Re: [amsat-bb] AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 11, Issue 53
Hi All
so is the issue with the iss packet system a radio or antenna? its as def a stump. had a nice 45 deg pass and it did not pick me up at all, but picked up a few others, 100w should beable to get a hit but nope, then there is the odd person or persons that connect to the BBS and lock out any one else from reporting... oh well..
Dan KF1BUZ
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 7:37 PM, amsat-bb-request@amsat.org wrote:
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Today's Topics:
- Re: Orlando hamcation (Rich/wa4bue)
- Re: Orlando hamcation (Rich/wa4bue)
- France (IN94) on AO-07B ( F6GLJ)
- Upcoming ARISS contact with UAH Space Hardware Club, Huntsville, Alabama (n4csitwo@bellsouth.net)
- New AO7 Distance Record (Dave Swanson)
- Re: New AO7 Distance Record (Stefan Wagener)
- Fw: Fwd: LVB tracker (W2JV)
- Re: New AO7 Distance Record (Eduardo PY2RN)
- Re: New AO7 Distance Record (Stephen E. Belter)
- Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-02-17 03:30 UTC (AJ9N@aol.com)
Message: 1 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:54:25 -0500 From: "Rich/wa4bue" richard.siff@verizon.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Orlando hamcation Message-ID: B2D595FFE58A45678B820466593240EB@BanjoPC Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original
I think the link is Ham world . net
Hope and family will be speaking this weekend at Old Dominion University Open House for about 400 -600 middle & high school students touring the engineering department.
Hope is the key note speaker on Saturday.
John KW4CR is coordinating the event.
On Fri. 19th K4AMG will be on the air HF and SATS WX permitting
God Bless
R W4BUE
-----Original Message----- From: jeffory broughton Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 9:32 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Orlando hamcation
I saw the video ,I believe on facebook of Hope making contacts from the hamfest.i can't find it again.Can some send me a link ?
jeff broughton _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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
Message: 2 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:55:26 -0500 From: "Rich/wa4bue" richard.siff@verizon.net To: "James Lea - WX4TV" james@wx4tv.com, "jeffory broughton" jefforybroughton@gmail.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Orlando hamcation Message-ID: 7C43E7C6A7C34EF09C5B79973137EF73@BanjoPC Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=original
Maybe on K4AMG Face Book too!
-----Original Message----- From: James Lea - WX4TV Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 9:47 AM To: jeffory broughton Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Orlando hamcation
If it is her on SO-50, I've not seen it and would love to see it.
James Lea Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 16, 2016, at 09:32, jeffory broughton jefforybroughton@gmail.com wrote:
I saw the video ,I believe on facebook of Hope making contacts from the hamfest.i can't find it again.Can some send me a link ?
jeff broughton _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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@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
Message: 3 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:32:16 +0100 From: " F6GLJ" michel-f6glj@orange.fr To: K4FEG@K4FEG.COM, "VE1MAM" mmorel@bellaliant.net, satdx-bb@star-com.net, amsat-bb@amsat.org, <lebelb@nbnet.nb.ca
Subject: [amsat-bb] France (IN94) on AO-07B Message-ID: 001f01d168df$fd2d1180$f7873480$@fr Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hello.
I?ll be on AO-07 between 18 :00 to 18 :10, very good pass for qso France <> SA and NA. Only 3? off elevation.
I hope meet you.
73 Qro de F6GLJ https://www.qrz.com/db/F6GLJ
Message: 4 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:41:30 -0500 From: n4csitwo@bellsouth.net To: "Michael Lee" aa6ml@arrl.org, "Doug Rehman" doug@k4ac.com, ariss-press@amsat.org, "amsat-edu" amsat-edu@amsat.org, amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Upcoming ARISS contact with UAH Space Hardware Club, Huntsville, Alabama Message-ID: 6FF0314C6CC1401098DBAEA39B2480BE@DHJ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at UAH Space Hardware Club, Huntsville, Alabama on Feb 19 The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 17:20 UTC. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and K4UAH. The contact should be audible over the state of Alabama and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.80 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.
