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2018 AMSAT-NA 36th Annual Space Symposium and General Meeting Schedule
by Robert Bankston 26 Oct '18

26 Oct '18

NEWS FLASH: The list of papers to be presented at the 2018 AMSAT-NA 36th Annual Space Symposium and General Meeting, as well as the AMSAT Ambassador Breakfast have been added to the Schedule on the AMSAT website. http://www.amsat.org/symposium-schedule/ 73, Robert KE4AL 2018 AMSAT Symposium Chair

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AO73 FUNcube -1 mode change
by Graham Shirville 26 Oct '18

26 Oct '18

Hi All, Just to report that AO73 is now in continuous educational mode with high power telemetry whilst we continue to investigate the reasons for the changes in spin rate that are taking place whilst the spacecraft is in continuous sunlight. Please enjoy the strong and easy to receive signals! 73 Graham G3VZV

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UKube-1 falls silent
by Hans BX2ABT 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

This was posted on the Southgate ARS website: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2018/october/ukube-1-falls-silent.htm#.W9J… Luckily I heard this one for the first time mid-August with a strong CW beacon. http://bx2abt.com/main/data/_uploaded/media/20180816_0753_145845-ukube1.mp3 Another one bites the dust?

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Falconsat
by kb2mjeff＠att.net 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

Is anyone using Falconsat anymore? I just work a pass, it’s been about 5 months since I’ve last been on. 73 Jeff kb2m --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com

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APRS to Moon orbit?
by Robert Bruninga 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

Here's a crazy idea for APRS to moon orbit (omni antenna). Unless I did something wrong, I think an Oscar class long yagi, and 250W amp and 1200 baud FM packet can be received out near the moon with 3 dB margin? A key factor is that the nearly 16 dB of assumed noise floor we have here on the ground at VHF does not exist in deep space. And VHF gives the largest receive aperture for a crossed dipole on the spacecraft. The omni UHF downlink is a bear. But with quad UHF long yagis and a 100W transmitter at the moon distance we still come up about 12 dB short. Can we make up for that with distributed processing gain from a minimum of 16 Oscar class ground stations all phased together with the internet and GPS precise timing and a little software? If we could, then we have APRS out to moon orbit, with the downlink visible to all via the APRS internet system. And in digipeating mode, we have half-earth coverage half the time when the moon is up. What did I do wrong? Bob, Wb4APR

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ARISS in Raspberry Pi magazine + FCC Galileo GPS + Orbital Debris
by M5AKA 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

