[amsat-bb] How to build a Satellite.
Over the past few weeks over here in the UK, the BBC has been running a series on How to Build Tomorrow evening (Sunday 27th November ) on BBC2 at 2100 hrs, the final programme in the series will be shown. It should prove of interest as the title is How to Build a Satellite and it looks at the construction, testing and launch of a communication satellite built by Astrium Whilst I appreciate it cannot be seen live perhaps outside of the UK , the BBC also provides a service for download of recent programmes shown and using its player software that can also be downloaded. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat UK Amsat NA ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Mars Science Laboratory On Its Way To Mars
The spacecraft has just separated from the booster after a successful launch and spin-up. Go MSL! 73s Bernhard VA6BMJ @ DO33FL ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: How to build a Satellite.
After it's been broadcast it should be viewable at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017wy06 The BBC try to stop people overseas viewing their shows so a proxy server would have to be used. I've never tried it but have been told that Expat Shield (DM-232.exe) is software that reportedly enables people overseas to watch BBC TV http://www.ExpatShield.com/ 73 Trevor M5AKA --- On Sat, 26/11/11, gw1...@aol.com gw1...@aol.com wrote: Over the past few weeks over here in the UK, the BBC has been running a series on How to Build Tomorrow evening (Sunday 27th November ) on BBC2 at 2100 hrs, the final programme in the series will be shown. It should prove of interest as the title is How to Build a Satellite and it looks at the construction, testing and launch of a communication satellite built by Astrium Whilst I appreciate it cannot be seen live perhaps outside of the UK , the BBC also provides a service for download of recent programmes shown and using its player software that can also be downloaded. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat UK Amsat NA ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: How to build a Satellite.
i just installed the expat shield and then loaded the bbc link and it played just fine in texas. 73...bruce On 11/26/2011 10:52 AM, Trevor . wrote: After it's been broadcast it should be viewable at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017wy06 The BBC try to stop people overseas viewing their shows so a proxy server would have to be used. I've never tried it but have been told that Expat Shield (DM-232.exe) is software that reportedly enables people overseas to watch BBC TV http://www.ExpatShield.com/ 73 Trevor M5AKA --- On Sat, 26/11/11, gw1...@aol.comgw1...@aol.com wrote: Over the past few weeks over here in the UK, the BBC has been running a series on How to Build Tomorrow evening (Sunday 27th November ) on BBC2 at 2100 hrs, the final programme in the series will be shown. It should prove of interest as the title is How to Build a Satellite and it looks at the construction, testing and launch of a communication satellite built by Astrium Whilst I appreciate it cannot be seen live perhaps outside of the UK , the BBC also provides a service for download of recent programmes shown and using its player software that can also be downloaded. Ken Eaton GW1FKY Amsat UK Amsat NA ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb -- Bruce Paige, KK5DO AMSAT Director Contests and Awards ARRL Awards Manager (WAS, 5BWAS, VUCC), VE Houston AMSAT Net - Wed 0200z on Echolink - Conference *AMSAT* Also live streaming MP3 at http://www.amsatnet.com Podcast at http://www.amsatnet.com/podcast.xml or iTunes Latest satellite news on the ARRL Audio News http://www.arrl.org AMSAT on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/amsat ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] ARRL Surfin' Column - Tracking the Dead Zone
Just spotted that Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, covers this weekends ISS experiment in his column, see http://www.arrl.org/news/surfin-tracking-the-dead-zone 73 Trevor M5AKA ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] quick LVB cal question
Hi For some reason I couldn't find this online sure I overlooked the obvious I have a LVB Tracker with a Yaesu G5500 Wanted to cal the unit and was sure if this was considered a 360degree max az rotor or 450 South CCW = FEN or 450North CCW = FEE also is this considered a If you have a South CCW stopping rotator, you should key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘S’, Enter. For a North CCW stopping rotator (default), key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘N’, Enter. thanks Myles ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: quick LVB cal question
Hi Myles, this is what LVB notes teel us about your question: Calibration from the serial, or virtual serial USB or Ethernet connection (1)Connect to the unit using a terminal emulator at 9600 bps, 1 stop bit, no parity and no handshake. (2)Check for communication by typing the ‘C’ key followed by the enter key. Note that there is no echo of your keystrokes. Commands are also not case sensitive. The azimuth should be returned, although it will be the uncalibrated value. (3)Using either the rotator control box switches or the optional front panel switches, move the rotator to its counter-clockwise end stop (zero degrees), which should be due North or due South depending on your rotator. (4)Move the elevation to zero degrees. (5)To set the left-most azimuth, type these four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘S’, Enter. You will receive a reponse like: *Az Offset=0099* (6)To set zero degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘S’, Enter. You