The Space Hardware Club at the University of Alabama in Huntsville is an engineering club of students that builds balloon payloads, satellites and rockets outside of their regular classes. The club has been working on this contact for over a year. After deciding to focus on 8th grade students, we reached out to Discovery Middle School, Westlawn Middle School, and the Tennessee Valley Homeschool 4-H group - all from the northern Alabama area. The students from Westlawn have been part of Project Lead The Way for 2 years now and have been exposed to robotics, modeling, and 3d printing. The students from the homeschool group all have a passion for STEM, a love of learning and being challenged, and are bubbling with excitement for this opportunity of a lifetime. There are two STEM II classes from Discovery Middle School that routinely rise to the expectations of their accelerated STEM focused curriculum. By the time of the contact, the students will have learned about the ISS, the astronauts and some of the experiments aboard, and amateur radio. All of the students and club members involved are passionate about this opportunity, and thank you for your time.
What is your favorite experiment that you've done in space?
What would you want to add to the ISS?
What is your favorite thing about living in space?
If someone wants to be an astronaut when they grow up, what should
they be doing now as a kid to prepare?
Was it hard to adjust to zero gravity?
What everyday task on Earth is the hardest in space?
Did you put any ranch on the lettuce grown in space?
What do the stars look like from up in space?
What happens in a case of an emergency?
What is your sleep schedule?
What do astronauts do for fun on the ISS?
Do you ever feel lonely?
When you get back on earth, do you feel different?
Do you have trouble telling whether it is night or day?
Why did you choose to go to space?
Do you feel like your background helped you to become an astronaut?
Does micogravity make your body tired or sick?
What is the hardest thing about being away from earth for so long?
PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ARISS UPDATES:
Visit ARISS on Facebook. We can be found at Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). To receive our Twitter updates, follow @ARISS_statusNext planned event(s):
TBDABOUT 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), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or informal education venues. With the help of experienced amateur radio volunteers, ISS crews speak directly with large audiences in a variety of public forums. Before and during these radio contacts, students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org, www.amsat.org, and www.a rrl.org.
Thank you & 73,
David - AA4KN
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Message: 5 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:14:52 -0600 From: Dave Swanson dave@druidnetworks.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record Message-ID: 56C39F5C.2050700@druidnetworks.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Satellite Friends and Colleagues,
I wanted to share with everyone that on February 10th, at 2009UTC I made a scheduled contact with Eduardo, PY2RN, using AO-7 Mode B, from 'Shinnal Mountain' just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. My 10 digit grid locator for the contact was EM34ST20SC, and Eduardo's station is located at GG66LW77JQ in Vinhedo/SP, Brazil. Using the http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website for reference, this equates to 8030.895 km which we believe to be a new record for AO-7 Mode B. I've been extremely busy this past week, but I had a few folks request that I share a little background behind the contact, so here we go.
Back on January 24th, I was on an AO-7(B) pass looking for Gustavo, PT9BM. While not a record distance, Gustavo's QTH is just shy of 7500km away from me, so I was up on my mountain, specifically in a spot with great a great southeastern view of the Horizon. As the bird came into view, while scanning the passband, I heard Eduardo, PY2RN, calling CQ. I tried to answer him, but his signal disappeared quickly after that, and I went ahead and had a great QSO with Gustavo, and didn't think anything else of it until later that night when I decided to look up the station I had heard. To my astonishment, Eduardo was 8030km away, which was way beyond the theoretical range AO-7, even with elevation assistance. I promptly emailed Eduardo and we both agreed to try and make a contact, even though the math said it shouldn't be possible.
At this point the random luck that had let me hear Eduardo on the 24th seemed to elude us. We attempted contacts on the 26th, 28th, and 30th all to no avail. After recalculating windows, our next shot was on February 8th. WinListen (from Sat32pc) calculated a 3 second window on the 8th, followed by 5 seconds on the 10th. The day of the 8th came, and we prepared for the attempt. Murphy once again seemed to haunt us though, as we successfully heard the calls and grids of each other, but strong CW QRM was hitting the bird so hard that the intelligibility was low and, more importantly, neither of us had a camera running. We decided to not count the QSO due to these reasons. The good news was though, we both heard each other (the first time that had happened) and our frequency coordination was spot on. We knew it could be done, we just needed a little luck.
