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Pass recording
by Bob Hammond 12 Jan '19

12 Jan '19

What method of recording do you all use for QSOs? I'm setting up my fixed base station and know from my handheld/Arrow days that I cannot operate, talk, and write all at the same time with any accuracy. Bob W7OTJ DN17

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G-5500 Az-El controller box
by Joel Kandel 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Looking for the above, new or used but in working condition. Indicate price including shipping. I’m in S Florida. Thanks, Joel, KI4T There are more stars in the universe than seconds that have passed since the Earth was formed.

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FUNcube mode switch
by Brian Hardy 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Hi folks, Per the current schedule FUNcube is now in transponder mode for the weekend - enjoy! 73s Brian (G4BIP)

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Activating EM86 for the next week or so
by Robert Bragg 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

I will be staying in EM86 for the next week or so. I will be activating FM birds very regularly and practicing my SSB satellites when I have time. I plan to make a side trip to EM96 one evening at the beginning of the week. I will post here when I have my plans. Please let me know if you need either EM86 or 96 and I will see what we can do to make a contact. 73 R.J. WY7AA

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Q: An easy way to turn paper logs to a logging program?
by Eric - Gmail 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

I'd like to convert my paper satellite logs (dating back to the 1980's, from AO-10 on) to as yet undermined logging program. I'd need to create an ADIF file regardless of the final destination (including LoTW and/or Clublog) Is there any way to do this other than inputting every QSO one at a time? I thought about scanning them and then using an OCR program to put them into a spreadsheet, but that seems to be equally -- or more -- labor intensive. Any suggestions are appreciated! 73, Eric W3DQ

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change being in save mode.
by Tanan Rangseeprom 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Hello All AMSAT members in worldwide, Before the New Year 2019 I 'm Tanan, HS1JAN and Khun Chawalit, E20KEW along with Khun Krisada, E21EJC visited Prof Dr. Suwat, the Knacksat Project Leader, and Dr. Pongsathorn, the Knacksat Project Team Manager at the King Mongkut Institute of Technology North Bangkok (KMUT-NB) to enquire about the status of the Knacksat satellite following its SSO-A launch by a Space X rocket on December 3, 2018. Due to problems with the Space X rocket, the launch had been postponed several times with the Knacksat satellite being kept on hold and the satellite's batteries may have become depleted by the time the satellite was finally launched by SSO-A. When the deploy switch has been working for about 30 minutes the VHF/UHF antennas are deployed with heat from the nichrome wire. https://www.facebook.com/knacksat/videos/818456401588168/ This creates a need for high-voltage electricity which may be the reason that Knacksat satellite batteries had lower power than normal. If this were the case Knacksat satellites would then enter "Save Mode", or a sleep state, in order to charge the battery and to await orders from the HS0AK Ground Station. We are confident that the Knacksat satellite is still in a state of sleep. The Knacksat team expects that it may take up to many months to charge the battery to get to the original energy level. Hence, I would like to ask amateur radio operators in the AMSAT group to help the Knacksat team as well. The Knacksat team needs urgent help in receiving reports of the CW beacon signal on the frequency of 435.635 MHz because the Knacksat satellite will send the CW Beacon signal when the solar cell panel receives enough sunlight to charge the battery. Hence, there may be a signal from the CW beacon with the power of just 10 - 100 mW from the Knacksat satellite at any time. The Knacksat team has prepared rewards for anyone who sends them details with a signal report received from the Knacksat satellite including QSL cards, and Knacksat shirts, etc. Anyone who copies the satellite should please send an email to knacksat(a)gmail.com or enter a report at this website: https://knacksat-26d23.firebaseapp.com. Details can be found at http://www.knacksat.space/ Since the satellite was launched about one month ago only two persons have received signals of the CW beacon and the signal has been very weak such that the CW could not be fully copied while the telemetry could not be fully decoded. Therefore, we would like to make an urgent request for amateur radio operators to study the information below and to please get in touch by email with knacksat(a)gmail.com to help the Knacksat team. 1. The need is for an amateur radio station with an antenna with the EME level of gain to help. The UHF frequency at 435.635 MHz requires an antenna with a very high gain to receive the very weak CW beacon signal. 2. The need is also for an amateur radio station equipped at the EME level with a high-gain VHF antenna to try to send the sound (MP3) for command change mode uplink VHF frequency. that will wake up the Knacksat satellite from being in Save mode. Therefore, if any AMSAT member knows of anyone or can help or who can co-ordinate efforts to contact or is capable of receiving signals from the Knacksat satellite, could they please get in contact with the Knacksat team as quickly as possible. Thank you in advance for helping the satellites of Thailand. In the near future and not later than the second quarter of 2019 (Q2) the JAISAT-1 (“Joint Academy for Intelligent Satellites for Amateur Radio of Thailand.”) satellite will be launched into space and we will keep you informed of progress with further news. With respect Tanan Rungseeprom, HS1JAN JAISAT 1 Satellite Project Manager

