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Verification HuskySat Telem
by Mike Lucas 17 Mar '20

17 Mar '20

Just had a HuskySat-1 high elevation pass (0620 UTC) but did not hear the telemetry signal at all. Been away for a couple of weeks. Wanted to validate BPSK receive Is LSB on the downlink correct? Mike N7ASZ

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-03-16 18:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-03-16 18:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Turkey Space Camp, Izmir, Turkey, telebridge via W5RRR The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact is go for: Thu 2020-03-19 08:59:54 UTC 37 deg SPDW Voortrekker Movement, Oranjeville, South Africa, direct via ZS9SPD (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact is go for: Fri 2020-03-27 09:47:49 UTC 36 deg (***) ARISS is very aware of the impact that COVID-19 is having on schools and the public in general. As such, we may have last minute cancellations or postponements of school contacts. As always, I will try to provide everyone with near-real-time updates. (***) The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) 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 2020-03-16 18:30 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. https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt The successful school list has been updated as of 2020-03-13 16:30 UTC. (***) https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. The main page for Applying to Host a Scheduled Contact may be found at https://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html ARISS Contact Applications (United States) The ARISS webpage is at https://www.ariss.org/ Note that there are links to other ARISS websites from this site. Message to US Educators Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Contact Opportunity Call for Proposals Upcoming Proposal Window is February 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020 The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS is happy to announce a proposal window will open February 1, 2020 for contacts that would be held between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan. The proposal window for contacts between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021 will open on February 1, 2020 and close on March 31, 2020. Proposal information and documents can be found at www.ariss.org. Two ARISS Introductory Webinar sessions will be held on November 7, 2019. The first is at 6:00 PM ET and the second is at 9:00 PM ET. The same material will be covered during both sessions, so choose the session that best fits your schedule. The Eventbrite link to sign up is https://ariss-introductory-webinar-fall-2019.eventbrite.com . The Opportunity Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session. An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact. Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and space agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations' volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio. More Information For proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and proposal form, and dates and times of Information Webinars, go to www.ariss.org. Please direct any questions to ariss.us.education(a)gmail.com. 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 ISS National Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org. ******************************************************************************** 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, go to: https://www.ariss.org/ariss-application.html. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD email to: ve3tbd(a)gmail.com ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ email to: ariss(a)iaru-r3.org, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) https://www.jarl.org/ ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) https://srr.ru/ ****************************************************************************** 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 https://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? Please note that the HamTV system has been brought back to earth for troubleshooting. Please monitor ARISS-EU or ARISS-ON for the very latest news on the troubleshooting efforts. 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 The HamTV webpage: https://www.amsat-on.be/hamtv-summary/ **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Francesco IKØWGF with 140 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 138 Sergey RV3DR with 133 Gaston ON4WF with 123 **************************************************************************** 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. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1386. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1319. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 48. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. https://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: https://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC https://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correcti… Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 60 on orbit Drew Morgan KI5AAA Exp. 61 on orbit Oleg Skripochka Jessica Meir **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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K8BL Grid Ops CAS-4B Recording
by Hasan al-Basri 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

Included in this message is a URL to my Google Drive MP4 recording of Bob's operation on CAS-4B a few minutes ago. At the very end of the pass, my elevation was -0.5 degrees, yes, that's right, negative horizon! Note for Bob: I didn't have your email address, so I'm posting the mp4 url here. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HPz8o-ttEfZURT-XFge2IUVbazB_j2FX Just click on this link to download the mp4 file,. It is both video and audio. It is a standard MP4 file and will play on virtually any device, even a phone. Anyone is welcome to view/listen to it. File is about 95 MB, so with today's speeds, it should download quite quickly. The video shows: 1. On the far left the CAS-4B Batwing PSK Beacon (very useful for observing polarity shifts during a pass). 2. The CW Beacon for reference of the maximum signal strength your signal should be 3. Bob's signal Notice that Bob did a nice job of keeping his power down to reasonable levels and how difficult it is to do manual doppler, which he also did a nice job with. 73, N0AN Hasan

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AMSAT-UK FUNcube TLM Antenna
by Graham Shirville 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

