November 2007 - Eagle (INACTIVE)

THE TALKING DOG
by Dick Jansson-rr 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

I'm wondering if we can recruit this dog to help us in the satellite design world. J Dick Jansson, KD1K <mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)amsat.org <mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)arrl.net -----Original Message----- While driving around the back woods of East Texas, on one back roads I saw a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: "Talking Dog for Sale." Well I needed a break so I stopped to see what the deal was. I went into the backyard and see a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there. "You talk?" I ask. "Yep," the Lab replies. Well after I got over the shock of hearing a dog talk, I asked "So, what's your story?" " Ah shucks there ain't much to tell. Is that a VUU screwdriver antenna on your truck out there?" "How did you know that," I ask? The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I'm a ham radio operator. I got my Ticket when I was a young pup and in no time at all I had my 5 band DXCC in Phone and CW. The CIA heard about me and asked me to do some spy work for them. I would hang around the communications centers and with my keen hearing I could copy the transmissions. Because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping, I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years." Copying high speed CW all day really tired me out and I knew I wasn't getting any younger. So, I decided to settle down. I retired from the CIA (8 dog years is 56 CIA years) and joined a ham radio club. In fact I won first place in the Oklahoma OSO Party two years in a row. Then I had a mess of puppies and got away from Ham Radio for a while. I sure miss my radio. Why don't you buy me and I'll be your CW operator in the Texas QSO Party. I said "let me see what I can do." I went back in and asked the owner what he wants for the dog. "Ten dollars," the guy says. "Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?" "Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff. He's just a No Code Technician."

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AMSAT's Power Developments in the news
by Tom Clark, K3IO 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

Many of you have heard that Lew McFadin (W5DID), working with Steve Bible (N7HPR) and Steve's colleagues (especially Keith Curtis) at Microchip (the PIC people) have been working on a next generation power conditioning system. The basic idea is to have a power charge/discharge conditioner for each cell of the spacecraft's battery pack. This will allow the use of several different battery technologies (NiCd, NiMH, LiIon, etc) and also some of the new "super capacitors". Some of you who were at Dayton may have seen the breadboard mockup of system that Steve brought and Lew was showing. Lew was also showing some ~2000 Farad(!) 3 volt capacitors (some of us dubbed them "flux gate capacitors"). The SuperCap developments have been exploding of late. One immediate service is for regenerative braking in hybrid and electric vehicles, since the capacitors seem to be able to withstand a (virtually) infinite number of charge/discharge cycles, and then can "soak up" & discharge huge currents -- must faster than any chemical batteries can do. Batteries store watt-hours of energy, while capacitors handle large numbers of watts of power. One German light-rail system employs a total of 600 2600Farad capacitors for regenerative braking. Some US electric buses have capacitor banks with 144 18Farad capacitors that deliver 400 Amps at 360 Volts. Today I received the 11.15.07 edition of Electronic Design magazine, and there is an interesting technology review paper entitled "Get the Lowdown on UltraCapacitors" starting on page 45; the article is available online at http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/17465/17465.html. Starting on page 50 (the 3rd page of the online version) The AMSAT/MicroChip effort is described along with schematics (figure 6, also http://electronicdesign.com/files/29/17465/Figure_06.jpg). The closing paragraph (which doesn't mention the planed use of these concepts on Suitsat2) says: > Microchip worked with AMSAT-NA, the not-for-profit private organization that develops > amateur-radio satellites. AMSAT’s next big project, the Eagle satellite, is slated for > launch in March 2009. To make Eagle function for decades, it will have a power system > based on this work that combines solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, and ultracaps > in an integrated power system that will optimize the use of each of those components. Pretty good publicity! 73, Tom

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Thanksgiving Week
by Robert McGwier 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