Finally, on February 10th, we got a bit of a break. We had already determined that 5 seconds was simply not enough time to do a proper "QSL thanks for the grid, have a great day" type of chat, so we both agreed to simply repeat 'your call / my call / grid / report' rapidly, much in the same way a digital or contest contact is made. At 2009UTC, both stations cleanly heard the others call and grid, completing the contact. It was extremely rapid, and very weak, but clear. Eduardo's side of the QSO turned out way better than mine did, and he has uploaded a recording of it to youtube here: https://youtu.be/pTGSlaY7K7A
After all my work towards low-elevation contacts from mountain-tops, I think this is approaching the limits of what can be done on AO-7. This was by far the hardest sked I've ever attempted, and with the contact window measured in mere seconds, it leaves absolutely no room for error. Had I not heard Eduardo's call at random on the attempt with Gustavo, I doubt I would have even pursued this as something that was possible. That said, wow.. what a rush
Big thanks to Eduardo, PY2RN, for humoring my obsession with making ultra long-distance QSOs on the birds, and for sticking with it until we finally made it work. Good DX my friend. Also thanks to Gustavo (PT9BM) for persuading me to point my arrow to the South, and Drew (KO4MA) for acting as a spotter during one of the passes to see just how far apart we were from each other. Appreciate it guys.
If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to field them. Until then, catch you on the birds! 73!
-Dave, KG5CCI
Message: 6 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:24:03 -0600 From: Stefan Wagener wageners@gmail.com To: Dave Swanson dave@druidnetworks.com Cc: AMSAT BB amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record Message-ID: < CAKu8kHBqifxc+bEvoxVu6XhtOT8zep4oAWAYFJ4Q09-YOG6iHw@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Very nice Dave and Eduardo!
Congratulations and thank you for the info.
73, Stefan, VE4NSA
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 4:14 PM, Dave Swanson dave@druidnetworks.com wrote:
Satellite Friends and Colleagues,
I wanted to share with everyone that on February 10th, at 2009UTC I made
a
scheduled contact with Eduardo, PY2RN, using AO-7 Mode B, from 'Shinnal Mountain' just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. My 10 digit grid locator
for
the contact was EM34ST20SC, and Eduardo's station is located at
GG66LW77JQ
in Vinhedo/SP, Brazil. Using the http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website for reference, this equates to 8030.895 km which we believe to
be a
new record for AO-7 Mode B. I've been extremely busy this past week, but
I
had a few folks request that I share a little background behind the contact, so here we go.
Back on January 24th, I was on an AO-7(B) pass looking for Gustavo,
PT9BM.
While not a record distance, Gustavo's QTH is just shy of 7500km away
from
me, so I was up on my mountain, specifically in a spot with great a great southeastern view of the Horizon. As the bird came into view, while scanning the passband, I heard Eduardo, PY2RN, calling CQ. I tried to answer him, but his signal disappeared quickly after that, and I went
ahead
and had a great QSO with Gustavo, and didn't think anything else of it until later that night when I decided to look up the station I had heard. To my astonishment, Eduardo was 8030km away, which was way beyond the theoretical range AO-7, even with elevation assistance. I promptly
emailed
Eduardo and we both agreed to try and make a contact, even though the
math
said it shouldn't be possible.
At this point the random luck that had let me hear Eduardo on the 24th seemed to elude us. We attempted contacts on the 26th, 28th, and 30th all to no avail. After recalculating windows, our next shot was on February 8th. WinListen (from Sat32pc) calculated a 3 second window on the 8th, followed by 5 seconds on the 10th. The day of the 8th came, and we
prepared
for the attempt. Murphy once again seemed to haunt us though, as we successfully heard the calls and grids of each other, but strong CW QRM
was
hitting the bird so hard that the intelligibility was low and, more importantly, neither of us had a camera running. We decided to not count the QSO due to these reasons. The good news was though, we both heard
each
other (the first time that had happened) and our frequency coordination
was
spot on. We knew it could be done, we just needed a little luck.
