or have tried it. I suspect that SatPC32 of used primarily by most everyone. Many thanks for the help being received here and off the BB. 73, Jerry AB5R

4 3

Icom IC-9700 and Kantronics TNC
by Tim N8DEU 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

Has anybody interfaced a Kantronics 9612 or the KM XL TNC to the accessory port of the Icom IC-9700? The reason I am asking is there are two IC-9700 users using the same firmware who are experiencing the same issue with both of these TNC’s. Packets are decoded with little to no issue on the receive side, but the transmit side is a different story. It seems only about 30% of the transmitted packets are decoded by other stations using 1200 baud. The deviation of the transmit signal and the TX delay are not the issue. The same TNC works with no issue on a Yaesu FT-736 and the FT-847. Thank You, Tim Cunningham - N8DEU

1 0

ISS FM Repeater Report
by Roy Dean 04 Sep '20

04 Sep '20

I worked the 9:00z pass this morning (12 degrees max, to my north - typically my best passes). I had to get up early for work and I ended up waking up 2 hours early and not being able to fall back a asleep, so what the heck. The only callsigns on were myself and KE8FZT. Andrew was choppy getting in at half a watt, constantly cutting in and out. When he was getting in, he was clear as day - full quieting. I couldn't get in at all until around TCA, and at that point I was also loud and clear, but couldn't bring up the repeater on every attempt (I'd say I got in every 2nd or 3rd attempt). As soon as the ISS fell below about 6 degrees, I couldn't get in anymore. I was transmitting at 20 watts the whole time. I tried tones from 67 to 88.5 Hz from about 6 degrees to 3 degrees, with no luck. Is this radio connected to the same antenna system that the old packet radio was hooked up to? It really seems to be behaving just like the packet system (hit or miss getting in). --Roy K3RLD

2 1

Re: [amsat-bb] gprediict and PI
by Roy Dean 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

> > Hi GuysI want to embark on converting my sat station over to PI 4b > computer using gpredict,hamlib and a compatible rotor control unit that > will work with Yaesu G5500. > I am sure someone out there has done this but I am in need of an elmer! > Someone will comment, why. I have my hF stations working fine with PI and I > want to send Microsoft to the dungeon! > Jim KI6WJ While I don't do it now (I use Ubuntu on a normal pc), my first rotator setup was on a Pi 3B+. There was no secret to it, other than at the time there was a bug in the GS232 code for Hamlib that interfaced with my G-5400B and Fox-Delta ST2. However a code savvy ham submitted an update to Hamlib which is now implemented in their main branch that is specific to the Fox-Delta ST2 controller (608 FoxDelta GS232/ST2). If you follow the setup commands for both software packages, it should be straight forward. --Roy K3RLD

1 0

gprediict and PI
by James Brown 03 Sep '20

03 Sep '20

Hi GuysI want to embark on converting my sat station over to PI 4b computer using gpredict,hamlib and a compatible rotor control unit that will work with Yaesu G5500. I am sure someone out there has done this but I am in need of an elmer! Someone will comment, why. I have my hF stations working fine with PI and I want to send Microsoft to the dungeon! Jim KI6WJ

2 1