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MINXSS-2
by John Mac 11 Jan '19

11 Jan '19

Hi all, Are we waiting for a reset on MINXSS-2, if so, when is that due, or is there other issues..? regards John

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A second mysterious repeating fast radio burst has been detected in space
by Greg 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

In case you missed it. Radio astronomy news. Greg N3MVF (CNN)Far outside our Milky Way galaxy, something is causing repeating short bursts of radio waves to be released into space. Scientists have recorded the second repeating fast radio burst to be discovered, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The finding was also presented at the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. These radio bursts are only millisecond-long radio flashes, and such rapid bursts themselves aren't rare in space. But this is only the second one that has been found to repeat. The mystery about why these bursts happen and where they come from continues, which always spurs believers to think that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are creating them. The first one, deemed FRB 121102, was discovered in 2015 by the Arecibo radio telescope, and it was revealed in 2018 that the bursts release an enormous amount of energy. What's sending mysterious repeating fast radio bursts in space? This new repeating fast radio burst is called FRB 180814.J0422+73 and was recorded six times coming from the same location, 1.5 billion light-years away. This is one of the very first detections made by the new Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME. The radio telescope was still in its pre-commissioning phase and operating with only a small amount of its full capacity in the summer of 2018 when it detected this and 12 singular fast radio bursts. And although this new detection doesn't solve the biggest mysteries surrounding the radio bursts, the researchers who recorded it believe that other repeating fast radio bursts will be found -- which could allow them to figure out where they originate. "Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there," said Ingrid Stairs, a member of the CHIME team and an astrophysicist at the University of British Columbia. "And with more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles -- where they're from and what causes them." One hypothesis is that powerful astrophysical phenomena are causing them. The first repeating fast radio burst was recorded at a frequency of 700 megahertz, but some of the bursts CHIME recorded were as low as 400 megahertz. "[We now know] the sources can produce low-frequency radio waves and those low-frequency waves can escape their environment, and are not too scattered to be detected by the time they reach the Earth," Tom Landecker, a CHIME team member from the National Research Council of Canada, said in a statement. "That tells us something about the environments and the sources. We haven't solved the problem, but it's several more pieces in the puzzle." The low frequency of this new detection could mean that the source of the bursts differ. "Scattering" was detected in the fast radio bursts, which is a phenomenon that helps determine more about the environment surrounding the origin. The CHIME team believes this scattering is indicative of powerful astrophysical objects at the source of the bursts. "That could mean [the source is] in some sort of dense clump like a supernova remnant," team member Cherry Ng, an astronomer at the University of Toronto, said in a statement. "Or near the central black hole in a galaxy. But it has to be in some special place to give us all the scattering that we see." And if CHIME was able to make these detections before it was even fully up and running, the researchers are hopeful that the new radio telescope will help them find answers about these mysterious signals.

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France (IN94) on AO-07B
by F6GLJ 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

Hello. I will be on AO-07B next pass between 17:35 and 17:44, very good pass for QSO France NA. I hope meet you. 73 Qro de Michel F6GLJ https://www.qrz.com/db/F6GLJ

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SSB Satellites
by NA1SA Loon 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

Just asking for clarification, or how do most do this... When working a Sat other than FO-29 (where I stay locked on the 2 meter up frequency and tune the 70cm down frequency), say one of the XW or CAS birds where the downlink is 2 meters and up is 70cm... which frequency stays locked and which gets tuned? I've read that you tune the higher frequency, but then wouldn't the other station be chasing me? Loon

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