Finally, on February 10th, we got a bit of a break. We had already determined that 5 seconds was simply not enough time to do a proper "QSL thanks for the grid, have a great day" type of chat, so we both agreed to simply repeat 'your call / my call / grid / report' rapidly, much in the same way a digital or contest contact is made. At 2009UTC, both stations cleanly heard the others call and grid, completing the contact. It was extremely rapid, and very weak, but clear. Eduardo's side of the QSO turned out way better than mine did, and he has uploaded a recording of
it
to youtube here: https://youtu.be/pTGSlaY7K7A
After all my work towards low-elevation contacts from mountain-tops, I think this is approaching the limits of what can be done on AO-7. This
was
by far the hardest sked I've ever attempted, and with the contact window measured in mere seconds, it leaves absolutely no room for error. Had I
not
heard Eduardo's call at random on the attempt with Gustavo, I doubt I
would
have even pursued this as something that was possible. That said, wow.. what a rush
Big thanks to Eduardo, PY2RN, for humoring my obsession with making ultra long-distance QSOs on the birds, and for sticking with it until we
finally
made it work. Good DX my friend. Also thanks to Gustavo (PT9BM) for persuading me to point my arrow to the South, and Drew (KO4MA) for acting as a spotter during one of the passes to see just how far apart we were from each other. Appreciate it guys.
If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to field them. Until then, catch you on the birds! 73!
-Dave, KG5CCI _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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
Message: 7 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:30:03 -0500 From: "W2JV" PeteW2JV@verizon.net To: AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Fw: Fwd: LVB tracker Message-ID: FA573863D2E24482AF2C393812B296C5@PeterPC Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
The Great South Bay, Amateur Radio Club, of which I?m a member wants to put together a satellite station. They have an existing home made AZ EL power unit which works. They are looking into interfacing an LVB tracker with it. and need to know what voltage level input is required for the feedback loop. The unit currently puts out 0-6.25vdc corresponding to 0-360 AZ and 0-180 EL. Looking at the G5500 schematic they go through an opamp arrangement but do not provide any voltage levels.
If anyone can the club with some info I'd sure appreciate it.
Thanks,
W2JV Peter
Message: 8 Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 01:46:14 +0000 (UTC) From: Eduardo PY2RN py2rn@arrl.net To: Dave Swanson dave@druidnetworks.com, "amsat-bb@amsat.org" amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record Message-ID: 871553990.5662074.1455673574782.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Thanks Dave for the QSO and well done with all the persistence.
It is always good to double check even when everything is saying that it wouldn't be possible, even the computer shouting "satellite is not visible!" over your signal :o) 73s Eduardo? PY2RN
From: Dave Swanson <dave@druidnetworks.com>To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:14 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record
Satellite Friends and Colleagues,
I wanted to share with everyone that on February 10th, at 2009UTC I made a scheduled contact with Eduardo, PY2RN, using AO-7 Mode B, from? 'Shinnal Mountain' just west of Little Rock, Arkansas.? My 10 digit grid locator for the contact was EM34ST20SC, and Eduardo's station is located at GG66LW77JQ in Vinhedo/SP, Brazil.? Using the http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website for reference, this equates to 8030.895 km which we believe to be a new record for AO-7 Mode B. I've been extremely busy this past week, but I had a few folks request that I share a little background behind the contact, so here we go.
Back on January 24th, I was on an AO-7(B) pass looking for Gustavo, PT9BM. While not a record distance, Gustavo's QTH is just shy of 7500km away from me, so I was up on my mountain, specifically in a spot with great a great southeastern view of the Horizon. As the bird came into view, while scanning the passband, I heard Eduardo, PY2RN, calling CQ. I tried to answer him, but his signal disappeared quickly after that, and I went ahead and had a great QSO with Gustavo, and didn't think anything else of it until later that night when I decided to look up the station I had heard. To my astonishment, Eduardo was 8030km away, which was way beyond the theoretical range AO-7, even with elevation assistance. I promptly emailed Eduardo and we both agreed to try and make a contact, even though the math said it shouldn't be possible.
At this point the random luck that had let me hear Eduardo on the 24th seemed to elude us. We attempted contacts on the 26th, 28th, and 30th all to no avail. After recalculating windows, our next shot was on February 8th. WinListen (from Sat32pc) calculated a 3 second window on the 8th, followed by 5 seconds on the 10th. The day of the 8th came, and we prepared for the attempt. Murphy once again seemed to haunt us though, as we successfully heard the calls and grids of each other, but strong CW QRM was hitting the bird so hard that the intelligibility was low and, more importantly, neither of us had a camera running. We decided to not count the QSO due to these reasons. The good news was though, we both heard each other (the first time that had happened) and our frequency coordination was spot on. We knew it could be done, we just needed a little luck.