ARISS and Amateur Radio in Raspberry Pi magazine article, free PDF download https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/25/ariss-and-amateur-radio-in-raspberry-pi-mag… Galileo GNSS / GPS – FCC to vote on use of signals in USA Also FCC Chair Ajit Pai is proposing the first comprehensive review of the FCC’s orbital debris rules since their adoption in 2004 https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/25/galileo-gps-fcc-vote/ 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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Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-10-25 16:00 UTC
by aj9n＠aol.com 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2018-10-25 16:00 UTC Quick list of scheduled contacts and events: Martin-Andersen-Nexö-Gymnasium Dresden/DLR_School_Lab TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany, and Liborius-Gymnasium Dessau, Dessau-Roßlau, Germany, direct via DLØTSD and DKØLG The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be DPØISS The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Gerst KF5ONO Contact was successful: Wed 2018-10-24 08:22:55 UTC 78 deg (***) Delcastle Technical High School, Wilmington, DE direct via K2CCW The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Contact was successful: Wed 2018-10-24 17:48:48 UTC 52 deg (***) Watch for live stream at Www.facebook.com/NCCVTSD/ Tallmadge Community Learning Center, Lancaster, OH, direct via K8QIK The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Contact is a go for: Wed 2018-10-31 14:56:40 UTC 27 deg Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School, Palmer, MA, direct via KB1MDS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Contact is a go for: Fri 2018-11-02 14:50:19 UTC 36 deg If you are interested in applying for an ARISS contact, please go to http://www.ariss.org/apply-to-host-an-ariss-contact.html The information below is from the ARISS webpage: International Space Station Astronauts are Calling CQ ARISS Students ARISS-US program’s education proposal window open Oct. 1 - Nov. 30, 2018 September 25, 2018: ARISS is seeking proposals beginning October 1, 2018 from US schools, museums, science centers and community youth organizations (working individually or together) to host amateur radio contacts with an orbiting crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) between July 1 and December 30, 2019. Each year, ARISS provides tens of thousands of students with learning opportunities about space technologies, communications, and much more through the exploration of Amateur Radio and space. ARISS has been pleased of late, to be one of many possibilities of interest to educators during NASA’s A Year of Education on Station, which celebrates an almost 12-month presence of a teacher aboard the ISS. The ARISS program connects students to astronauts on the ISS through a partnership between NASA, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, the American Radio Relay League, other Amateur Radio global organizations and the worldwide space agencies. The program’s goal is to inspire students to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and in Amateur Radio. Educators report regularly that student participation in the ARISS program stimulates interest in STEM subjects and STEM careers. One educator wrote, “Many of the middle school students who took part in and attended the ARISS contact have selected science courses in high school as a result of that contact.” Educators are setting up ham radio clubs in schools and learning centers because of students’ interest. ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed, exciting education plan. Students can learn about satellite communications, wireless technology, science research conducted on the ISS, radio science, and other STEM subjects. Students learn to use Amateur Radio to talk directly to an astronaut and ask their STEM-related questions. ARISS will help educational organizations locate Amateur Radio groups who can assist with equipment for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students. The proposal window opens October 1, 2018 and the proposal deadline is November 30, 2018. For proposal guidelines and forms and more details, visit: http://www.ariss.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact-in-the-us.html Proposal webinars for guidance and getting questions answered will be offered October 11 and October 23, 2018, both at 8 pm Eastern Time. Advance registration is necessary. To sign up, go to: ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2018.eventbrite.com/ 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, click here. ARISS-Canada and the Americas, except USA: Steve McFarlane, VE3TBD ARISS-Japan, Asia, Pacific and Australia: Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) ARISS-Russia: Soyuz Radioljubitelei Rossii (SRR) ****************************************************************************** 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 http://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? 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 **************************************************************************** ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools: Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 135 Francesco IKØWGF with 132 Gaston ON4WF with 123 Sergey RV3DR with 108 **************************************************************************** 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. 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 2018-10-25 16:00 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1273. (***) Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 1217. (***) Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 47. A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file. http://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: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html ISS callsigns: DPØISS, IRØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS **************************************************************************** The successful school list has been updated as of 2018-10-25 16:00 UTC. (***) http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf Frequency chart for packet, voice, and crossband repeater modes showing Doppler correction as of 2005-07-29 04:00 UTC http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ISS_frequencies_and_Doppler_correction .rtf Listing of ARISS related magazine articles as of 2006-07-10 03:30 UTC. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/ARISS_magazine_articles.rtf Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports.zoho.com/ZDBDataSheetView.cc?DBID=412218000000020415 **************************************************************************** Exp. 56 on orbit Serena Aunon-Chancellor KG5TMT Alexander Gerst KF5ONO Sergei Propopev **************************************************************************** 73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors

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ESEO + LO-94 + FUNcube Challenge
by M5AKA 25 Oct '18

25 Oct '18

ESEO’s Educational Story Continues https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/24/eseos-educational-story-continues/ LO-94 spacecraft signal decoded after bouncing off Moon https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/24/lo-94-spacecraft-signal-decoded-after-bounc… ARISS Joins NASA On-The-Air for a Special SSTV Event https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/23/ariss-joins-nasa-on-the-air-for-a-special-s… Scouts participate in FUNcube Challenge https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/22/scouts-participate-in-funcube-challenge/ SSTV active on IO-86 during JOTA https://amsat-uk.org/2018/10/20/sstv-from-space-for-jota-and-space-station-… 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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Extended info about calibrating your LVB tracker and G5500 rotor
by Burns Fisher 24 Oct '18

