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XW-2D Returns to Life!
by Hasan al-Basri 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

K7VNE reported to me this morning that he had been on XW-2D (long since non-operational) and sigs were very good, but no one else was on. Signals were of good quality, no FM'ing of my SSB signal. I just checked it and had a pass of Max EL 2 deg to my East. It is there, it is loud. *The CW beacon is raspy*. The passband was normal level and my signal was typical: Max Sig: -64 dBm Noise Floor: -81 dBM I made an mp4 recording of the pass, with me calling CQ and announcing Elevation and signal levels. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lKYvARp4SyHUraAX9u6HQRbmnCiamJAM Download this mp4 file and play it back on any device (even a phone) and you will see and hear what I did. I have seen no announcement about not using the satellite, but will watch for same. 73, N0AN Hasan

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VJB Cheap Yagis
by Joe 04 Mar '20

04 Mar '20

The awesome little "Cheap Yagis" https://www.wa5vjb.com/yagi-pdf/cheapyagi.pdf Has anyone modified the 144 Mhz one up higher in the band for Sat work, AND has anyone taken the VHF and the UHF versions and put them on a single hand held boom? Elements in line or at right angles? Joe WB9SBD

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AMSAT @ ScienceCity in Tucson AZ (14-15 March 2020)
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

Hi! AMSAT will be supporting the University of Arizona's K7UAZ radio club during the ScienceCity science fair on 14-15 March 2020 (a Saturday and Sunday). ScienceCity will be on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona. This science fair is supported by several organizations at the university, and runs in conjunction with the Tucson Festival of Books that will also take place that weekend. More information about ScienceCity is available at: http://sciencecity.arizona.edu/ Information about the K7UAZ radio club is available at: http://k7uaz.com/ The K7UAZ radio club will have a booth in the "Science of Everyday Life" area at ScienceCity. This booth will showcase different facets of amateur radio, including amateur satellites. WD9EWK, and possibly other call signs, should be heard during demonstrations of satellite operating taking place at ScienceCity. If you hear us, please call and be a part of the demonstrations. The University of Arizona campus is in grid DM42, in Arizona's Pima County. QSLing will be determined by the call sign used for QSOs. For WD9EWK, I will upload my log to Logbook of the World, and will be happy to send QSL cards on request (please e-mail me the QSO details - no card or SASE is required to get my card). K7UAZ will confirm QSOs by QSL card, following instructions posted on QRZ.com. During the weekend, I will use my @WD9EWK Twitter account to post updates from ScienceCity. If you do not use Twitter, you can view these updates in a web browser without having a Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/WD9EWK Thanks, and 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

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PSAT3 Launch CANCELED
by Robert Bruninga 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

Well, 4 days from Shipping PSAT3 to Kodiak for launch, the launch has been canceled. The launch was part of the DARPA LAUNCH CHALLENGE: https://darpalaunchchallenge.org/index.html The challenege (and $10m prize) was for any launch provider to deliver a rocket with only 30 days notice of what payloads they would have and where they would launch from. And then to do it again only 30 days later. We were on the second launch. But on 2 March the third attempt by the launch provider was scrubbed at T-9 minutes and was not resolved until the launch window (and DARPA challenge deadline) had passed. Therefore the CHALLENGE is over, there was no winner, and we lost the launch. So, if anyone hears of a rocket that needs a CUBESAT PPOD backup replacement, we have one: http://aprs.org/psat3.html And I get my life (nights and weekends) back! Bob, WB4APR

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APRS test using LoRa via QO-100 (geo bird over Europe)
by Robert Bruninga 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

*Subject:* APRS test using LoRa via QO-100 (geo bird over Europe) Andy, OE3DMB reports his APRS experiments using the geostationary AMSAT, QO-100 (Es’hail 2) over Europe. It is not visible from the USA, but is a nice experiment for the Eastern Hemisphere. He uses a rooftop mobile omni antenna and 20W uplink on 2.4 GHz. I have added it to the APRS Satellite page: http://aprs.org/sats.html Bob, WB4APR

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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-03-03 17:30 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2020-03-03 17:30 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: River Ridge High School, New Port Richey, FL, direct via WA3YFQ The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact was successful: Tue 2020-03-03 15:17:44 UTC 51 deg (***) Australian Air League - South Australia Wing, Parafield, South Australia, Australia. telebridge via K6DUE (***) The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS (***) The scheduled astronaut is Drew Morgan KI5AAA Contact is go for: Fri 2020-03-13 08:56:53 UTC 32 deg (***) 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 2020-03-03 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. 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 2020-03-03 17:30 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 1385. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1318. (***) 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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SSTV Sat + 23cm band
by M5AKA 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