Finally, on February 10th, we got a bit of a break. We had already determined that 5 seconds was simply not enough time to do a proper "QSL thanks for the grid, have a great day" type of chat, so we both agreed to simply repeat 'your call / my call / grid / report' rapidly, much in the same way a digital or contest contact is made. At 2009UTC, both stations cleanly heard the others call and grid, completing the contact.? It was extremely rapid, and very weak, but clear.? Eduardo's side of the QSO turned out way better than mine did, and he has uploaded a recording of it to youtube here: https://youtu.be/pTGSlaY7K7A
After all my work towards low-elevation contacts from mountain-tops, I think this is approaching the limits of what can be done on AO-7. This was by far the hardest sked I've ever attempted, and with the contact window measured in mere seconds, it leaves absolutely no room for error. Had I not heard Eduardo's call at random on the attempt with Gustavo, I doubt I would have even pursued this as something that was possible. That said, wow.. what a rush
Big thanks to Eduardo, PY2RN, for humoring my obsession with making ultra long-distance QSOs on the birds, and for sticking with it until we finally made it work. Good DX my friend. Also thanks to Gustavo (PT9BM) for persuading me to point my arrow to the South, and Drew (KO4MA) for acting as a spotter during one of the passes to see just how far apart we were from each other. Appreciate it guys.
If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to field them. Until then, catch you on the birds! 73!
-Dave, KG5CCI _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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
Message: 9 Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 02:44:43 +0000 From: "Stephen E. Belter" seb@wintek.com To: Eduardo PY2RN py2rn@arrl.net, Dave Swanson dave@druidnetworks.com, "amsat-bb@amsat.org" < amsat-bb@amsat.org> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record Message-ID: D2E94831.5D11E%seb@wintek.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Gentlemen:
Congratulations!
Would you describe your stations? Radios, antennas, coax, preamps, software?
Thanks!
73, Steve N9IP
Steve Belter, seb@wintek.com
On 2/16/16, 8:46 PM, "AMSAT-BB on behalf of Eduardo PY2RN" <amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org on behalf of py2rn@arrl.net> wrote:
Thanks Dave for the QSO and well done with all the persistence.
It is always good to double check even when everything is saying that it wouldn't be possible, even the computer shouting "satellite is not visible!" over your signal :o) 73s Eduardo PY2RN
From: Dave Swanson <dave@druidnetworks.com>To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2016 8:14 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] New AO7 Distance Record
Satellite Friends and Colleagues,
I wanted to share with everyone that on February 10th, at 2009UTC I made a scheduled contact with Eduardo, PY2RN, using AO-7 Mode B, from 'Shinnal Mountain' just west of Little Rock, Arkansas. My 10 digit grid locator for the contact was EM34ST20SC, and Eduardo's station is located at GG66LW77JQ in Vinhedo/SP, Brazil. Using the http://no.nonsense.ee/qth/map.html website for reference, this equates to 8030.895 km which we believe to be a new record for AO-7 Mode B. I've been extremely busy this past week, but I had a few folks request that I share a little background behind the contact, so here we go.
Back on January 24th, I was on an AO-7(B) pass looking for Gustavo, PT9BM. While not a record distance, Gustavo's QTH is just shy of 7500km away from me, so I was up on my mountain, specifically in a spot with great a great southeastern view of the Horizon. As the bird came into view, while scanning the passband, I heard Eduardo, PY2RN, calling CQ. I tried to answer him, but his signal disappeared quickly after that, and I went ahead and had a great QSO with Gustavo, and didn't think anything else of it until later that night when I decided to look up the station I had heard. To my astonishment, Eduardo was 8030km away, which was way beyond the theoretical range AO-7, even with elevation assistance. I promptly emailed Eduardo and we both agreed to try and make a contact, even though the math said it shouldn't be possible.