I hope this note finds everyone on the Eagle and Suitsat teams having a pleasant mid-November. For those in the United States, I hope you have a pleasant Thanksgiving hiatus. For the first time in months, I will have four days in a row at home! Tomorrow I go to the intial meeting at the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences at U. Md. for the stand up of my team and the kick off of my project. This has been the most brutal six months of my career in the dealing with bureaucrats and it has played hell with most aspects of my life. I have not stayed with Tom and Elizabeth in weeks. I have foresworn Gin and Tonic for weeks so you know it must be bad! After tomorrow's kick off and following the Thanksgiving break and the GnuRadio Hackfest (next week and now a major activity at my work place) I expect to return to "full time HAM work" with a very large agenda. This past Friday night I spent time talking with Bob Davis and Saturday, I had a very good half a day with him at the Lab. He is just doing a great job but we have been allowing him to carry the load for us while trying to do a full time job of his own. I am hoping that more people will start to go over. AMSAT will support this activity. We are starting some fun things at the Pocomoke facility and with U. Md. E.S. The HASP balloon project has been joined by AMSAT through Hawk/AMSAT in Pocomoke. It will give us an early opportunity to fly our Suitsat 2 payloads and we will be pushing to finish those pieces (all of them) in time to get on the balloon. This will give us the focus we need to finish the RF pieces and the experiment interfaces. We are going to build the frame of Eagle in the lab this year. We hope to stand up an AMSAT Institute, a two week "camp for teachers" at UMES and Hawk in the coming summer. Bob and his volunteers have done a great job getting a lot done in the last few weeks. http://n4hy.smugmug.com/gallery/3841264 Soon the fire systems will be in and a certificate of occupancy granted and work can begin! Hawk has a Cubesat project. It is to be launched from Wallops on the DelMarVa peninsula next summer unless there are slips. Our labs are in the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences offices as seen in the photo's in the gallery above. There is work that needs to be done to help finish this off. I do not have a list of tasks yet but that will be coming soon. I will be doing my best to set a good example by going down there on two Friday's a month and working through most of Saturday starting in December "on my way home" from Maryland to NJ. This will be reasonably straightforward to figure out. N2HPE is off every other weekend and I will work in Md when she is working. We can accomplish a lot in the coming months and I hope you will soon feel the enthusiasm I do for the prospects for the end of the year and also 2008. Have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. friends. Bob -- AMSAT Director and VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. ARRL SDR WG Chair “An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?” Descartes

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[Fwd: Power & Signal Integrity with SIwave - Dec. 12, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST]
by Tom Clark 20 Nov '07

20 Nov '07

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[Fwd: HFSS Advanced Antenna Design Class - Dec. 11]
by Tom Clark, K3IO 16 Nov '07

16 Nov '07

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FYI -- ANSOFT HFSS
by Tom Clark, K3IO 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

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Re: [amsat-bb] Re: FYI -- One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Opportunity
by Tom Clark, K3IO 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

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Suggested 2008 Efforts
by Dick Jansson-rr 10 Nov '07

10 Nov '07

Bob: While you are looking at the plans for what we need to accomplish in 2008, I think that in the RF area we should include a physical modeling of at least the key parts of Tom Clark's suggested phased array antenna. We need to prove the principle. We will need the RF amplifiers and distributed gain aspects of this antenna to meet our orbital RF power and directivity goals. This then demands the creation of some real hardware - getting us past the heise luft part of the design into something that can point us to what the all-up, on-orbit hardware should look like. If this line is not examined, we then need to have a proposal for what we should pursue..... Tom's proposal seems like a reasonable starting point. Such an project will require the efforts of a multi-technology team. '73, Dick Jansson, KD1K <mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)amsat.org <mailto:[email protected]> kd1k(a)arrl.net

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Eagle Management Change
by Jim Sanford 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

Team: Last night I transmitted a significant letter to Rick Hambly, Bob McGwier, and the AMSAT Board of Directors. As a result of life changing events this year, I have realized that I no longer have time for amateur radio and therefore Eagle. With GREAT regret, I tendered my resignation as Project Manager and Assistant VP (Director) of Engineering. I simply do not have the time to do this right, and would therefore prefer someone else do it. I deeply regret having to take this decision. I got into this when asked because I saw it as a chance for me to give something back to AMSAT. It also gave me the wonderful opportunity to work closely with the awesome intellect that you all represent. Working with you people, this team, has been a highlight of my personal and professional life. It is painful to step away, but I must do so -- I'm over extended, and must reprioritize some things in my life. Many of you have worked very hard and have worked hard at doing things differently. In the process, you've taught the ENTIRE ORGANIZATION some new things that we must deal with in todays era of electronics -- both process and technical details. I beg you all to not give up and please continue. I will support and encourage from the side lines, as I can. Thank you all for all that you've done. I wish you, and Eagle, only good things. Very 73, Jim wb4gcs(a)amsat.org

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Re: Eagle Management Change
by Bill Tynan 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

Tom: Thanks for the vote of confidence. The answer in NO, not at my stage in life. I was thinking in terms of Barry Bains - replace one retiered Navy officer with another. 73, Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Clark, K3IO" <K3IO(a)verizon.net> To: "Bill Tynan" <btynan(a)beecreek.net> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 2:39 PM Subject: Re: [eagle] Re: Eagle Management Change > Bill Tynan wrote: >> Jim: >> >> I am very sorry to learn of your resignation as Eagle Project Manager. >> Big >> programs such as Eagle, no matter what kind of organization is doing >> them, >> require the type of disciplined management you have been providing. I >> can >> think of an AMSAT project >> completed a few years back which would have benefited greatly from your >> kind of leadership. >> >> It know your work as Eagle Project Manager has been a strain, especially >> since you are also holding down a full-time job. Many AMSAT functions >> require talented people who don't have to work for a living. But such >> people >> are hard to find. >> >> I hope the AMSAT officers will be able to locate someone who can fill >> your >> shoes, but that will be difficult. >> >> Good luck and hope to see you active in AMSAT again when that becomes >> possible. >> >> 73, >> >> Bill, W3XO >> > Would you be interested? -- Tom

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