will receive a response like: *El Offset=0326* (7)Using either the rotator control box switches or the optional front panel switches, move the rotator clockwise 360 degrees for both (a) 360 degree maximum azimuth rotators and (b) 450 degree South CCW stop rotators. For 450 degree North CCW stop rotators, move the rotator clockwise to 450 degrees. (8)Move the elevation to either 90 degrees, or 180 degrees, depending on the end stop of your rotator. (9)To set the right-most azimuth for both (a) 360 degree maximum azimuth rotators and (b) 450 degree South CCW stop rotators, type these four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘E’, Enter. For 450 degree North CCW stop rotators, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘F’, Enter. In either case, you will receive a reponse like: *Az mul=0.897* (10)For 90 degree elevation rotators only: to set 90 degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘N’, Enter. For 180 degree elevation rotators only: to set 180 degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘E’, Enter. In either case, you will receive a response like: *El mul=1.234* (11)If you have a South CCW stopping rotator, you should key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘S’, Enter. For a North CCW stopping rotator (default), key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘N’, Enter. (12)To commit this to EEPROM, type the three keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘W’, Enter. (13)When you reset or switch the unit on and off, the calibration parameters should be remembered. If you wish a front panel buttons calibration, you must use the follow sequence: Calibration from the front panel buttons You must have an LCD connected for this to work. To enter calibration mode, hold down one of the four front panel buttons as the unit is switched on. After the welcome screen (and potentially the Bad EEPROM message), you then enter the calibration mode. The four buttons (from LSB to MSB) are Left, Right, Down, Up. On the LCD, these are referred to as L, R, D, U. (1)*Set Az=min press D (U=esc)*Using the L button, move the rotator to its counter-clockwise stop. The R button also operates to move the rotator right, although normally would not be required at this point. Press D to accept, or U to abort the calibration completely. (2)*Set El=min press L (R=esc)*Using the D button, move the rotator to the zero elevation stop. The U button also operates to move the rotator up, although normally would not be required at this point. Press L to accept, or R to abort the calibration completely. (3)*Set Az=max press D (U=esc)*Using the R button, move the rotator to its clockwise stop. If you are using a 450 degree azimuth rotator with a South CCW stop, you should move the rotator to be at the South position 360 degrees clockwise of the CCW stop. The L button also operates to move the rotator left, although normally would not be required at this point. Press D to accept, or U to abort the calibration completely. (4)*Set El=max press L (R=esc)*Using the U button, move the rotator to the maximum elevation stop (90 or 180 degrees). The D button also operates to move the rotator down, although normally would not be required at this point. Press L to accept, or R to abort the calibration completely. (5)*Az range: 450 U 360 D (R=esc)*For North CCW stop 450 degree rotators, press U. For 360 degree or South CCW stop rotators, press D. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (6)*El range: 0-90 U 0-180 D (R=esc)*For elevation rotators with a maximum elevation of 90 degrees, press U. For ‘flipping’ elevation rotators, press D. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (7)*CCW stop North=U South=D (R=esc)*For North CCW stop rotators, press U, for South CCW stop rotators press D. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (8)*EE Write: U (R=esc)*To commit the settings to EEPROM, press U. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (9)*EEPROM write OK Push btn to exit*Push any front panel
[amsat-bb] ANS-331 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-331 ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites. Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-edi...@amsat.org In this edition: * Longer Eclipse Periods Affecting AO-51 Operation * Latest AMSAT Project Fox Information Posted * Watch On-Line: Interviews Recorded at AMSAT 2011 Space Symposium * This Week 50 Years Ago: OSCAR 1 Announcement for December 1, 1961 * Arizona Centennial K7UGA Announces Expanded Satellite Operation * Next Proposal Cycle for US Based ARISS School Contacts Opens * 14 Year-old Co-ordinates ARISS Contact for Her School * ISS Expedition 29 Astronaut Hams Land Safely * Satellite Shorts From All Over SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-331.01 Longer Eclipse Periods Affecting AO-51 Operation AMSAT News Service Bulletin 331.