At this point the random luck that had let me hear Eduardo on the 24th seemed to elude us. We attempted contacts on the 26th, 28th, and 30th all to no avail. After recalculating windows, our next shot was on February 8th. WinListen (from Sat32pc) calculated a 3 second window on the 8th, followed by 5 seconds on the 10th. The day of the 8th came, and we prepared for the attempt. Murphy once again seemed to haunt us though, as we successfully heard the calls and grids of each other, but strong CW QRM was hitting the bird so hard that the intelligibility was low and, more importantly, neither of us had a camera running. We decided to not count the QSO due to these reasons. The good news was though, we both heard each other (the first time that had happened) and our frequency coordination was spot on. We knew it could be done, we just needed a little luck.
Finally, on February 10th, we got a bit of a break. We had already determined that 5 seconds was simply not enough time to do a proper "QSL thanks for the grid, have a great day" type of chat, so we both agreed to simply repeat 'your call / my call / grid / report' rapidly, much in the same way a digital or contest contact is made. At 2009UTC, both stations cleanly heard the others call and grid, completing the contact. It was extremely rapid, and very weak, but clear. Eduardo's side of the QSO turned out way better than mine did, and he has uploaded a recording of it to youtube here: https://youtu.be/pTGSlaY7K7A
After all my work towards low-elevation contacts from mountain-tops, I think this is approaching the limits of what can be done on AO-7. This was by far the hardest sked I've ever attempted, and with the contact window measured in mere seconds, it leaves absolutely no room for error. Had I not heard Eduardo's call at random on the attempt with Gustavo, I doubt I would have even pursued this as something that was possible. That said, wow.. what a rush
Big thanks to Eduardo, PY2RN, for humoring my obsession with making ultra long-distance QSOs on the birds, and for sticking with it until we finally made it work. Good DX my friend. Also thanks to Gustavo (PT9BM) for persuading me to point my arrow to the South, and Drew (KO4MA) for acting as a spotter during one of the passes to see just how far apart we were from each other. Appreciate it guys.
If anyone has any questions or comments, I'm happy to field them. Until then, catch you on the birds! 73!
-Dave, KG5CCI _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@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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Message: 10 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 22:37:21 -0500 From: AJ9N@aol.com To: amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org Subject: [amsat-bb] Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-02-17 03:30 UTC Message-ID: 7043c.6ee4a92e.43f544f1@aol.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2016-02-17 03:30 UTC
Quick list of scheduled contacts and events:
Oasis Academy Brightstowe, Bristol, UK, direct via GB1OAB The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be GB1SS The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI Contact is a go for: Fri 2016-02-19 14:23:23 UTC 78 deg
UAH Space Hardware Club, Huntsville, Alabama, direct via K4UAH The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN Contact is a go for: Fri 2016-02-19 17:20:14 UTC 72 deg
Istituto Sobrero, Casale Monferrato, Italy, direct via IK1SLD The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS The scheduled astronaut is Tim Kopra KE5UDN Contact is a go for: Thu 2016-02-25 09:10:55 UTC 40 deg (***)
Norwich Schools, Norwich/East Anglia, UK, direct via GB2CNS The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be GB1SS The scheduled astronaut is Timothy Peake KG5BVI Contact is a go for: Fri 2016-02-26 14:43:39 UTC 29 deg (***)
** 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@amsat.org or aj9n@aol.com.
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.
If you need some assistance, ARISS mentor Kerry N6IZW, might be able to provide some insight. Contact Kerry at kbanke@sbcglobal.net
ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100
schools:
Gaston ON4WF with 121 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 116 Francesco IK?WGF with 116
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 8061 date and time format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
The complete schedule page has been updated as of 2016-02-17 03:30 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. http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.rtf
Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 1023. Each school counts as 1 event. Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 988. Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot. Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46.
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.
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The following US states and entities have never had an ARISS contact: Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wyoming, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and the Virgin Islands.
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QSL information may be found at: http://www.ariss.org/qsl-cards.html
ISS callsigns: DP?ISS, IR?ISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RS?ISS
The successful school list has been updated as of 2016-02-12 05:00 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. 43/44 on orbit Scott Kelly Mikhail Kornienko RN3BF
Exp. 45 on orbit Sergey Volkov RU3DIS
Exp. 46 on orbit Tim Kopra KE5UDN Timothy Peake KG5BVI Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP
73, Charlie Sufana AJ9N One of the ARISS operation team mentors
Subject: Digest Footer
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End of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 11, Issue 53
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