24 Oct '18

For some reason the 5500 and the LVB in my system got out of whack. It may have been when I switched from "450 degree azimuth" mode to "flip" (i.e. 180 elevation) mode. I don't know. But even after calibrating the LVB several times, it would not set the elevation to 180 and setting it to 90 degrees ended up something like 15 degrees off. I took the LVB cover off to access the connections to the 5500, and discovered that far from sending an analog voltage of 2 to 4.5V to equal 0 to 180 degrees as the Yaesu docs say, the 5500 was sending 0V to 5.5 or so. A bit more work found that the LVB did not respond to much more than 5V. I assume that is the reference voltage on the A/D converter. A look at the schematic on the 5500 found a pot that appeared to adjust the voltage to the LVB independently of the meters. There is zero documentation, but the back of the 5500 case actually has 4 pots: Max meter and Max output for both Az and El. So holding my breath, I turned the Max Output pot and sure enough the voltage to the LVB went down. I set the rotor elevation to 180 degrees (by eye) and then turned the pot till the LVB readout just started changing. Then I used the LVB calibration procedure to match that location to what the LVB thought was 180. Voila! 90 is now pretty good too. In retrospect, this is not inobvious; however the fact that the Yaesu docs say 2V to 4.5V and the fact that the LVB was not responding beyond a certain elevation required some investigation. Hopefully this little post will save someone else from having to repeat the investigation. 73, Burns, WB1FJ

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Re: [amsat-bb] Portable, Full-Duplex Transceiver
by Rick Tejera 24 Oct '18

24 Oct '18

Adding to what Mike said, You indicated you have an RSP SDR receiver. If the though of to 818's puts a crimp in your budget, why not just use one for the uplink and use the SDR on the Downlink? Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK uses this set up with great success. Rick Tejera (K7TEJ) Saguaro Astronomy Club www.saguaroastro.org Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club www.W7TBC.org -----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb-bounces(a)amsat.org> On Behalf Of Mike Diehl Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2018 12:00 PM To: ronald mosher <rfmosher(a)cox.net> Cc: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Portable, Full-Duplex Transceiver I’m unaware of a QRP HF rig that can do full duplex satellite as well. However, since yaesu doesn’t make an official FT-1634 you can make one with 2 FT-817’s, one for the uplink and the other for down. If you’re buying new it would be two FT-818’s so I guess that would make it an FT-1636. There are some rigs that do HF and satellite like the TS-2000 and IC-9100 but they’re not QRP rigs. 73, Mike Diehl W8LID/VE6LID > On Oct 24, 2018, at 12:59, ronald mosher <rfmosher(a)cox.net> wrote: > > I am new to satellite communication and this is my first post. My > setup so far includes an Arrow antenna on a camera tripod, an SDR > (RSP) and SatPC32 software on a Surface Pro. I would like to buy a > portable, HF/VHF/UHF, Full-Duplex transceiver that I can use for both > portable HF QRP and for satellite work. So far, I have not been able > to find such a radio. Any recommendations would be much appreciated. > > > > Also, I would like to buy or build an AZ-EL rotator that is suitable > for a portable setup. I am leaning toward building as a less > expensive alternative. I have been studying the WRAPS version by > WA8SME and the Mini > Mk-2 by VK3FOWL and VK3YSP. Both look to be of about equal > construction complexity. Any thoughts on either if these rotators, or > any other inexpensive rotator would also be very much appreciated. > > > > It is exciting to be learning a new phase of ham radio and to be a > part of this group. Thank you for any suggestions. > > 73, > > Ron K0PGE > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. > Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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