HSU-SAT1 CubeSat will have a Slow Scan Television (SSTV) downlink http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=719 Ham radio QFH satellite antennas built at workshop https://amsat-uk.org/2020/03/01/qfh-satellite-antenna-workshop/ AMSAT-India participated in Somaiya Space Conclave 2020 https://amsat-uk.org/2020/03/02/amsat-india-somaiya-space-conclave/ Project for school QO-100 amateur radio stations https://amsat-uk.org/2020/03/01/school-qo100-project/ UK Ofcom consultation on EMF compliance https://amsat-uk.org/2020/02/24/ofcom-consultation-on-emf-compliance/ "The 23cm band is under scrutiny" - the IARU-R1 VHF-UHF-uW newsletter notes that the Galileo GNSS constellation team "has witnessed interference from amateur TV transmissions which resulted in station shut down and has experienced interference from high power EME operations too." https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Newsletter85.pdf Trevor M5AKA---- AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/AmsatUK Facebook https://facebook.com/AmsatUK YouTube https://youtube.com/AmsatUK ----

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K7U - ROVE - DN07, DN06, CN96, CN95, CN93, CN94, CN92, DN03 and DN04.
by KI7UNJ Tucker 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

KI7UNJ and KI7UXT will be roving DN07, DN06, CN96, CN95, CN93, CN94, CN92, DN03, and DN04. To add to the fun we will be operating as a 1x1 Call *"K7U"* Saturday and Sunday You may hear KI7UXT and KI7UNJ use own calls but this is being done for rover credit and needed grids, please use* K7U *call as that is what all logging will use. ***K7U will be logging via LoTW*** KI7UXT will use his own call for passes on Friday On Linear, we will be fixed RX -5 from the center and if we both get on a pass the 2nd op will be at +5 from center AO-7 938 +/- unless we tweet different Track us via APRS K7U-9, KI7UNJ-IOS, and KI7UXT-i APRS (KI7UNJ-IOS and KI7UXT-i) map with Grid Lines https://aprs.fi/#!mt=roadmap&z=13&kml=http%3A%2F%2Fbadgerflix.duckdns.org%2… Updates from the rove will be on twitter: https://twitter.com/KI7UNJ https://twitter.com/KI7UXT *Friday 2020-03-06 2000Z to 2020-03-07 0600Z* KI7UXT (will be using own call for this part of trip) DN07, DN06, CN96, CN95 FM/LINEAR as passes come in route to CN94 *Saturday 2020-03-07 (UTC)* DN03 CAS-4B 1552Z CAS-4A 1615Z XW-2A 1630Z *Saturday 2020-03-07 (UTC)* DN04 **AO-92 1740Z **CAS-4A 1755Z AO-91 1828Z SO-50 1847Z CAS-4B 1912Z AO-92 1913Z AO-07 1923Z CAS-4A 1936Z AO-91 2004Z SO-50 2025Z CAS-4B 2052Z AO-07 2110Z **IN ROUTE TO DN04 depends on if we have horizon on side of road *Sunday 2020-03-08 (UTC) (saturday night)* CN94 AO-92 0419Z XW-2A 0433Z SO-50 0455Z CN93 AO-92 0551Z AO-91 0615Z *Sunday 2020-03-08 (UTC)* CN92 XW-2B 1533Z CAS-4B 1541Z XW-2A 1553Z CAS-4A 1605Z AO-92 1719Z CAS-4B 1721Z XW-2A 1724Z CAS-4A 1745Z AO-91 1848Z AO-92 1852Z CAS-4B 1901Z SO-50 1910Z CAS-4A 1925Z -- *Casey Tucker KI7UNJ* AMSAT Ambassador https://twitter.com/KI7UNJ https://www.qrz.com/db/KI7UNJ http://bit.do/ki7unj <https://www.google.com/url?q=http://bit.do/ki7unj&sa=D&source=hangouts&ust=…>

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VUCC Awards-Endorsements for March 2020
by Ronald Parsons 01 Mar '20

01 Mar '20

There was an error in this months VUCC Standings. N1PEB at 138 grids was omitted. Activity this month was low. Here are the endorsements and new VUCC Satellite Awards issued by the ARRL for the period February 1, 2020 through March 1, 2020. Congratulations to all those who made the list this month! CALL Feb Mar W5RKN 702 708 W5CBF 533 564 K9UO 528 550 MI6GTY 360 459 KE8FZT 375 400 K4RGK 157 175 WA9JBQ 150 175 DL4ZAB 101 150 W4ZXT 100 150 WD9EWK (DM31) 110 127 W2ZF 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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Husky-1 Xmit Power
by Mike Lucas 01 Mar '20

01 Mar '20

I've been struggling to get telem downloads the past couple of days.I was hoping to get at least a frame or two to see what the Xmit Power is at. Is it back to low power level again? Mike N7ASZ

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