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 27, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-331.01 AO-51 Command Stations report that the seven year old spacecraft is now shutting down its transmitter after losing sunlight on its solar panels during eclipse periods. Two of the six battery cells are now dead. Since July 31, 2010 AO-51 has maintained continuous and stable operations due to careful tuning of its power settings. The AO-51 Operations Team reported on November 25 that the on-board computer (IHU) crashed between 1815 and 1945Z due to low voltage. This happened after a few days of intermittent and unpredictable operation. AO-51 Control Operators Mark Hammond, N8MH and Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA reset the satellite and started the repeater back up around ~2030Z. Satellite operation was set to the following: Uplink: 145.880, no PL tone required Downlink: 435.150 at about 300 milliwatts Drew reported that telemetry data showed the battery voltage was low, around 4.9v, with cell 1 less than 1 volt. The impending third cell failure will likely end continuing operations, particularly if it fails shorted as the others have. At present there remains little margin as the operations team has observed the transmitters cutting off around 4.7 to 4.6 volts prior to the last reset, in eclipse. Please submit your AO-51 reports to the OSCAR Status Web Page: http://oscar.dcarr.org. The command stations monitor this for changes in the operation. While worldwide participation is good, more reports from US operators are appreciated. Eclipse periods, which are expected to reach 30 minutes by the end of 2011, are causing AO-51 to shut itself OFF due to low voltage. Please support AMSAT-NA and the other AMSAT groups around the world, and help us get new satellites into orbit. Projects like Fox, FunCube, P3E, and Kiwisat need your financial support to keep our amateur sat- ellite fleet flying. You can keep up with the latest AO-51 Command Team news at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/CTNews.php [ANS thanks the AO-51 Command Team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-331.02 Latest AMSAT Project Fox Information Posted AMSAT News Service Bulletin 331.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. November 27, 2011 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-331.02 AMSAT-NA's next generation of satellites, Fox-1 and Fox-2 are under development by the Engineering Team. Fox-1 will replace the aging AO-51 satellite which has performed as the most popular EasySat, attracting new satellite operators since it can be worked with simple equipment. However, after more than 7 years of service, AO-51 is starting to show its age and needs an affordable replacement. Why two satellites? The original Fox Engineering Team Study was for a baseline satellite, with several options for enhancements. At that time, AO-51 was functioning well, with no indication that its life- time would be short enough to impact the Fox Project. With the im- pending loss of AO-51, it was decided to break the Fox Project up into a quickly deployable baseline FM satellite, Fox-1, and a second more flexible satellite, Fox-2. Fox-2 will benefit from the development work of the baseline Fox-1, with the additional time being applied to developing its more sophis- ticated power and Software Defined Transponder (SDX) communications systems. The Powerpoint presentations on AMSAT's Fox web site provide a good view of the technical progress: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fox/ Project milestones completed this year: + Fox-1 project defined - July 2011 + Concept of Operations (ConOps) - September 2011 + System Requirements Spec (SRS) - October 2011 + Experiment Payload Specification - November 2011 + NASA ELaNa Proposal Submitted - November 2011 Preliminary milestones for 2012 and 2013 are: + Baselined Project Plan - January 2012 + Preliminary Design Review (PDR) - March 2012 + Engineering prototype
[amsat-bb] Re: quick LVB cal question
thanks very much for trying to help unfortunately it really wasn't what I asked. hope someone out there might be able to help a newbie out thanks N2EHG Myles On Nov 26, 2011, at 6:49 PM, i6kzr wrote: Hi Myles, this is what LVB notes teel us about your question: Calibration from the serial, or virtual serial USB or Ethernet connection (1)Connect to the unit using a terminal emulator at 9600 bps, 1 stop bit, no parity and no handshake. (2)Check for communication by typing the ‘C’ key followed by the enter key. Note that there is no echo of your keystrokes. Commands are also not case sensitive. The azimuth should be returned, although it will be the uncalibrated value. (3)Using either the rotator control box switches or the optional front panel switches, move the rotator to its counter-clockwise end stop (zero degrees), which should be due North or due South depending on your rotator. (4)Move the elevation to zero degrees. (5)To set the left-most azimuth, type these four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘S’, Enter. You will receive a reponse like: *Az Offset=0099* (6)To set zero degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘S’, Enter. You will receive a response like: *El Offset=0326* (7)Using either the rotator control box switches or the optional front panel switches, move the rotator clockwise 360 degrees for both (a) 360 degree maximum azimuth rotators and (b) 450 degree South CCW stop rotators. For 450 degree North CCW stop rotators, move the rotator clockwise to 450 degrees. (8)Move the elevation to either 90 degrees, or 180 degrees, depending on the end stop of your rotator. (9)To set the right-most azimuth for both (a) 360 degree maximum azimuth rotators and (b) 450 degree South CCW stop rotators, type these four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘E’, Enter. For 450 degree North CCW stop rotators, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘A’, ‘F’, Enter. In either case, you will receive a reponse like: *Az mul=0.897* (10)For 90 degree elevation rotators only: to set 90 degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘N’, Enter. For 180 degree elevation rotators only: to set 180 degrees elevation, type the four keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘E’, ‘E’, Enter. In either case, you will receive a response like: *El mul=1.234* (11)If you have a South CCW stopping rotator, you should key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘S’, Enter. For a North