Hi All, Sorry for the advert but if you are interested in obtaining one of our FUNcube Telemetry antenna assemblies, see here for details https://shop.amsat-uk.org/FUNCube_TLM_Receive_Antenna/p3815740_15628535.aspx Now may be the right time...we have plenty in stock but our "distribution manager" for this item may shortly be confined to barracks and not permitted to go down to the post office.:-) 73 Graham G3VZV

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Ni-Cd Batteries on Satellites
by Pedro Converso 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

LO-19 (aka LUSAT) after 30 years in space is emitting day and night a strong carrier. What is amazing that after over 2 millions charge/discharge cycles its vintage NI-CD batteries are still able to receive and hold charge. It is known that Lithium based batteries usually halve charge capacity after +/- 400 cycles, probably you noticed that on your portable device. https://batteryuniversity.com/_img/content/lithium2.jpg This is just a comment for future satellite plans if long duration is part of the objective. 73, lu7abf, Pedro

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Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 15, Issue 82
by Dwayne Sinclair 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

I also have the D72 and D74. Full duplex in the context of these radios means while PTT is enabled and you are speaking into the mic, receive on the second band is also enabled and ideally you can also hear yourself on the downlink simultaneously. D74 does not have this. Regards Dwayne NA6US > > I have logged well over a 2000 satellite QSOs all full duplex using a > TH-D74a on RX, both FM and SSB satellites. > > So what is your question?

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Next Rocket Lab launch
by Wendy and Terry Osborne 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

Next Launch window 27th March see: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/missions/next-mission/ They should be streaming it from their web site as usual. 73, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC

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Re: [amsat-bb] High Power and Rudeness
by Zach Metzinger 16 Mar '20

16 Mar '20

On 03/15/20 13:48, Jeff Johns via AMSAT-BB wrote: > The general public seems to want more FM satellites, but organizations don’t seem to be building them and getting them into orbit fast enough to keep up with demand. The single-channel, repeater-in-the-sky model was always destined for this sort of abuse (or simple ignorance). I've seen this happen on a local repeater, with a footprint of less than 50 miles. Why wouldn't it be expected on something with a footprint 100-1000 times as large? Hams clamor for FM satellites because it reduces the cost of user equipment. Beofeng hasn't yet come out with a $30 2m/440 all-mode HT. Linear satellites would work better for capacity, and better utilize the amount of bandwidth "lifted" to orbit by a launch vehicle. However, AMSAT can't alienate the $30 FM users, so it is a delicate balance. Adding a linear transponder right alongside the FM card might work, but that incurs additional solar/power requirements which drives up system complexity, cost, testing, etc. There are many variables, and it is impossible to optimize for them all. That's the engineering trade-off that I imagine AMSAT must face. Here are a few of my thoughts: Some enterprising soul should design, using common, off-the-shelf ICs, a simple PCB that is a SSB/CW 2m/440 duplex radio. Make the plans available freely on the WWW, etc. Get a groundswell behind it, and then watch the Asian clone makers swoop in and commercialize it (while also optimizing every last penny spent). Presto, lots of 2m/440 linear operators. Worked for nanoVNA, mikrocontroller's transistortester, etc. Should work for our crowd. Also, donate early, donate often to AMSAT. Building, testing, and launching satellites isn't cheap, and your donations help put more birds into space. "Cheap, fast, good. Pick any two." --- Zach N0ZGO

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High Power and Rudeness
by Brad Smith 15 Mar '20

15 Mar '20

I have been working satellites since 2013. Today, I was roving on a grid line and worked the two East birds, AO-91 and 92. After I gave out my call and said "grid line" and gave the grids, guys tried to call me but no one would let them in on either bird, nor let me take them. The power was so high that my portable rig didn't have a chance. The entire pass, was this way. I have never seen such rudeness and greed on the birds. One particular guy dominated both passes. There was not one break at all. Is this what we have become? A free for all? Anybody who heard me and needs the grids, pleas email me. Brad KC9UQR grid line EN54/64.

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KENWOOD TH-D74A
by Gerald Witalec 15 Mar '20

15 Mar '20

JoAnne,I believe the TH-D74A is NOT duplex receive so how is that working out for you contacting the SATS? Jerry...W8RQM

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