CCW stopping rotator (default), key in the three key sequence ‘F’, ‘N’, Enter. (12)To commit this to EEPROM, type the three keys in sequence: ‘F’, ‘W’, Enter. (13)When you reset or switch the unit on and off, the calibration parameters should be remembered. If you wish a front panel buttons calibration, you must use the follow sequence: Calibration from the front panel buttons You must have an LCD connected for this to work. To enter calibration mode, hold down one of the four front panel buttons as the unit is switched on. After the welcome screen (and potentially the Bad EEPROM message), you then enter the calibration mode. The four buttons (from LSB to MSB) are Left, Right, Down, Up. On the LCD, these are referred to as L, R, D, U. (1)*Set Az=min press D (U=esc)*Using the L button, move the rotator to its counter-clockwise stop. The R button also operates to move the rotator right, although normally would not be required at this point. Press D to accept, or U to abort the calibration completely. (2)*Set El=min press L (R=esc)*Using the D button, move the rotator to the zero elevation stop. The U button also operates to move the rotator up, although normally would not be required at this point. Press L to accept, or R to abort the calibration completely. (3)*Set Az=max press D (U=esc)*Using the R button, move the rotator to its clockwise stop. If you are using a 450 degree azimuth rotator with a South CCW stop, you should move the rotator to be at the South position 360 degrees clockwise of the CCW stop. The L button also operates to move the rotator left, although normally would not be required at this point. Press D to accept, or U to abort the calibration completely. (4)*Set El=max press L (R=esc)*Using the U button, move the rotator to the maximum elevation stop (90 or 180 degrees). The D button also operates to move the rotator down, although normally would not be required at this point. Press L to accept, or R to abort the calibration completely. (5)*Az range: 450 U 360 D (R=esc)*For North CCW stop 450 degree rotators, press U. For 360 degree or South CCW stop rotators, press D. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (6)*El range: 0-90 U 0-180 D (R=esc)*For elevation rotators with a maximum elevation of 90 degrees, press U. For ‘flipping’ elevation rotators, press D. Press R to abort the calibration completely. (7)*CCW stop North=U South=D (R=esc)*For
[amsat-bb] Re: NASA Video - Coming Back Down to our Fragile Oasis
On 11/23/2011 5:02 PM, Miguel Barreiro wrote: Hi, Perhaps someone on this list knows of a good video capture utility that'll work on the NASA website. Video capture utility? tcpdump is your friend :) Saved to http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5S6R67YH for the benefit of the flashplugin-impaired - download and play with videolan, mplayer or whatever player of your choice. I renamed the .flv file to have the extension .m4v, and then it played readily on everything I needed it to. Thanks for extracting it Miguel. Gregg ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
[amsat-bb] Re: AO-51 now shutting off tx soon after eclipse
Mark, Thank you for the reply. I didn't expect to hear right from the lions mouth! My only hope is that future birds do not have a downlink of 436.795. I always wanted to use satellites ever since I became a ham at 14. I thought it was a very expensive aspect of the hobby. Recently I sold be beloved motorcycle and decided to go all out with satellite gear. I purchased the only satellite capable radio I could find on the new market, the Kenwood TS-2000. I wish I had known about the birdie. It leaves me completely unable to use AO-27. Now with AO-51 near death that leaves me with only a half pass of SO-50. Thank goodness it slipped to 436.790! Hopefully sometime soon I can figure out how to incorporate HRD and VO-52. In order to auto track with LVB tracker I have to have HRD control my VFO which makes the linear birds difficult. Richard K7LWV On 11/23/2011 4:19 AM, Mark L. Hammond wrote: Hi Richard, Good thoughts, but the difference between needs to be and can it be is the tough part. Actually, 4 of the cells are good, 2 are bad. One of the four good ones seems a bit weaker than the other three. We cannot do any scheduling because of the great difficulty in getting all the satellite code uploaded and running without a crash that sends it back to square one. We are lucky to see what we are seeing right now---basically, it's shutting itself OFF due to low voltage during an eclipse (that's the easy part...) What's amazing is that it's coming back ON when voltage returns! This is actually a great thing--and it amounts to primitive scheduling of sorts. We never expected it--but we'll take it!! So---we have what we have. And we don't plan to change operations until the bird forces us to do so. It's all about equilibrium (temperature, power out, sunlight). We're balanced apparently for the time being... Over the next month or so, eclipse times will double from what they are right now. We are not too excited about that...we'll just have to see how it goes. If it means earlier shutdown during eclipse--so what? What will be key is if it comes back on in the sun! 73, Mark N8MH AO-51 Command Station At 11:21 AM 11/22/2011 -0800, you wrote: Re-post from Amsat's twitter: AO-51 now shutting off tx soon after eclipse, due to batt voltage dropping below regulator threshold. Recovers to 1w in sun. Were people still using this bird in eclipse with only 2 out of 6 usable cells? Perhaps this bird needs to be put on a schedule like AO-27. Can that be done? Richard K7LWV ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb ___ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
